So . . . along with today's announcement of some fairly interesting casting for New York City Ballet's opening week of Jewels came the announcement that the NYCB Orchestra has authorized a strike in the event that contract negotiations stall. Nothing's ever easy in this city. Let's hope that everyone stays calm and focused and continues to negotiate in good faith so that we can enjoy a wonderful 75th Anniversary Season. Rather than anyone screaming and threatening, why not make the artists' salaries public so that the public can make a judgement about where to place its sympathies. No names — just a list of salaries & benefits.

        We're extremely happy with the many upcoming debuts, particularly seeing Mira Nadon and Davide Riccardo together in Emeralds; Emma Von Enck, Jovani Furlan, and Christina Clark in Rubies along with Isabella LaFreniere and Chun Wai Chan debuting in Diamonds — all will be spectacular. The casting of Ashley Bouder in Emeralds is simply indicative of a problem unresolved. A month ago she was performing out West:

        The Verdy role in Emeralds requires lovely arms. Luckily we'll see the most beautiful arms on the stage when Ashley Laracey performs the other principal role in the same cast. The differences in fitness and stage readiness will be both startling and troubling. Are we looking forward to seeing Tootsie Rolls waving around to Faure's lovely music in the Verdy role? Afraid not. But that isn't Bouder's concern. So long as she can count on five people sitting in the front row right corner cheering her on, she will soil Balanchine from one end of the stage to the other.

        Smart move by ABT to upload its casting earlier than in years past. Had hoped to see some principal casting for Curley, Frenette, Klein, and Ishchuk. They may show up in underpants in Petite Mort but would rather see them suited up in the royal regalia of Ballet Imperial and Etudes.

        Cornejo, Bell, and Roxander in the more virtuosic solo in Etudes should be electrifying if they all can get those arabesque legs up and hang onto their double tours. Remembering Ahn's bravery in his knock down, death-defying Ali in Le Corsaire a few years back made Haglund think that he'd be pegged for this role, but he'll be fine in the other role in both the second and third casts. Hopefully, Cornejo, Bell and Roxander will understand that the audience won't care if they accelerate the double tours past the tempo; just get the damn eight in — or do nine if there's time. Not sure what to expect from the corps which generally gets from Point A to Point B cleanly in white acts, but needs to dance from Point A to Point B in the Etudes finale. Fingers crossed. So happy to see Devon Teuscher leading opening night.

        It will be great to see Michael de la Nuez's beautiful jumps as Olga's Fiance in On the Dnipro, but it's a shame that room couldn't be made for Eric Tamm's reprisal of the role, too.

        Shevchenko, Royal, and Misseldine in Ballet Imperial on a program with Cassandra Trenary and Aran Bell in The Dream will make for two glorious performances.

        Not much to complain about; so, we won't. Tickets on sale Wednesday, September 6th at noon.

ABT's Fall Season just might satisfy Haglund's white tutu tooth.

Etudes and Ballet Imperial, along with The Dream, On the Dnipro (sic) (isn't it Dnieper?), Piano Concerto #1, and Petit Mort sound like a fabulous season. Basically, this is what we want.

Etudes hasn't been danced by ABT in 15 years — why? It's a favorite the world over. Expecting a stunning technical display from Devon Teuscher!

Below is a video of the Mariinsky in a miraculous finale of Etudes. Tereshkina, Sarafanov, Shklyarov. Look at the height of the back legs on those men in their jumps — principals and corps. They're killing it, and Sarafanov is simply unmatched. And Tereshkina is a goddess in pointe shoes. However, it does seem that some of the corps have difficulty jumping down instead of jumping up on the diagonals. Still and all, a standard setting finale.

Let's go let's go let's go Bell, Curly, Ishchuk, and Frenette!!

Tickets on sale September 6th.

        Sometimes pathological optimism just bubbles up like it did this past week during ABT's performances of Swan Lake at the Met Opera House. At the moment it seems like the company has a few Odette/Odiles who are at the very height of their formidable artistic powers and who have suddenly helped ABT recover its reputation in this classic. We caught a couple of them, Skylar Brandt and Devon Teuscher, who are developing their individual interpretations at astonishing speed with the assistance of private coaches who, themselves, were memorable in the roles.

        In Skylar Brandt's Odette, we felt the emotional intensity of Irina Dvorovenko. In her Odile, we recognized the diabolical cunning with which Irina used to sashay around the stage. This year the artistry in Brandt's Odette rose to the level of her Odile. We could not decide which character we liked more or who we wanted to win in the end. Odile powered her seductive arrogance with showy balances and dominatrix-inspired whipping fouettes. She came at Prince Siegfried with a diagonal of step-over turns that made him dizzy with heat. This year, Brandt's Odette possessed a new eloquence through her lengthened front of neck and delicate clavicle. The lifted face beautifully conveyed her plight and sorrow as did her sensitive port de bras.

    Herman Cornejo as Siegfried, although technically unsteady at the start, delivered a powerfully danced and nuanced performance of his character who was so lost in love that he couldn't see straight. Cornejo surely senses the curtain slowly descending on his career and is driving hard for performances that are as memorable for their dramatic impact as his early performances have been memorable for their technical brilliance.

        Devon Teuscher, whose Odette and Odile are being developed by Isabelle Guerin, has already achieved such mastery and majesty that it is hard to imagine where she will take these characters in the future. Odette's melancholy ran so deeply at this performance and her river of tears unleashed such a torrent of despair that she might have headed for the cliff in Act II instead of waiting for Act IV. The beautiful length of back and stately shape of arabesques seemed exquisitely suited for Odette. Her character's vulnerability was steeled with an underlying strength that she didn't even know she had. It must be remarked that Devon's choice to spot the audience on her blistering chainé turns (instead of spotting the corner) sent the dramatic pulse beat soaring.  Those haunting eyes burned across the footlights. Such a great, great addition to a powerful interpretation. Also, Odile's fearsome fouettes shot straight to the side without first opening front – the effect was a faster rotation which made her seem more reckless and dominating. All of this awesome power was coupled with elegance of line and pristine positions of the feet.

        The initial Siegfried, Cory Stearns, managed his customary Act I which is to say that the basics got done but little else was accomplished. Apparently he injured his back early on which necessitated withdrawing at the end of Act II. Before doing so, however, he securely partnered Devon in a glorious White Swan PdD. 

        Aran Bell stepped in as Siegfried for Acts III and IV and made sure that it was an evening we would not forget. There may have been a slight unease in his face when he first sat down next to The Queen Mother. No doubt he was wondering if the audience was wondering what he was doing there. (We would later find out that some audience members didn't even know that a substitution had been made or that a different dancer wasn't actually supposed to dance in the last half of the show.) Bell found Siegfried's character fairly quickly without the benefits of dancing Acts I & II. He soared through the dances in The Great Hall with ease. At the conclusion of one variation, he ripped a pirouette that revolved past the music and stuck him on balance with his back to the audience. He then blasted through the Black Swan PdD on full power – not only delivering his own miraculous leaps and turns but also heaving Odile high in her arabesque fouettes and spinning her silly. His Act IV Siegfried was despondent and tormented as he lost Odette to the swampish von Rothbart and lost control of his own destiny. When Odette committed to ending von Rothbart's control with a leap to her death, Bell's chase after her and his dive off the cliff became the exclamation point of the evening. It was terrific theater in every way.

        On Thursday and Friday nights, respectively, Andrii Ishchuk and Jarod Curley danced the role of the Act III von Rothbart with convincing, conniving authority. These are two huge dancers who move with the graceful strength and speed of panthers. They gave terrific performances which brought electricity to the ballroom like we haven't seen since the days of Gomes and Malakhov. Both will undoubtedly transition into the role of Siegfried, but for now we are fortunate to have them on stage in this iconic role.

        The PdT, which in the days of Cornejo/Reyes/Cornejo was thrilling beyond words, was rather disappointing on Thursday and Friday nights. It seems that flying assemblés with sixes are beyond the ABT corps women, and consecutive sixes in place are troublesome as well. Doing "one and run" is no big challenge. Go to 8'15" here and look at what flying sixes and entrechat sixes should be at ABT.

        It was a thrilling two nights of Swan Lake. Nearly everyone deserves an H.H. Pump Bump Award, but we need to single out Devon Teuscher for her brilliant and heavenly detailed Odette & Odile with this Manolo Blahnik swan stiletto.

        It’s not easy to shock ole Haglund in Swan Lake. But Tuesday night’s ABT performance stirred up the lake's tranquility when Hee Seo sculled through an Act III Odile that actually crested above her Act II Odette. Her Prince Siegfried, Aran Bell, who is a dozen or so years her junior, gave a startlingly brilliant performance from his authoritative entry at the top of the staircase in Act I to his dramatic death dive off the cliff at the end of Act IV. Did having a fresh young pup for a partner perk up Hee to be a little more lively? Actually the fresh young pup also happens to be the franchise quarterback. And this Aran was so much more watchable than that other scraggly-faced Aaron that the Post’s sports columnists can’t stop gushing over. He danced with a boldness, freshness, and confident classicism that rarely went awry. His leg and arm lines were as clear as – ahem – a bell, and his aerial positions were pristine. He committed to the mime and made it no less meaningful than his allegro.

        There was a time when ABT’s audience members did not frequently go to NYCB performances, and vice versa, because they were hungry for different things. ABT’s audience feasted on the big spectacle dramas while NYCB’s audience wanted highly-seasoned steps, speed, and energy. That’s not really the case any more. Many, if not most, of the core audience members gorge themselves on the offerings of both companies. These days balletomanes want it all — a full course meal of spectacle, drama, steps, and energy. Expectations are high, as they should be, because ticket prices are so high.

        This should enrage the American Woke Folks who dedicate themselves to wiping out Petipa's masterpiece.

        Vladimir Malakhov is taking his re-imagining of Petipa's La Bayadere into Asia. That's right, Ukrainian-Russian Malakhov is taking the Golden Idol, The Great Brahmin, slaves, temple dancer, shades and the whole nine yards right into Hong Kong with Brazilian Marinela Nunez, Ukrainian Iana Salenko, and Russian Vadim Muntagirov as guest artists with Cuban-American Septime Weber's Hong Kong Ballet. Yep, he's going to toss Petipa's fantastical imagining of long-ago India right in the faces of the adoring Asian audience.

        The promotional video looks spectacular. Note the use of the finger positions that the American Woke Folks find so offensive and intolerable. Honestly, the Americans had better get on the case and get over to Asia to explain to the Asians why they should be offended by this fantastical Russian romanticizing of storybook India.

        Our little pink renegade in the red Azalea Corps de Ballet of Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park has appeared at last. Seemingly always late getting to the stage, she didn't show up this year until it was almost time for bows – like something out of Jerome Robbins' The Concert.

        But oh, isn't she a beauty. Funny how this garden parallels life. Just when we were thinking how we really missed so many of Balanchine's big ballets — although the season's offerings have been nothing to sniff at — out trotted this big old beautiful rose-scented Robbins ballet that we hadn't seen in years to bring a little extra enchantment to the garden. Brandenburg hasn't been seen in a decade and a half on NYCB's stage, and oh what a beauty of a ballet it is. It's full of surprises and humor, full of imaginative step combinations, full of ballet comfort & beauty, and exquisitely danced by its cast of twenty. How did this ballet get left out of the Robbins 100 Festival a few years back?

        For his last ballet, Robbins borrowed the best from himself for Brandenburg. At times, it even looked like he was reminiscing about his excursion with Tharp. The intense focus on clean structure seemed almost architecturally engineered. There were so many appealing arrangements of dancers that the ballet could be a poster for the Elements of Composition: pattern, focus, contrast, balance, rhythm, whatever. Even the dated costumes looked charming with their girly sleeves for the women and masculine-like rolled up sleeves & vests for the men. How did this ballet get left out of the Robbins 100 Festival a few years back?

        Indiana Woodward and Anthony Huxley anchored the first of four sections with their charismatic PdD, but it was the Corps de Ballet that stole the spotlight with their joyful dancing. As lines of dancers trafficked through one another in complex formations to the music's 137 beats per minute (it begs to be steppy), some looked a bit unnerved by the combination of speed and complexity of the choreography. Positions went awry once or twice, but it was never at risk of devolving into, say, the opening of Glass Pieces. Dancers' lifted their arms high in V formations during allegro like Paul Taylor's dancers did when they happily skated through the same music in Taylor's Brandenburgs created a decade prior to Robbins' ballet. Just the fact that both Taylor and Robbins were drawn to this same music is confirmation of its danceability, dancesuasiveness, and danceliciousness.

        The incredible centerpiece of this ballet was delivered by Mira Nadon and Aaron Sanz, two dancers whose own imaginations opened more possibilities for this choreography than perhaps Robbins, himself, ever imagined. The PdD was a welcomed reminder that PdDs are not about continual manipulation of the woman's body or 10 minutes where the entwined dancers can't let go of one another. Here we saw the dancers separated physically half of their time, their limbs circling each other's limbs without touching or at times dancing the same steps apart — no physical connection but oh were they ever communicating.

        Also on the program was a spirited performance of Robbins' Fancy Free led by sailors Roman Mejia, Joseph Gordon, and Andrew Veyette; Passers-by Mary Thomas MacKinnon, Alexa Maxwell, and Malorie Lundgren; and Maxwell Read as the Bartender.

        Balanchine's Agon was the serious soul of the program which opened and closed with Robbins' infectious joy. Unity Phelan, who is just starting to wrap her legs around this lead role, didn't exhibit the expected authority and sharpness during the iconic moment when she spun around before throwing her leg in attitude behind her partner, Adrian Danchig-Waring. Taylor Stanley debuted his Sarabande solo to the difficult Stravinsky horn passage, and Emilie Gerrity gave a crystal clear rendition of the Bransle Gay, if a bit demure.

        Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, Louboutin's Lip Chick patent pump, is bestowed upon Mira Nadon and Aaron Sanz for their extraordinary interpretation in Robbins' Brandenburg.

        Arriving at our blessed $38 seats for our first view of Christopher Wheeldon’s new “abstract” work for New York City Ballet entitled From You Within Me, we were met by a front scrim bearing the stunning atmospheric painting by Kylie Manning. Rich marine blues and greens suggested a water scene, perhaps the ocean or a glen or an inlet surrounded by lush landscape. It was a lovely reminder of ABT’s Swan Lake curtain. Noting that Wheeldon had chosen to use the same Schoenberg music that ABT’s Antony Tudor used for his dramatic Pillar of Fire and had lifted a line for the title from the Dehmel narrative poem which inspired both Schoenberg and Tudor, we began to wonder, “How could Swan Lake-ish scrim + Pillar of Fire music + Dehmel narrative reference = abstract ballet?” 

        There are some patches in the garden that need to be filled in. The NYC Department of Parks should pay more attention to our iconic azalea garden in Damrosch Park and put up a few classy signs that say “No Dog Pee” and “No Big Apple Circus Pee,” peeleezzee — not that such a message would resonate with the neighbors who routinely run their tiny dogs atop the garden retainer walls and encourage them to seek relief among the azaleas. Attention must be paid. We may have to get Gale Brewer involved.