6 posts tagged “nycb”

I am equal parts euphoric and anxious about my upcoming trip to NYC.  Eager to go, but feeling quite tense about how I'm ever going to be able to cram in half of the things I want to do (and keep up my energy to do so).  Still, I feel better having connected with a few friends over the past couple of days and made some at least tentative plans.  MBF is attempting to pick up some tickets for a few NYCB performances even as I bang away at this keyboard.

I'm a bit disappointed at the ballet programming, or, not so much the programs themselves this time, but the repetitiveness (i.e. not only the same program, but the same cast each time).  I probably will only be able to go two performances.  It seems more worthwhile at this point to use the rest of the time to do other things rather than sitting through the same thing more than once.  But we shall see.  It looks as if NYCB is moving away from the dreaded "block programming" in its spring schedule.

Meanwhile, I will be going to the ballet here again tonight.  Same program as last week, but with an entirely different cast.  The PNB production of Jewels even has drawn the (favorable) attention of the New York Times.  I'll wait until I've had a chance to see this other cast to compare/share notes.

My, these holiday-shortened work weeks often feel longer than the regular ones.  I am tired this morning, though not fatigued, if that makes sense.  I made the mistake of attending the post-performance q & a session after the program last evening.  Or was the mistake in bolting down that espresso right before the show (which lent me a false sense of energy to begin with)?

Anyhow, I think I wound up enjoying Fancy Free the best of the three last night, although (and this is in keeping with the theme of yesterday's -- and just about every one of those q & a's that I have attended) none were done as well as at NYCB.  As some questioner seemed to be getting at in a roundabout way--to me anyway--a lot of the Robbins ballets look out of context on other companies (this observation based, of course, on my vast personal experience of productions of Robbins ballets by companies other than NYCB). Especially those dating from the post-Dances At A Gathering period, which are really all about NYCB.  Even my boyfriend picked up on that when he recently got to see  Ma Mère L'Oye back home (lucky dog). While I find the little variations among productions interesting (e.g. Anthony Dowell costumes for In the Night, Edward Gorey curtains for The Concert), they rarely strike me as an improvement.  And as Patsy Stone warned, "beware of wigs."  The ones worn by Miranda Weese in The Concert and Kylee Kitchens in Fancy Free were especially horrible.

But why did I not skip work altogether, so I could wait in line to be among the first plebes to see Sex and the City: The Movie?  Just too much to do, darling.  But I am heading out in a little while for a reunion lunch with some gal pals, so maybe we will kick back a few Cosmos for old times sake.  Sad to say, but if I really wanted to be among the first to see the stupid movie (which no doubt I will see over the weekend when I am, come to think of it, relatively fancy free), had I still been in New York, I'm sure I could have bought a $5 DVD of it outside the subway station last week.

Well I know that this is the land that invented year round sandal (with socks, ugh) wearing, but it is always a shock to the tender flesh when wearing sandals out of doors for the first time after a hiatus of many months.  Yesterday was such a day, with temperatures hitting the mid-80s.  My feet hurt a lot last night and I didn't even walk around that much outside.  Today it's supposed to be a tad cooler, but the sun is already blazing, so we shall see.  A time to catch up on errands (I had a friend visiting last week and let some essential tasks slide) and maybe even catch a live performing arts event for the first time in what seems like ages.

Several people from work are off to New York right now (after pumping me for restaurant tips, etc.) and inciting nostalgia and envy in more or less equal doses.  It's nice to not have to hear about it.  I am eagerly awaiting my own (very) brief visit in a few weeks.  In the meantime, I finally started reading the Deborah Jowitt biography of Jerome Robbins in anticipation of my NYCB pilgrimage (although I don't think I will be seeing all that much Robbins) and the all Robbins program out here happening soon.

Still life with suicidal chrysanthemum

The tension is really getting to me, but I suppose I will survive.

Emerged from my little prison in the late afternoon to take in what remained of Valentine's Day.  It was really too cold out for much walking, but I skirted the western edge of Central Park and later wound up stumbling around Soho   Stopped in for hot chocolate at a pleasantish cafe.  Not really my milieu.  Rich, young, and/or Eurotrash seemed to make up most of the clientele, but as I said it was bloody cold outside and I needed to warm up for a while.  Twenty-something chick there with a couple of pals discussing her impending move to L.A. next week.  So I'm not the only one in this boat.  And at least I'm not going to L.A.

Over to Chinatown for excellent vegetarian food and back uptown to evening performance of ballet.  A really loaded program.  As I had a pounding headache and we were both tired, we decided it was unlikely that we were going to stay for the entire performance.  The final piece was Robert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze.  The casting seemed interesting, but a little dubious.  It would have been good to catch Sara Mearns's debut in the part that Kyra Nichols has owned for many years, but I still have such vivid memories of Nichols's final performances last season, I felt reluctant to let go of them at this point.  At any rate, if all goes well, Mearns should have many more opportunities in the role in the future.  The program started out with a sentimental favorite of mine, Raymonda Variations at much too fast a tempo.  Funnily enough, I recalled that Nichols was the first dancer that I had ever seen in the lead of this ballet and no one else has ever done it quite the same way.  Ashley Bouder was excellent, as were the soloists (made up entirely, in an unusual situation, of actual soloists).  Andrew Veyette did well with his variations, but was a little frightening in his partnering.  After the first intermission, the first up was The Steadfast Tin Soldier with a debuting Megan Fairchild and Daniel Ulbricht.  They work very well together and Fairchild seems liberated from her eternal partnership with Joaquin De Luz (I guess he must be injured, he has been out all season).  This was followed by Wheeldon's Nightingale and the Rose, with Whelan's incredible performance almost saving the day.  As we made our way out into the night, we passed the 4th Ring docent launching into a not very convincing defense of the artistry of the latter work before a small, but unconvinced group.

I really hate the "block" programming the Company (as they love to put it) has adopted.  And, selfishly, now that I'm leaving and will only likely get back for short periods of time, I hate it even more.  I will gladly sit through the same ballet more than once in a week.  It is interesting to see them again in relation to other works.  The thought of sitting through some of these programs in their entirety more than once, however, is demoralizing.  Yes, I can understand the practicalities of the arrangement, but why do they want to become more like just any other company?