Bruce Wall

This is isn't explicitly about the Sarasota/Royal connection - but does relate to Ashton and specifically his Dream - which the Royal Company will dance in June - and is a charming story as related by Jake Roxander of ABT who many saw with ABTII in the LInbury (another connection) brilliantly dance the Stars & Stripes (Balanchine) PDD when they visited. He's now a kind of wunderkind at the main company. I saw him thrill in a demonstration of story ballets at the Guggenheim on 8th October. In any event this is about Ashton and familial connections. Thought a few here might enjoy. https://www.instagram.com/p/CybXuwgA2o3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

Today's matinee was a joyous affair - and after there were big cheers behind the curtain. Bolden and Ricardo were promoted to soloist. They SO deserve it. Bolden danced like a principal this afternoon with Nadon in Concerto Barocco. What a masterwork it is. Nadon - WAS EXTRAORDINARY. That girl never fails to surprise. I knew she was good … BUT … NOW! .... NOW she redefines everything (and ANYTHING) she touches. With her Stravinsky Violin Concerto debut last winter - after just the spectre of that first movement alone when understandably the audience wouldn't stop applauding - she went to potentially GREAT in my eyes. This afternoon I came to believe that what we're actually looking at is someone who is in the LEGEND league - Like Farrell, like Fonteyn, like Alonso: Like Nureyev, like Baryshnikov, like Dowell, like Bruhn, like Bujones, etc. It happens so, SO VERY rarely. I'm blessed to have seen a few .... in fact all those mentioned … otherwise I would entirely doubt my senses. What a PRIVILEGE this ENTIRE NYCB Fall Season has been. It both delineated and exemplified the very word: festive. Rightly so.

In haste - Nadon thrilled - as expected - in Concerto Barocco tonight. Those grandiosely lofty limbs were wings of hope and together they melted into and melded through the music. LaFreniere thrust her appendages through counterpoint and made both sing. Together they were a rare pair of humane instruments blending in where apt with all the girls who were themselves on light tonight. Corps member, Gilbert Bowden III, partnered as if born to the manner born and made the difficult look easy. The air was rife with the ravishment of elation. I have to take my hat off here and confess that I very much enjoyed Anthony Huxley as the Prodigal Son. His very succinct wire-like thrusts at the opening somehow made his relationship with the sisters all that much closer and himself even more vulnerable in the face of corps member Preston Chamblee's towering father; oh so very moving. Sara Mearns gave us her Joan Crawford as the parading Siren tonight - a very witty theatrical animal it was too. Somehow that made the contrite passion of the homecoming all the more telling and that stalk pulled a furrow along its trodden ground. No grand effects here but an extremely moving sincerity was exercised by Huxley. He reminded me for the world of David Threlfall as Smike in the RSC's legendary Nicholas Nickleby production of decades past. You could almost hear the echo of that Northern guttural cry here grit. Then came SiC and on swept Queen Tiler doing what NOBODY else in the world can NOW do better - and certainly MORE musically than she in Balanchine's triumphant First Movement. Tiler's father has been life-threateningly ill. Indeed but one week ago tonight she wrote on her IG that they 'almost lost him'. Last Sunday NYCB altered the running order of the entire programme - putting TPC2 first - in order that Tiler could catch an earlier flight to California to be with her dad. Her performance tonight - as ever toying with the intricate details in its music at speed - was the greatest tribute ANY daughter could offer. Her feet and lips pointed smiles which not only channelled but also broadcast her amour-propre through the gift of confidence which singularly shook hands with every heart in the hall. Of the men in the principal capacities, two were ranked principals; (i) Chan partnering Peck in the First so brilliantly and deploying the magic of his rich balletic largess in the coda segments and (ii) Peter Walker in the Fourth. Alec Knight, a NYCB corps member, made the adagio Second Movement glitter. Here were two beautiful people: He has an Ivor Novello profile and matching quaff and Unity Phelan is every inch Audrey Hepburn. His partnering - as indeed the musical accompaniments which were fittingly luxurious - soared as far in its incisive detail as the deep reverence to the knee she made in that drivingly-deep penche dived. NYCB Corps member Cainan Weber was tossed into the tumult of the third movement and acquitted himself with joy. It's THIS mix which makes a GREAT ballet Company - separating it from those which are much more fixed - often out of understandable need - in their hierarchical definition. That NYCB IS - without hesitation, prevarication or repetition - except where otherwise and professionally apt of course. A final footnote. Tonight was YOUNG PATRONS NIGHT. I don't usually notice - but, my word, THE CLOTHES. The detail of so many of these ladies' dresses - and of many of the men's accoutrements - was entirely breath-taking. I went up to a few just to say so. People don't really dress at the theatre any more - but these youngsters - oh, so handsome ones - certainly did. The air too was redolent with the expense of their perfumes. Happily they packed the place out too as young people have been doing throughout NYCB's Fall Season. If they donate one fifth of what their ravishing apparel cost tonight then NYCB will be set certainly for the Winter. They had after all made a cool $3.5 million off the back of the Fashion Gala alone the week previous.

Half jokingly the other night, I said to some people in the NYCB Patron's Lounge that Mira Nadon (21) and Roman Mejia (23) ALONE are an insurance policy for NYCB. They - even now - have the mantle of stars about them that @OnePigeon references. They seem to transform whatever they touch with a magic that is uniquely their own. Nadon especially has been a special delight and I must confess I really wasn't expecting it. Well, certainly not this quickly! Can't wait for her NY debut tonight in Concerto Barocco. I think I can see it in my mind's eye but then Nadon - BEING Nadon - I NOW know will surprise me. Her debuts have been revelatory as have Mejia's. (He's so lucky to have Tiler Peck to coach him. They are so adorable together - and I use that word advisably - both on and off stage.) Nadon tonight is partnered by Gilbert Bolden III, a corps member, who I have come to really like as well. (In the past I wasn't quite certain - but he has really come on and is SUCH a spectacularly strong partner. Certainly he enchanted as a principal in the West Symphony First Movement - so fiercely balletically classical - (but then that's NYCB's calling). With his colouring a la Tony Curtis and that stunning square-jawed smile of his a la Cary Grant he is - in a word - bedazzling. Plus he's tall. Certainly not as towering as Miriam Miller - NO - but TALL enough to hover over others. Here he is with Sara Mearns in Peck's Rotunda. This is one of the pieces that Alistair Sparling has chosen for the NYCB London showing in March. Sparling I'm sure SO knows HIS London audience. I pray they follow his lead. I'm uncertain that they will - but I'm sure HE knows better. Bolden's slimed down and shaped up since then. He doesn't look so tall in the clip - but you have to remember that Sara, herself, is a big girl. (Question: How many corps members partner principals at, say, the Royal at Covent Garden? I'm trying to think. Happens frequently at NYCB. Tomorrow corps member Alec Knight (an Australian) partners principal Unity Phelan in her SiC 2nd Movement debut. Saw him in rehearsal. He looked fantastic.) Still, it is I think the fact that these dancers DANCE SO MUCH - in so many varieties - AT ALL RANKS - which becomes a point unto itself as @annamk rightly suggests. The people have BEEN flocking in to SEE NYCB. Case in point: It's the COMPANY they CHEER. The concerns you constantly read about 'casting' in some other places doesn't so much prevail here. Indeed you no longer see people thronging around the paper panels with the casting changes. THIS IS NYCB AFTER ALL. (I promise you they did in the days of Baryshnikov, etc.) These have come to see the Company - THAT'S THE STAR - and I promise you that you'll always find something to thrill you in 'dose 'dem ranks. It has been heart-warming in the extreme to see State Theater so FULL. Last Spring I had said to friends who are long-standing core NYCB Volunteers - a group so important to the organisation's smooth running and NYCB's popular interface - [and I'm especially delighted to have been asked if I might re-join the team I first worked with decades ago - even though I DO LIVE IN LONDON NOW!!!] - that I was VERY fearful for the full Balanchine season. I was afraid it simply wouldn't sell. So often in the recent past his bills had the Fourth Ring - and sometimes even the Third Ring - closed off. It was the new balletic works - especially the Peck - understandable in so many instances - which were the BIG sellers. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I was ENTIRELY wrong. Audiences have been thronging in - and - excitingly - they are in the majority young. Moreover, you get the sense that they will keep coming back. Reassuringly so. It doesn't need to be pushed. They've already been sold - the COMPANY sold them. I left my seat in the Second Ring last night and walked up to the Fourth Ring and found a seat there. It was like old home week for me. It was so lovely to see all these young people SO excited at the actual construct of a work like T&V - much as I had been at their age decades ago. Still, there is OVERALL now more forward optimism about here generally I find - i.e., this city certainly - than (understandably) there is just now in the UK - Well, certainly in London. Economic outlooks have so much to do with it. Always have; always will I have come to learn. Concerning THAT I fear any ballet company has very little influence - if any at all. As I've said in the NYCB strand - you can ONLY live in and through your own time. Your choices will ALWAYS be dictated by it be it for the better or worse. Always were; ALWAYS will be.

And, believe you me, Scheherezade, I know it. It makes all the work entirely worthwhile.

Here is a clip from a NYCB feature on CBS' long running Sunday Morning programme. I had to laugh at that small clip from Balanchine's ballet largely set in and around the Pan Am theme song. I remember being at it's opening. It was fantastically bizarre - That's for sure. As far as I recall it was never revived. Balanchine was nothing if not pragmatic. The expanse of the repertory in any/every NYCB seasonal segment astounds. Always. No other Company dances this volume - but that has been true for many decades now. It is definingly a reason to 'love' New York.

What a celebration of the date it was. The gold and silver confetti may have spun out over the SiC cast zealously singing happy birthday after their last call - before all audience members were given their personal slice of celebratory cake in a little plastic box on the way out - but what REALLY marked out tonight - as ever with NYCB - was the dancing. As ever it speaks for itself. Concerto Barocco is such a stunningly crafted work and, boy, did it sing mightily this evening. I watched on the stage screen early this afternoon as Unity Phelan rehearsed the SiC second movement for a performance at the weekend partnered by the glorious Alec Knight, a NYCB corps member. She was as meltingly beautiful there as she was here. I find myself now being fascinated watching this relatively new NYCB principal build her performances. They can start small but soon they reach beyond in a completely natural and spontaneous fashion. Barocco was her case in point this evening. It stung as it sung. This evening Joe Gordon blossomed in Orpheus; so gloriously precise was he in his animation. While I appreciate the historical relevance of the ballet it remains, I fear, far from a favoured Balanchine work for me - but this performance at least broke the doldrums. Laracey - such at vividly dramatic dancer - her Namouna last Spring was oh, so witty - made her Eurydice quake and that stunning arabesque of hers deserves to the preserved in time. Kikta has become one of favourite current NYCB soloists and her lead Fury detonated with a prominence which itself was wickedly delightful.. With that wig in the furious throng of that final segment she reminded me of Vanessa Redgrave in BlowUp. As the lyre raised up at the end - as graced by the figure of Apollo himself - I thought of all the joy which that defining NYCB symbol has reigned over; still continuing to thrive in the hearts of a ever burnishing many. It has been so thrilling to see the house so much fuller than it has sometimes been in recent forays during this entire season - and filled with young people. It is so heartening. As with Orpheus, NYCB strives to reach beyond and, amazingly, it seems the war has at least in part been won. You don't I think need to worry about the future here. It's already bright. Promise. Balanchine - as he himself said - 'choreographed for the future'. The SiC was yet another case in point. It radiated ravishing euphoria from the get go. Sara Mearns again delineated impassioned expression and Roman - well, what is there left to say. Who needs firecrackers when this lad's about? He's a live wire like nobody else's business - jumping higher than a 17 year old Ivan Vasiliev above the rest of that Bolshoi corps - and those one-handed lifts/throws as Jeannette referenced above - NEW TONIGHT - and - count them - three in a row with the ever stunning Emma von Enck (you will want to remember her name too CERTAINLY) at the third movement's completion - didn't just amaze; NO, SIR - they flabbergasted in their predominating ascendancy. He oh, so well deserves that world mantle he's already assumed at - even now - only 23. The finale of that life enriching ballet - delivered oh, so cleanly by all at a properly life affirming pace - reminded me just how lucky I am to be present at such a thrilling event. I have seen the young NYCB corps member, Mckenzie Bernardino Soares, sometimes struggle in his counts - certainly recently in a Glass Pieces rehearsal - but tonight as a soloist in the SiC first movement and then again in the finale his stunning line astonished in the very litheness of its precision. Suddenly he was defining space with a splicing exactitude. I vividly remember last Spring passing him sitting on a block outside of the staircase down towards the State Theater Stage Door. He was reading a book and eating an apple. At the time he was first year NYCB corps. (Talk about challenging!) I was on my way towards the theatre but veered past him, simply pausing to say how much I enjoyed his performances. He looked up at me in sudden amazement as if checking that I wasn't a figment of his own imagining. It may have been a rough day for him as he looked like he was about to cry and - after biting down on his lip - he haltingly said 'I can't tell you how much that means to me'. Well, Mckenzie, tonight you BLAZED. You - and ALL - have every right to be dutifully PROUD. This Fall season has - as I said - been like Christmas every day. I have already boxed up so many cherished memories and they will live as long as I do. Happy Anniversary NYCB. You're still better than the very best in my book ... and then some.

Today is the occasion of what would have been Jerome Robbins' 105th birthday. How wonderful to have it on the actual anniversary date of New York City Ballet itself. Such a meaningful union of minds in so, so very many ways. Happy Birthday, Mr. Robbins.

Thank you, Jeanette for your review. I agree it was wonderful to see and hear Serenade again with its home Company. It is to NYCB what, say, MacMillian's Concerto is to the Royal. One might almost long to say - Symphonic Variations - but those days have, quite obviously, long passed for that ensemble given the clear reality of repertory choices/propagation. When the majestic gold of the State Theater curtain rises unto that bath of blue it always comes as an oasis. Suddenly, you too know where you are. Last night Sara Mearns again exercised her personalised genius; the catch of the moment now being her stock in trade. We watch as her soul thinks. Her heart embraces the light of its mystery in stunning tandem with the musical undulations and we all profit. Indiana Woodward too as the Russian Girl was an ardent whirlwind of joy. Her smiles burst forth in, through and around her fervent turns. The parts all became whole to the stirringly fervent strains of the last movement; glistening as a monumental pillar of tenderness; a monolith of vitality. A word for the rapturous Mary Thomas Mackinnon, a NYCB corps members. As the curtain rose last night she was in the very centre of that fantastical pack. Most often just now she is to one side. During these past few weeks I have found myself seeking her out. There is an air in her placement that seems to sing. I have a feeling special things - much as for Quinn Starner - will be coming her way. They will be well deserved. Theme and Variations - even when standing alone without the Balanchine's build-up in TSN3 - is, as ever, nobility personified. The grandeur in its sublime steps by right should ennoble via the bright pageant of the music's magnificence. Of course, I'm cursed with the very real memory of those halcyon ABT days where we watched agape at the supremacy of Baryshnikov and Kirkland; at the preeminent power of Bujones and Gregory in this work's fullest tow. The sky's heights can only reach so high but, still, Megan Fairchild is oh, so witty in the husbanding of her resources. You know she knows it and that is part of the exciting thrill of her execution. What set NYCB's presentation last night apart certainly for me was the ascendant stimulation of the corps. The silence of their completions was thunderous. I can hear in my ear even now the fantastical pounding of the pointe shoes into the Metropolitan Opera's floor as Kirkland swept in to literally stun in her two extraordinary variations. It was I always thought the leading ballast to her bombardment of brilliance. But NO. REPEATEDLY in NYCB rehearsals you hear - no matter the ballet - the ballet masters say that this was - definingly - NOT WHAT BALANCHINE WANTED. Where there was to be sound it will have been choreographed into the work. (I have to say it is wonderful to see Justin Peck carry on this tradition.) Last night the girls did the same steps in those forward group forays but they were - unlike my echoes of long ago - silent; The majesty of the music was entirely predominant and you could feel the air shift as Fairchild grandly curved forward. Balanchine clearly knew what he was doing to achieve substantive effect on the music's behalf. So too with the men supporting Anthony Huxley. Their precision was literally stunning because of its monumental hush. Gone here was the cacophony of thundering thuds that can so often interrupt the flow at so many other addresses. For Balanchine - and consequently for us ALL - the opulence of this music was - nay IS - primary. Here it was the resounding sumptuousness of the music's glare that lifted us all in the ripe communion of Tchaikovsky's illustrious splendour. THAT, Balanchine instructs, is the true effulgence of its display. How I wish that could ALWAYS be true. Surely no audience deserves less. Once heard; never forgotten.

I heartily agree with you, OnePigeon. I won't substantially go into the subject here as I have covered it at length in another strand. That said, I would VERY much feel exactly the same way about McGregor - indeed DID - as you do prior to finding a way to achieve an appropriate balance for my own good in terms of the balletic idiom which, at least for me, is core. I see the Royal entity - as defined in terms of its forward thrust by its much respected leader - very much as 'dance theatre'. That is a very noble aim no question but it is not, I fear, my primary preference which, as you specified, is the balletic idiom and always has been. I see NYCB now as my 'home/core company' for this reason and the Royal very much as a fascinating sidelight, so worthy in its own (re?)-focused goals. As such I can - in all honesty - NOW jump enthusiastically onboard the McGregor, Pite, etc., bandwagon. There is so much good there and the Royal company is now so excellently trained at heart to answer such GLORIOUSLY. As I said in another posting: Would you want to see NYCB do McGregor or MacMillan? CAN YOU IMAGINE IT???? I'm sure you'll agree NOT. That company just is not fit for it. They would look wholly out of sorts. Similarly I don't now think you'll be seeing established Peck or Ratmansky being done for the Royal Company as defined. For similar reasons it (the lightness of touch for example) NOW - completely understandably - would not suit either their current ensemble or the audience now built for such. Vis a vis the MacMillan extension. I think you can see - through late MacMillan certainly - with its frequent and certainly much hailed (i) employment of dramatic contortions, (ii) actual physical - in some places some might almost say brutal - contractions embodied and certainly (iii) the hyper-extensions - so significantly persistent as to be commonplace therein - as being a very natural progression to McGregor's contemporary conversation/output with the Royal today*. That is what I now see as seeding the current 'Royal' heritage, and - if you believe the internal rhetoric - it appears to thrive. I may be very wrong but I have a feeling MacMillan would have very much applauded such. I used to share a bus frequently with MacMillan himself and Maria Tallchief - the M4 - as we all lived in the same section of NYC at one time. Oddly we didn't talk hugely about ballet I seem to recall. If I remember correctly it was largely about property, city issues or the weather. There was always a lot of laughter I remember. How I wish I could wind back the clock, jump onboard with a token as we used to use then and actually ask him. *Certainly this would not be the case with the Ashton canon but the time for that work to be at heart of the Royal's FUTURE inspiration has I fear LONG passed. But all this is a world away from the joy of NYCB - which is the primary thrust of this strand. Queen Tiler again ruled supreme today in TPC2 and the whole Apollo ensemble - that with Chan and Nadon - was transcendent in their dramatic triumph. Chan at times seemed to be channelling an adolescent Yul Brenner's aura while Nadon - as so often in her radiance - was very much a very young Elizabeth Taylor - who she does, in fact, resemble come to think of it. Certainly the central PDD was revelatory - as much to the two young charges as their audience. We peeked into their private world. The latter wailed their congratulations well into the next segment's music. It was whole heartedly a very natural response.

Thanks for yours, Jeanette and I promise you, OnePigeon, you won't be disappointed. I'm, in fact, attending ALL of the Fall Season performances - wouldn't miss a moment of this - much as I will the majority of the Winter and Spring NYCB season shows - much as I have done in the past. It's a gift I give myself working long and hard otherwise here, in the UK and elsewhere. It's during these times you just know that you will be transported to a different, magical world. It's also just so wonderful to have this common bond with people in the audience. So often I find myself chatting with the people sat next to me, many of whom remember the Company from even before I saw it. I sat beside one woman yesterday who reminded me that all those Fourth Ring Standing tickets I had during the so-called 'dance boom' cost just a dollar. I had forgotten. It is so long ago. Of course, I know this wouldn't be something that would please all. In truth it never has been. Still it works for me. As well, OnePigeon, you will be able when you visit to enjoy the (J) Peck and Ratmansky works which are very much an extension on from the Balanchine and Robbins much as the great riches to be found in McGregor we are so lucky to be able to share in the UK are a very clear prolongation of MacMillan. I really do think you will be thrilled. Our national companies so proudly and uniquely serve their own rightful heritages. They are constructed for such and we are the beneficiaries in our own time. I agree with Jeanette, Chun Wai Chan is a very special artist. It is a glorious journey to be able to watch such magnificent (non-SAB-trained) artists like Chan and Jovani Furlan find their way into the NYCB fold. Furlan's own forays into the adagio segment of Western Symphony and Rubies this season have been baubles of rapturous delight. I so adored Chan's exquisite use of his hands as Apollo. You could see his own fascination at their increasing mastery. Too, that moment where he marks the sudden onslaught of his own maturity was reflationary; nay, definitive money in this memory's bank. I so look forward to seeing it again this afternoon. The mid-catch of his head from the palms of the muses - as if checking to see the air was right - and the knife sharp forward propulsion of his eyes upward at that moment - was entirely electric. Danny Ulbricht is such a treat. The night before as the Harlequin in La Sonnambula he oh, so wittily dazzled (as did the glorious NYCB corps member, Cainan Weber yesterday afternoon in a SPECTACULAR debut in that same role) - much as Danny had - as is his wont - as the head of the male Campaign in Stars and Stripes. He is in so many ways as fresh now as he when - as a NYCB apprentice - he was thrown into the Three Ivans segment on the opening night of Peter Martins' Sleeping Beauty nigh on some 30 years ago. How well I remember that evening. You didn't forget his name after that certainly. I enjoyed Danny's Prodigal Son as he - as ever - gave 110% of himself to the effort. I did feel a little lack in the latter journey to the homecoming but that was probably just me reflecting on past restorative triumphs in the role by the likes of Baryshnikov, Woetzel and Robbie Fairchild. As with so much in Balanchine it gives the dancer enormous scope to define through the music. Thought the lads did a fine job as the goons. Never an easy task. Here I highlight David Gabriel. He is SUCH a fine dancer. Certainly his entrechats have been simply spectacular - oh, those sculpted feet - both in Donizetti Variations and the pastorale variations in La Sonnambula - and his oh, so difficult partnerings in Bouree were truly 'Fantasque'. He literally made the dazzling Alexa Maxwell fly. His goon rightfully became a commander of his pack ultimately being worn as the levelled fulcrum for that extraordinary movement Balanchine wrought that is itself physically the equivalent of an Ashton ribbon weave in Fille. I know the Royal were to have revived Prodigal recently and that it was cancelled due to the pandemic. THIS is a Balanchine they definitely SHOULD do. It so suits both their current talents and the much admired direction of their current leadership. It is just so right for the Royal's NOW. I would love to see Sambe, say, in the title role with Kankeo as the Siren. Certainly it would call on his talents much as his glories in Mayerling did. This is a work I'm certain the current Company's (i.e., the Royal's) special gifts would enliven and certainly the intimate constraints of the Covent Garden stage would actually - in this instance - be a defining buoy. Last night's Symphony in C was a feast to behold as it only can be on a stage that is of an appropriate size to itself revel in this masterwork's full majesty. (Know many have not been to NY - but think of the scope of the performing platforms of any one of the the Garnier [even though the auditorium itself is smaller than Covent Garden], Bastille, Chatalet, Theatre de Ville, Theatre de Champs Elysees or La Seine Musicale stages in our close neighbour Paris and you will get a very definite idea.) Megan Fairchild continues to astound in her maturity. She is a small lady who defiantly knows how to dance big and here was partnered by the ever ebullient Joseph Gordon who has become to NYCB what Muntagirov is to the Royal. Both have feet that define with an ease that astounds. The speed at which Gordon can command is truly breath taking which is why he is a rightful partner for the likes of Fairchild, Tiler Peck and Woodward. A word too for one of the soloist parings in this movement: Italian Davide Ricardo - with his lithe legato line - and Ashely Hod, with a balletic filigree as pointed as the piercing darkness of her eyes. They blistered in the musical highlights. Sara Mearns was radiance personified in the second movement and rightfully depended on her extraordinary partner, Tyler Angle, in light of her physical niggle which - in the end - mattered not at all. Mearns - now in the high summer of her career - has achieved the confidence of her own breath. It is a significant juncture. She lets us breathe with her through the music as she hears it. She has learned how to relax in the midst of a balletic panoply. It is a special gift. The air settles as her eyes command the house. It is entirely invigorating. She always was and always will be a VERY special artist. The third movement - what can you say: Helium seemed to have suddenly been pumped in with the entrance of Roman Mejia and the sparkling bound of the indefatigable fascination that is Emma von Enck. Together their musical froth bubbled forth, fermenting to a point of elastically carbonated sparkle. It literally rained down from the heights of the rafters he alone seemingly touched. The last movement welcomed back Troy Schumacher to the stage which - surely at this point - he must be close to retiring from having served a long and noble career as a soloist. He partnered the bewitching force that is Indiana Woodward. She had a tumble travelling upstage early on but recovered immediately nailing every one of the rapid diagonal of those four furious pirouettes. Thereafter the majesty of the whole amassed and the balletic canon fodder resounded louder here than the climax of any Tchaikovsky 1912 Overture. As Balanchine himself is reputed to have said of this work: 'You have to go BANG!'. Last night NYCB blasted on more cylinders than anyone has by any right to imagine. It was deafening in its bliss.

Every day during this month long festivity is - at least for me - like Christmas. It's a gift that keeps giving - and then some. This afternoon, Mira Nadon - much as she has done in her debuts in Emeralds and the Stravinsky Violin Concerto - fascinated all with a uniquely absorbing perfume as Terpsichore much as Jeanette related. Steps you thought you knew came alive with a different tenor. Such is her considerable gift. Then, later - and the reason for THIS post - Tiler Peck stepped onto the stage in the TPC2 and, simply .... well, simply made history. I know many others have movingly related hereabouts on how they have wept when the many great Royal artists triumph in the MacMillan heroes/heroines we are privileged to see on a regular rotation at their home address. Certainly I can be moved by such - I well remember the sincerity of Bonelli's silent cries often hitting the pit of my stomach at the end of Manon. Still, this afternoon I found tears ACTUALLY strolling down MY face. There had been no great drama manipulating such - certainly not in the formal sense. There had been no betrayals; no harlots, no suicides, no fights ('Our boys don't fight' Balanchine insisted); nor any rapes. NO. These were tears of pure joy. Why? Tiler Peck WAS the music this afternoon - here played in the pit with a rapturous and rightful tempi one certainly is not always accustomed to in British ballet houses. She is SO fast she can toy with the phrases and then seemingly stop their notes on a proverbial dime. They are apparently plastic to be moulded in the heat of her balletic plastique. In Balanchine's concerted embrace she makes you SEE the music; certainly she makes you hear it in another way. She devours space in a way you won't see in London simply because there is no balletic stage large enough to honour such within the appropriately huge scope of these masterworks. That scope is, of course, true of other NYCB dancers no question. They are built for it - THEY HAVE TO BE - much as Balanchine intended when knowingly the theatre itself was constructed. STILL there are those - like Farrell, like Whelan in appropriate roles - who could/can actually command the air. Peck is just one such rarity. This afternoon she was also gloriously partnered by the balletically effervescent Joe Gordon. Pity any soloist who has to play second fiddle to that combined kind of artistry. But, still, why the tears you ask? I can tell you. When Peck returned from her career threatening injury she was - as ever - great - NO QUESTION - but, understandably - slightly diminished. I rapidly stored treasured memories of the extremities of her rapture in my memory bank. I thought I might never see them again. Still I had thought as noted above that her back was showing signs of ultimate recovery in Rubies. Were my eyes deceiving me? This afternoon Peck PROVED that she is back to the very heights of her glory. There is a God. Truly. This is a life enriching gift to us all and she was - as ever - seeing that it was shared with her devoted audience. My tears simply were an acknowledgement of that joy. It was an innate response. It was well worth weeping over. I felt blessed; Nay, I FEEL lucky. I hold the memory of her music this afternoon in my heart even now. It is now scorched in its very fibre.

So agree. Perhaps Tiler Peck could join in. With her SM following that would sell a good number of tickets I'm sure. Certainly the NYCB house was sold for last night's Fall (i.e., Fashion) Gala. They could also bring in a lot of local Leeds celebrities for Northern Ballet I'm sure. I passed Margot Robbie (you know, Barbie) last night going into State Theater - all very glam with her VERY LONG pink train - (seemingly with a life of its own) - and was delighted to be able to have a brief chat with the entrancing Alexa Maxwell and Amar Ramasar on the way out. Tiler Peck literally blazed her way through 'Fascinatin' Rhythm' and Megan Fairchild was wryly steaming in The Man I Love - all in their sequin rich but blessedly non-impeding creations by Wes Gordon for Caroline Herrera. Could have done without the guest singers though. Certainly the female contingent sounded extremely strained - especially next to such world class dancers and such a fine orchestra. The days of Ethel Merman alone commanding those very same boards in that very same music - and that without a microphone - are long gone I fear. (How I remember that very same programme with Mary Martin singing 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy' prone on a tower of period suitcases, Renata Scotto intoning 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', Julie Andrews proudly strutting forth with her 'Burlington Bertie' whilst Carol Channing relished her 'Little Girl from Little Rock' and the indomitable Leontyne Price embellished - as ONLY she could - 'What I Did for Love'. How lucky we were to have been able to catch such sounds in the flesh. That's what makes Galas special - i.e., GALA - surely.) A film with a witty take on the extraordinary highlights of Northern Ballet's history would certainly save time from what can often be wayward speeches - and be something they could additionally use as a fundraising tool in the crucial months to follow. Here's the effort that was shown just before Glass Pieces last night. What a wonderful testament that world encompassing ballet is to New York City much as Infra is for the Royal to London. Wouldn't it be wonderful if, say, Kenneth Tindall could fashion something appropriately more intimate to celebrate not only his fine company but also the wit and wisdom of the rightly searing Northern ripeness of Leeds itself. You just know that Alan Bennett for one would be on his feet!

There is a work that I would like to see repeated - and worked on - that I don't think has has a second showing and that is - or I think it was called - 'Wind'. It was by Arthur Pita and looked to have been fashioned originally for Watson and Osipova. If they could slightly tame the wind machine - so theatrically powerful in that opening sequence - so that it didn't also physically overwhelm those in the stalls and, perhaps, if someone could be found to help Mr. Pita actually write some 'ballet' for the final closing solo for the heroine - (it did rather peter out I seem to recall) - there is much in it that so suits the narrative talents of the current Royal regime. The second cast of Hayward and Ball I recall being absolutely spellbinding in places - and the Company clearly spent a lot of money on it. The costumes alone were magnificent and the fellas really seemed delighted to be playing cow folk. This could easily sit on a heritage bill with, say, the likes of Symphonic Variations, Chroma, Infra, Las Hermanas or even with a repeat of the Royal's master Choreographer's fine Yergen - which I believe, too, hasn't had a repeat - even though the long panels above the escalator to/from the amphitheatre continue to proudly proclaim several of its key virtues. Clearly a beacon for this Royal administration. Just a suggestion.

I'm so sorry to hear this. That said, I'm not surprised. The only thing that will make Northern Ballet's case harder to currently plea is that - certainly in terms the UK arts sector - they are not alone. VERY far from it. That much I am all too aware of. Certainly ALL - even the most prominent - within the UK arts charitable sector will most certainly have had to make - or most assuredly SHOULD have made provisions and plans by now in order to ensure their future thinking and, ultimately, their very survival. For many it is almost a little to late to begin doing so now - if that's what is in their current mix. It's a rough world out there. As I said I think at the top of this sad strand, hang on for a VERY bumpy ride.

Yes, and what hasn't been floated here is the fact - or certainly 'seeming' fact given that it's been reported in the trade publications and Conservative broadsheets - that this government is trailing proposed amendments to the tax incentive that was only relatively recently created for support of the arts in the UK. In the US - where there is limited government support - but massive independent fostering - were such not to have long existed the entire and vast domestic arts infrastructure would - certainly as we know it - collapse. Best I think to strap in, folks. Whatever else happens in the UK this - from an arts perspective - one often deemed easily cut in the overall scheme of things - is clearly going to be a VERY bumpy ride.

So very sad. It seems they are in desperate financial straights .... This I fear is a sign of continuing UK times and is most especially distressing for an artform for whom music - at least in some international locations - is deemed absolutely, nay, entirely critical vis a vis balletic artistry. Let's pray they are able to muster the funds necessary to maintain this crucial element. Source: https://slippedisc.com/2023/09/report-northern-ballet-drops-its-orchestra/

In haste - as I am very tired - but will strive to answer your question, Alison - Do you mean what happens at the point of the kiss on the hand at the end of the Diamonds PDD? All the ladies - as per Farrell - are looking out. (I notice this is not always the case in UK stagings). What they do next - before the stage reverence - is, it seems, up to them. I have described LaFeniere's treatment. Mearns and Janzen yesterday were total joy. Given that it was his retirement performance they seemed to go through every possible emotion in that extraordinary PDD. Their ultimate unity was unquestioned; nay this was its celebration. On this occasion - at the juncture of the kiss - Mearns turned to Janzen and warmly smiled. Their history flowed. She had been brave throughout - but here she was struggling to keep her emotions in check - much I'm sure as she clearly intended to do. He rose and pressed her head to his chest and she turned into it seeking it seemed a moment of privacy in spite of the cheering throngs. He sheltered her with his arm and escorted her off the stage - before both came back on for a formal call; the audience braying having demanded such. As usual with NYCB farewells, there were the performance standard two - occasionally three - in-front-of curtain calls for the primary soloist(s) and principals. That is always the case. (These things are very regimented. They have to be at NYCB; they perform a larger repertory annually than any other company on earth.) Then - as per tradition - the curtain rises with the retiring dancer left solitary on the stage for the audience to honour. Shortly thereafter begins a parade of current and past dancers from the stage left wing one at a time with a single rose each. This too is a well established tradition. They present their rose - greet the retiring dancer affectionally - and then form a line with applauding others. Refreshingly there are NO speeches. Any words spoken are private - as seems most fitting. Sara was first out of the proverbial gate this time with her white rose and I noticed Maria Krowoski, Teresa Reichlen, David Prottas and Adam Luders among the returning fold, though I know those names will probably mean understandably very little to BcoF readers. At a certain point - all the remainder of the Company - both dancers and staff join those already on the stage. Yesterday there were many dancers in the house too I noticed. Certainly Robbie Fairchild was there and the ABT principal James Whiteside was sitting not far from me. I sincerely doubt I will write very much if at all from this point forward on NYCB - perhaps an overview if I find I have time - and certainly if there is another historic point of reference to note. (I'm not aware of any in the Fall season at this point.) Of course I'm sure I will share my impressions of the Sadler's programme. That will seem most appropriate for here. As I say I really see little point otherwise as the readers hereabouts will largely be unfamiliar with the majority of the works referenced and it doesn't now seem key when there is SO much to celebrate on this Forum's home turf, i.e., the Royal's newly devoted pathway and the detailed adventures of ENB, NB, SB, BRB and the like. Best to focus on those I think - again short of key historic markings such as the NYCB celebration last Tuesday. I will be at the Nijinsky Gala in Hamburg in July - Neumeier's last - and that too will be equally historic. I'm sure I will contribute to the commentary hereabouts on that as well. Those kind of events are clearly special. Also, Alison, as I think I mentioned to you at the Wells when I saw you at the Ailey programme, my own personal work schedule here is now considerable as - not all at the same time - I will be in NYC for three large projects for three and a half months per year - and as of now - each of those will be ongoing for the foreseeable future. (Of course, I have planned them during NYCB seasons given that is a key pay-off for me as I don't now and never have taken a salary for the work I do.) Things have been just so difficult in the UK that I have taken the difficult decision to go where the most meaningful work is fully functionally possible - simply because we can but live in whatever time we do and, as ever, the clock will wait for no one person. I must say it was disheartening in the extreme for me to read last week that the OECD in its future economic forecasts has placed the UK as the second lowest - only just above Venezuela; itself a former economic stronghold. I do understand - and will accept their guidance. The British arts will now need maximum support from their native patrons. That much is vividly clear - and I - without hesitation - certainly will do my utmost to help fulfil that goal - insofar as I am able - during those periods when I am back home and away from the forced necessity of increasing foreign demands. I realise full well I am lucky to have them. They too seem to come with time ... and, of course, work. Speaking of which ... I STILL have things to attend to before I sleep - and now it is already tomorrow I see ....

Thanks for that clip, Ondine. Amazingly when it was filmed Nadon would still have been a teenager and Mejia - who briefly appears here would only have been just 20. (He's now 23). Nadon again shone this afternoon as the Tall Girl. Sara Mearns - in the farewell performance of her partner, the sensitively lithe Russell Janzen - gave yet another etching of historic proportion. She insists that you hold your breath throughout that stunning PDD - and with good reason - it is entirely provocative in its electric charge. She more than earned her crown of diamonds today. Yet another full house paid their respects with a rapturous return. This will be, as I have said, a good place to end this limited coverage which ONLY commenced as a result of the historic nature of last Tuesday's event given that Jewels ended today and it's back to the Balanchine rep again starting on Tuesday. I will leave you with four clips of the extraordinary Mr. Mejia - who London really has not seen in this classical outings - and something tells me that local opportunities to see him will be extremely rare if history is anything to go by. He is a self-confessed 'total bunhead'. You can tell. He literally envelopes every audience member in that vast sponge which clearly is his imagination. (i) Here you can see him rehearsing the first solo in Rubies - which he did this week as noted above - (You will be interested to see how old - certainly compared to the Royal's stunning array of rehearsal spaces - the NYCB studios appear. You have to remember that State Theater, itself, - the Lincoln Center home of NYCB - opened in 1964 which is no longer young. That said, just think of all the great ghosts who haunt those walls. Enjoy: - https://www.instagram.com/p/CxVnNM7Aw-2/?hl=en (ii) Here you can see him in Balanchine rep he will dance next week - (a) from the a stage rehearsal (not the one I reported on above) as the Captain in Stars and Stripes and (b) in the Fourth Movement of Western Symphony. This latter clip is actually excellent as it will clearly illustrate the vastness of the State Theater stage as compared, say, to the charming intimacy of the ROH. You see just how much distance these dancers have to cover when at home - and so stamina is even MORE key for them when taking the full measure of any role as choreographed by Balanchine (or re-choreographed in this case) expressly for this facility. (iii) Here you will see him - as he says - having some 'fun with Giselle'. This will be much more familiar territory for UK locals but certainly not for dancers on the NYCB docket. (Although that said they now do a full length Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, La Sylphide and have long had Balanchine's MSND, enchanting Coppelia and, of course, Harlequinade.) I doubt Roman was coached in this second act segment. I'm fairly sure he will have taught himself. Interesting to see that it was K J Takahashi, a NYCB member, (who was also with him in Tiler Peck's show at the Wells) that held the phone camera for him on this occasion. K.J. went to Roman's parents' ballet school - where they first met and became friends. It is, of course, instructive to remember that it was on this very State Theater stage that the famous recording of Giselle by ABT with Baryshnikov and Makarova was made. Some things you just can't forget - like those extraordinary brisés.

NYCB are doing just one performance of Who Cares? and then only excerpts this season - largely because it is being done as part of the Fall (i.e., Fashion) Gala. They obviously are getting as many individual dancers involved (i.e., no double solo turns I assume) as they want to get as many individual bodies for the dance couture exhibition - all original to the evening - in a not-so-long performance so that the inevitable house parties can prevail. Heaven knows what this will look like??? This event is always an adventure - but it does bring in a different audience - and the dosh. The air is frequently redolent with a clash of perfumes in the theatre on those evenings. Tiler Peck is happily down for this in one of the McBride delights I'm sure. She is very good in it. The songs featured instrumentally in the standard piece will here be sung by noted local artists from the musical theatre community. THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 5, 7:00 PM 2023 FALL GALA WHO CARES? (Excerpts): M. Fairchild & T. Angle, LaFreniere, Bouder & Chan, T. Peck, Mearns & Veyette, Woodward, Gordon [Conductor: Litton; Guest Artists: Patti LuPone, Vanessa Williams, Joshua Henry] .... pause GLASS PIECES: Hod, Sanz, Adams, Riccardo, *O. MacKinnon, *Coll, Phelan, Danchig-Waring [Conductor: Otranto]

Oh, JaneS, how I wish you did. I would have loved to read about it. Yesterday's performances were truly thrilling. Tiler and Roman were - amazingly - in still yet another league. How do they do it? How do you define his force of nature? His passionate love the of balletic artform just rockets forth in a manner that is obviously entirely natural to him. How lucky are we just to be in that audience. (TALKING OF WHICH: It's so wonderful to be in a full State Theater crowd. Another dedicated volunteer told me that at it's height on Friday - when I had queried - there were 600 people in the Box Office queue. It did strike me at the time as remarkable. Totally understandable - and oh, so heart warming to see. It was pelting down rain yesterday but there they were again.) Can my eyes be deceiving me? Is Peck's back really reaching the fluidity it so enjoyed prior to that major injury? It seems so. I don't want to miss a moment of such. And Nadon redefines everything she touches - as does Woodward. It was so impactful to see Emma Von Enck and Furlan now that they didn't have the pressure of their debut. They SO dazzled in their natural rapture. You could feel them letting go. That girl is as effervescent as a bubble caught up in the brightest rainbow light. So special. The focused purity of Chan's exquisite classical genius harks back to the NYC dance boom of the 70's/80's. It's of an extreme you just don't see elsewhere nowadays. I won't dribble on about NYCB performances from this point forward. I understand that it's really not appropriate here. I wholly agree. I only started this strand in the BcoF fold because of the extraordinary (i.e., historic) nature of Tuesday. I felt it unique enough that it should be marked as I said I think in my very first sentence. The remainder is just blessedly standard NYCB (albeit high) fare and, of consequence, not required for highlighting elsewhere. There is so much that is local to BcoF to note and cherish and that SHOULD take rightful preference over all on these boards. Enjoy. Certainly I - in deep appreciation - will do.

With all due respect, bridiem, I am now of the mind that Diamonds at least should never be performed at Sadler's Wells. The PDD - yes, of course - the work; NEVER. Emeralds and Rubies can be contained. I type this knowing you will think it cruel. I have come to believe that it is more than equally cruel to the artistic work at hand to distort it in such an extreme fashion simply to accommodate. Did NYCB ever dance Jewels in London? I'm not sure. In Paris certainly. I had understood that when they appeared in London early on (i.e., during Balachine's lifetime) they did the City Center settings of the works created - much as Peter Martins himself highlighted they did for Symphony in C at the Coliseum. That would be rightfully fitting at intimate venues like Sadler's Wells or the rightfully admired ROH. As Freniere literally ran across the capacious State Theater stage last night in the opening segments of the Diamond PDD - and you have to remember that Balanchine himself was key to that stage's construct - she reminded me of Farrell - my watermark for this work - whose own dashing bound and ultimate end rise instituted her Diana's initial control over all and sundry; one which remains vivid in my mind's eye even now. Such is simply not possible within the stunning restraints of the Wells. The space is core to the work itself. When Balanchine oversaw the filming of that PDD it was in expressly dedicated studios to accommodate such. I remember hearing Jack Palance speak about the copious arrangements that Balanchine demanded simply in protection of his choreography. (That said the floor those artists danced on for that little adventure were concrete!) Of course there is leeway but surely it has to be on the better side of the artwork's own compromise when it comes to the OVERALL work. Otherwise who does it serve? The reality of this REALLY hit home to me with that one movement from Peck's Everywhere We Go that the Australian Ballet attempted in that Sunday matinee. That stunning work was brutally squished out of all RIGHTFUL proportion - and I'm sorry but I thought it a vicious act - simply to fit the ROH's confines for the sake of their Anniversary gala. I appreciate that the audience's enjoyed what they saw - but it wasn't really Peck's work as HE envisaged it. Who was being served here? Again I'm sorry to be blunt - it was unfair to them, nay, it was unfair to YOU because it was unfair to the overall artwork itself. The piece would NEVER have got the response it did in Paris were it not to have been at the Chatalet. I don't know whether Hallberg had specific permission for that. I suspect not. It's a good thing too that Peck, himself, wasn't there or I suspect there might have been action afoot even now. To my mind there should have been. Having watched him any number of times command the troops in NYCB rehearsals I know just how meticulous he is. I completely understand - and admire - Sir Simon Rattle for walking from his LSO commitments when the powers-that-be completely backed out of their own promises to him to build an appropriately current world-class concert hall for our wonderful city of London. He was I believe entirely right to do so. HE WAS DOING IT ON OUR BEHALF. He was protecting the art FIRST, so wanting it to fittingly serve the British public in their own right. Surely they (i.e., WE) deserve no less. Would that there were more like him. Would there be a person ever do the same for ballet in London? I sincerely doubt it. I think if there were to have been it would have happened by now. There isn't as far as I can see a truly SUBSTANTIAL need - especially when resources are spread so thin. I can't imagine now the Royal, say, ever doing the Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet much as I would selfishly love it as it is one of my desert island ballets, alongside Symphonic Variations and A Month in the Country. That said even I know at heart THEY SHOULDN'T now do it for a number of reasons - and I think Kevin O'Hare is wisely aware of this - and I say this in all sincere admiration. At least I say he seems to be aware given his stated dance ethic, programming and long term planning outlines. Yes, leave the Brahms- Schoenberg and its like to companies whose current prime focus is the balletic idiom itself; but certainly - overall - and this is key - leave it to ones with the physical capacity to honour the works as written. OK that piece can frequently looks muddy in Hamburg and Paris - and sometimes can do at NYCB - but at least you can SEE the overall framework of the piece itself ... THAT'S THE POINT - and thereby give artists AND THE AUDIENCE the rightful opportunity to 'hear their dance' in its rightful measure.. Can you imagine NYCB doing Manon or, heaven help us, Mayerling or the splendour of Woolf Works or the Dante Project? It would be HORRIFIC in the extreme. That much I know. I can just see it. Those pieces need the very constraints to rightfully flourish. Without them they can lose focus. Certainly Manon often swims agog at, say, the New York Met - much as Cathy Marden's telling Jane Eyre did. The NYCB artists themselves are not built for the dramatic contortions, the contractions, the hyper-extensions that our glorious Royal team now have as their dedicated birth right; nay, are rightfully trained for. If you want to see NYCB artists in the works they ARE born to dance in - the Balanchine, the Robbins, the Ratmansky, the Peck, etc. - and I would certainly encourage you in that aim - then they are right I think to insist that you should see them in a space where the works as created have an equal opportunity to breathe. Sir Alistair Spalding has made his name because he knows his audience. He has cleverly curated such. He has framed a programme for NYCB that will suit his budget, works that kindly adhere to his space (and I have a sneaking suspicion Peck will have had a say in Spalding's selection of his own work,[i.e., 'choose from these']) and above all the audience HE wishes to serve and build. I for one thank him for taking the responsibility that I well know lies behind those efforts. Now on to my own work.

I just wanted to explain why the pianist (who is also the featured pianist in the performances) was made to play the entire score of Rubies repeatedly in the rehearsal - even though the only people rehearsing at any one time were the two principals and the 'Tall Girl' soloist. When the corps sections are being played during the rehearsal the stage is empty. This is simply to give the dancers an idea of the stamina required in order that they might figure out for themselves - given that they are their own instrument- how best to achieve the necessary fortitude to entice; nay, to shine in the measure of the whole work. It proved very effective I can tell you. Emma Von Enck and Jovani Furlan MADE their role debuts in Rubies tonight and were electric. She already has such detailed musical wit in her canon and supreme balletic artistry delivered with the simplest of means. Her dramatic attack in the role was on a knife edge and cut through the hearts of the audience. Each exit she made was trailed by knowing applause. You could see as Furlan was coming up to the final section a mask of concern slightly cloud his countenance. In his starring section it disappeared. He knew he had managed himself well enough to arrive and drive he did. When both came on for the finale the playful grin on his handsome face telegraphed the fact that he had succeeded in crossing his own finish line. His final kicks were exclamation marks of pure pride. All principal roles in this evening's performance were, in fact, NYCB role debuts. This is clearly a company of World-Class depth. Mira Nadon simply melted into Emerald's lush music as a kind of Audrey Hepburn in today's balletic firmament. She was beyond impressive; she was stimulatingly luxurious. She, like Meija - and they are both of the same generation - both still in their very early 20's - (in fact Nadon turned 21 just before her appearance with Tiler Peck's recent fine programme at Sadler's Wells) - is not JUST I suspect a leading balletic dancer for HER time - but one for ALL time. I can't wait to see what Justin Peck, Forsythe and Ratmansky create for both - much as I can't wait to see what McGregor continues to create for the likes of Sissens, Richardson and Kaneko. All fine artists within - and this vital - WITHIN their specific milieus/dedicated idioms. There is going to be so, so much more to celebrate from all within the realms of their dedicated Company's artistic definition under their current long-term leaders no question. In Diamonds tonight Isabella LaFreniere had the kind of dramatic size she wrought in her NYCB Firebird debut last year. Hers was an able enchantress - one initially rich in radiant smiles oh, so carefully placed to enrapture the imagination of the truly stunning Chun Wai Chan, her prince of a partner also in a NYCB role debut. In the final walking section of the PDD you got the sense that this creature's game had slightly backfired given that her own conscious appeared to now be rising to haunt. The tilt of her head as the final kiss was delivered to her hand vividly shared its relief as she momentarily closed her eyes and looked skyward. Chan was simply astonishing throughout. The score is played - as is all music at NYCB - to strict original tempi - which you don't always hear in other places. This is one area where there are NO exceptions - much as it was under Balanchine's own regime. The accents here are always STRICTLY enforced. Balanchine was, himself, a more than able pianist and always arrived with the scores propped under his arm. In his second solo variation Chan's thrilling turns a la seconde were delivered with progressive Baryshnikov-Woetzel speed in total tandem with the hugely increasing rhythm of the score itself. (If you want to get a sense of what this feels/looks like watch Woetzel in the first NYCB film of Nutcracker in his coda variation. It is something you don't often see. Well, at least I don't.) They blind in their own right. Here the resulting exultation was pin-prick euphoric. You could audibly hear the audience gasp before they responded in kind with utter jubilance. That carried on right to the ecstatically exuberant end. I don't exactly know what was going on, but I have never seen such a queue - especially of young people - as there was tonight at the State Theater box office. I asked one of the stationed volunteers and they agreed, saying these people had started to arrive early. That is heartening in the extreme. Long may it continue.

Felt so guilty all day today - as I had misnamed the exquisite Ms. Woodward. She is, of course, Indiana Woodward - but that should take nothing away from my praise for her glorious performance. Dropped into the NYCB rehearsal today - no Ms. Woodward on its two hour bill - but a busy day for the incredible Ms. Nadon - who was in all three pieces featured: Balanchine's whimsical Bourrée Fantasque; Emeralds (in which Ms. Nadon debuts tonight in the Verdy role) -- both so very French -- and Apollo with the magical Chun Wai Chan soon to make his debut in the title role surrounded by three 'tall' ladies inclusive of Nadon's first stab as Terpsichore. He is a dancer vivid in his classical purity and musical intelligence. In all a treat; no question of that - with so very much more to come. Enjoy ENB's T&V at Sadler's. Sorry I will miss it but will, as ever, look forward to the BcoF reports.

You could feel the rapture on Tuesday night in the house that (to a large extent) Balanchine built. I don't sadly have time any longer to write reviews for BcoF given my work load, but I simply couldn't let this pass without mention. The sense of thrill was palpable. The 2023 NYCB Fall Season opened with a week of Jewels. This Fall Season is ALL Balanchine. Isabella Woodward - rife with her own native Parisian chic - was entirely redolent in the Verdy role in Emeralds. Mira Nadon - continues to add natural ease - not to mention a caustic glint of humour in those all-persuasive eyes - to her 1940's Hollywood glean. Some people have 'star' written all over them. This girl - as ever - has whatever that IS in spades. Much as she did last winter when she was thrown into the intoxicating Stravinsky Violin Concerto in place of Sara Mearns here she - again in toy with Igor - made the 'Tall Girl' in Rubies her own. The wit and wisdom of her voluptuous limbs all so precisely agog don’t just startle; they awe. In Diamonds Mearns clearly had something to prove - and, boy, did she do it. This lady needs a world-sized stage to blaze in and her principal turn in Diamonds was one that I'm certain has now already become legendary. This was ballerina plus ... and then some. She was writing history. The spirit of Balanchine was I'm fully confident gleaming from his usual place in the wings. This – after all is said and done - is the Company that built my appreciation for ballet and every time I take my seat in State Theatre I know it is here that I have ‘balletically’ come home. The boy who grew up in Fourth Ring standing room went to yesterday's rehearsal. (If you give $1,000 a year to NYCB you can go to three stage rehearsals per week throughout all of the annual seasons - plus Dress Rehearsals - as well as observe SAB classes - all on a complimentary basis - and that's in addition to the much appreciated ticket priority.) These stage rehearsals are usually two to two and a half hours in length. They are not 'staged' in the sense of the Royal's insights. These are FOR the Company purely - not YOU. You are ONLY there because of the largess of your privilege. You are a fly on THEIR wall. You are not allowed to speak or applaud. The acoustic of this wonderful theatre is such that - as you can hear the people on stage - they can hear you - even in a loud whisper. You sit in the splendour of the First Ring - but not in the first row. You might be seen. The conductors sit aside the pianist to one side. The ballet masters are on the stage – as are the dance covers at the back. Yesterday’s rehearsal featured two works. The first was Stars and Stripes from the 2nd Movement forward. There are 17 men and 41 women in this work. The ever-stunning Roman Mejia – still SO young and even now clearly a major 21st Century star - and the ‘better-than-ever’ Megan Fairchild wittily commanded in the infamously dangerous delights of the final PDD. Mejia’s feet as much as his wicked grin define wit. ALL is fiercely classical of course. This is, after all, Balanchine in Balanchine’s home. It is always invigorating to watch the NYCB men. Apart from their dazzling speed and precision in the two astonishing male campaign segments what makes them stand apart is the silent landings en mass. Balanchine demanded that they be there to serve the music – whatever the music was. Where there is to BE noise it is choreographed into the piece as part of the music. At the end of the ravishingly demanding second mass male variation the sound of them marching off – and then back to salute the audience – radiates pride. That sound in and of itself – the marching I mean, is, indeed, profoundly moving after the expanse of the beautiful balletic feats you have just witnessed. These are blood and flesh entities who have resolutely served their country. The second rehearsal segment – after a five-minute break – was Rubies. The pianist actually ended up playing the whole score three times – only to have to play it again a few hours later. Here was featured the young soloist – and I confess one of my favourites – Emma Von Enck and Jovani Furlan. They were enticing and after they had finished their run-through you could see just what it had taken out of them. Furlan gave out a howl as he bent over moving into the relative privacy of far-side lip of the actual proscenium – that which travels into the auditorium itself – where he found some well-deserved restorative peace. Then on traipsed Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia – he being back for more. They went through the central PDD – having an merry old time between the two of them. He is always filled with joy – she is, well, .... she IS Tiler Peck – enough said. Later last night you got the full meal – as they were featured in the stage performance of Rubies. It brought the house down – deservedly. They were rightfully called back for an extra bow during the front of curtain calls. Still what made the opening evening even MORE special was the fact that there were 250 former NYCB dancers in the audience. What a thrill it was for me during the intervals to wander about seeing the past meet the present on a balletic scale rarely known. There was one moment I accidently caught with the glorious Stephanie Saland. She looked ravishing. She STILL looks ravishing – here in a glorious black dress. She was moving about on the parterre level floor when she saw another woman from a little distance in the crowd – a former dancer as she was wearing a badge they had all been given. They looked at each other. They leant forward. They stared. There were several moments of electricity. Slowly smiles broke out and then you could see tears in Saland’s eyes. They rushed together and embraced. I have no idea who the other woman was – but that moment – in a way – was as restorative for me as it clearly had been for them. The years had come together somehow. What a thrill it was to see the likes of Farrell, Villella, Allegra Kent, McBride, Hubbe, Philip Neal, Edwaard Liang, Robbie Fairchild, Chistopher Wheeldon, Sofiane Sylve, Lourdes Lopez, Peter Boal, Judith Fugate, Heather Watts, Jock Soto, Damian Woetzel, Robbie La Fosse, Kyra Nichols, Katrina Killian, Jeff Edwards and so, so many others just milling about with the likes of Ratmansky, Justin Peck and an adoring world that has oh, so long surrounded them. (There were some I had hoped to see like Baryshnikov and Kirkland that I didn't - but they may well have been there and I just missed them given the number. ) It was all for a great cause. Certainly they had been and remain at the root of my appreciation for the art of BALLET; one that my heart is proud to champion. The final wallop of inspiration came at the very end of Tuesday night when all 250 of the former NYCB dancers – including three ladies who had been on stage at that very first ‘official’ NYCB performance in 1948 – all came on stage and joined the current company. That was well over 300 people. It was something I shall always remember. It was entirely life enriching. I would not have missed that moment for the world. I will hold it in my heart as long as I live. I will attach a little film from Wendy Whelan’s IG feed. It does, I think, speak for itself. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxbaivrgpXK/