Robert Gottlieb reviews the closing weeks of the Spring Season in the New York Observer:

NY Observer

Macaulay on Kyra Nichol's final performance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/arts/ ... 5nich.html

Dear God, that man can write.

Now there's free Wi Fi at Lincoln Center (from the NYCB website):

NEW WiFi has Arrived

Wireless Internet Access has arrived at Lincoln Center and is available to the thousands of individuals who visit Lincoln Center's 6.3 acres annually. This free wireless internet access at all of the Center's outdoor public spaces is made possible through an agreement with Nokia in cooperation with Nokia Siemens Networks. Now all wireless devices compatible with the 802.11b/g standard including WiFi enabled laptops, cell phones, and PDAs will be welcome. To use Lincoln Center's wireless network, you will need a laptop or handheld device with an 802.11b/g compatible wireless card or built in 802.11b/g wireless capability. To connect (1.) Search for availble networks. (2.) Select Lincoln Center's wireless network. (3.) Launch your internet browser and you will automatically be connected to Lincoln Center's internet browser portal. NOTE: Lincoln Center understands that each comopputer and network card operates differently. For technical support, contact your PC or network card vendor. For WiFi Network Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy, click HERE.

Alistair Macaulay sums up NYCB's spring season, pointing out the highlights and lowlights. I think this blows away any criticism of his writing - he certainly has his dislikes, but he backs himself up and even the dancers he despairs in, he is not totally negative.

What Macaulay is, is honest, and a bit more honesty in all the years of Kisselgoff's reign might have saved NYCB from a lot of grief. I've certainly seen some good performances from Kistler and Martins (Nilas), but Macaulay is only echoing what so many have expressed or hinted at for years - that they have been allowed to continue in roles - and in some cases prevent young blood from getting a chance - for years.

Even the lovely Kyra Nichols, I think, would have benefited on occasion from more firm guidance as to which roles she should still have been performing - a couple of years ago I saw her in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and while her acting is divine, she simply was not capable of the managing all the dancing in the PDD with the cavalier. You knew from the beginning that there was NO way the bounce to the shoulder lift was ever going to happen, and no dancer should be cast in a role when it's just so clear that they are not capable. If you can't do the steps, then you can't do the role.

Fortunately Nichols, either by choice or dictate did almost always limit her later repertoire to appropriate pieces. To me, for dancers to continue in roles beyond their means shows disrespect to themselves and to the ballets. I fear that too many people will now remember Kistler for what she cannot do now, rather than her true talents and gifts.

I did find it a bit cheeky that Macaulay mentions Wheeldon's new piece when he couldn't even be bothered to stay in NY to review the premiere (Macaulay went off to see Bussell's final performance...). Also he bemoans the continual casting of Martins in Orpheus, but I don't ever remember the NY Times reviewing Ask la Cour debut in the title role. Did it not happen? If it did, the NY Times surely should have had someone there to review and made sure it got mentioned in the review...


Having not see NYCB this season, I can't comment directly, but I'm not sure how much authority Macaulay has about commenting on the Robbins' repertory. Robbins' ballets, with few exceptions, are not commonly performed in Europe and they are definately very 'American', and so often don't quite appeal or make sense to the European dance palate. Certainly my understanding has been that the Robbins' repetiteurs at NYCB are very good and there are enough dancers who knew and worked with Robbins still around to make his pieces quite alive. (Though with the impending departure of Damian Woetzel and choreography duties and injuries keeping Benjamin Millipied off the stage quite frequently - Robbins' legacy is also fading within the company). I would sense that any issues with the Robbins rep has more to do with general overwork - trying to rehearse 50 ballets including a new full length - rather than problems with Robbins ballets in particular. I would think that the ballets will look just fine for the upcoming Robbins' celebration.

Kate

Mr. Duberman is, I believe, the source for stating that the appointment of Clive Barnes as NYT theatre critic, was owing to an intervention by Lincoln Kirstein, aka. the Warburg interests.

Now, when one reads the following from Mr. MacAulay, in today's NYT,

"“These are among New York City’s greatest treasures, works to set beside the Greek art or Renaissance paintings at the Metropolitan Museum, beside the Picassos at the Museum of Modern Art, works that make the New York State Theater seem the same kind of sublime haven the Frick Collection is. I saw every ballet but one (“Episodes”), most of them at least twice, and I record my gratitude both to Mr. Martins for presenting such fare and to Lincoln Kirstein, the centenary of whose birth prompted it. ....

"And there were more than a few performances that made me feel, as the greatest choreographic repertory in the history of the world passed before my eyes, that the State Theater was the only place in the world I wanted to be."

... it does raise the question of the Who-fore or the Why-fore, of Mr. MacAulay's appointment.

Anyvey (i), the author of these lines is Not Alone, in rejecting, outright, the view that Georges B. created "the greatest choreographic repertory in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD".

And anyvey (ii), it's fun-time listening to the New York Intelligentsia in Anglophile Knee-Jerk Mode, or rather, On Their Knees before the aforesaid gentleman's reviews. Parlaiz-vousSONGLEZ?

Anyvey (iii), and, Hello? What world? Perhaps Mr. MacAulay meant, THE UNIVERSE? In which case, might one consult, with all due courtesy, the Saturnians on this?

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