Weighing in on the Ringer thing....

Jenifer Ringer recently appeared on The Today Show and made some unsurprisingly diplomatic comments about Alastair Macaulay's now-infamous review of her opening-night Nutcracker (with Jared Angle). It was mentioned in The NY Times' arts blog section, and has generated the usual run of reader comments. Perhaps because I couldn't sleep, I tossed in my own two cents' worth. In case it doesn't make the cut, I'm pasting it here for posterity, after cleaning up some ugly sentences:

Regarding that opening-night Nutcracker, both Ringer and Angle appeared slightly above their best weight. It did affect their line, but not, in my own opinion, enough to merit mention in a review. They've both been heavier and lighter, and I had no doubts that after a few performances they'd fine. It was, after all, the first night of the season, and the day after Thanksgiving -- more than enough reason to cut any dancer some slack. At the end of City Ballet's fall season, Ringer looked about as fit as I'd ever seen her, and, not coincidentally, dancing at her strongest, and reminding us she's got fine technique and a more-than-respectable jump. I'd have liked to see Ringer start Nutcracker season as she'd finished fall, but she has a long record of getting better and better as a season progresses, and I had no doubts that after a very few performances she'd be exactly where she wanted to be. Also, for me, the charm and charisma of Ringer's Sugar Plum were of far greater interest.

She wasn't, however, pushing herself hard technically, and she slightly changed the choreography of her Sugar Plum solo, replacing the two trickiest pirouettes with much easier turns. She's not the only CIty Ballet ballerina to finesse that part of the solo, and back in the day Balanchine himself would often tweak his steps to favor individual dancers' strengths and weaknesses, so I didn't consider Ringer's modifications to be of great detriment to her role, but they were there, and they're the sort of thing one notices. I've seen Ringer nail those turns in the past, and I'm sure she will again in the future. Both technically and physically she wasn't in her finest shape, but she wasn't far off, either.

YouTube Ballet Video of the Day No. 2. Black Swan Trailer

Here we are, with YouTube Ballet Video of the Day, only a week or so after the first one. Way to go, Eric!

I'm a bit late to the party here, as this has been out for a few weeks, but it's hard not to come back to it, like watching a train wreck in slow motion, again and again and again....

Maybe I'll live to see a ballet movie that's not, on at least some levels, ridiculous, but this ain't it. For anyone who hasn't heard, Black Swan is Darren Aronofsky's latest, starring Natalie Portman as a star ballerina in a big-deal ballet company in New York City, and Mila Kunis as her scary young rival. As you'll see here, Kunis takes her fan-girl infatuation with Portman to whacky extremes, stalking Portman to her apartment where, apparently, they engage in some hot girl-on-girl making out, and maybe more. In the backstage scenes, there's some mirror-smashing and chewing of the cinderblock scenery backstage at Suny Purchase's dance theater (standing in for something grander, I'm sure). 

We're also treated to a ballet master who apparently wants Portman's fouettes to be sexier, and feels her up while rehearsing her in an adagio (is this the White Swan or Black Swan?). Now, I've seen some over-the-top demeanor in Swan Lake -- Michele Wiles in a particularly slutty White Swan (yes, White Swan), or Irina Dvorovenko in just about everything -- but usually the ballerinas figure it out on their own. I'd like to think a real-world AD wouldn't turn a rehearsal into a smarmy public grope-fest, but, nothing surprises me anymore.  No AD has ever used his dancers as a harem before, right? 

NYCB Fall Season Schedule on the Web!

As an attempt to actually plan my future, I've entered some upcoming NYC dance events in iCal. Among these are the performances of New York City Ballet's inaugural (or reanimated) Fall Season. As an added bonus, I'll be entering casting information as it becomes available.

I tried embedding the calendar in this entry, but it gets too squished when sized to fit this column. So, scroll down to the bottom of this page to witness it in all its glory.

Or, you can click here to see it in all its Apple-formatted glory.

For the more geekily inclined, you can use the following URL to subscribe to it in iCal, Gcal, or what have you. (The name of the calendar may require some cleaning up after you import it into Gcal.)

webcal://ical.me.com/erictaub/NYCB.ics

As I flesh out my modern and ballet calendars, I'll be putting them up here as well. I'm always open to suggestions about what companies and venues to add. Right now, I'm concentrating on the biggies: the major ballet companies, City Center, DTW, the Joyce, along with whatever else strikes my fancy. For the time being (and probably forever), I'll be sticking to performances in New York, that is, ones I might at least be remotely able to actually see.