Actually “Barber Violin Concerto” has a very disturbing moment when the male partner swings a wild punch at his partner and narrowly misses her because she ducks just in time. The audience always gasps and it leaves an unsavory aftertaste. Get rid of it too I say.
15
Why not bring in Suzanne Farrell.. That's what Mr. Balanchine would have wanted.
17
While Suzanne Farrell is a great, if not the greatest, stager/keeper of Balanchine's ballets in the best spirit of his, I'm not sure at this point she would be a person to bring in at this point. I think, imho, that the company needs to look further forward and afield, in the direction of, say, a Crystal Pite type of choreographer. I must admit, I still love watching old youtube videos of Suzanne, she was amazing and I'm glad I got to see her at City.
4
I agree with most of the comments that Martins' ballets were never that good anyway and should be retired from the repertoire for that reason. Seems ballet fans have known about his lack of choreographic skills for a long time. Overall NYCB would have been much better off without Martins some time ago for both patrons and donors.
15
Most of Martins's ballets HAVE been more or less retired from the repertoire in that they are rarely done. Aside from the story ballets, the only ones done with any regularity are the three mentioned in this story.
I think the story ballets are awful, but this is what tourists, group purchasers of tickets, etc. want to see -- story ballets, no matter how poorly choreographed or staged.
I was at a wonderful City Ballet performance, a mixed bill, a couple of years ago which included Balanchine's fabulous "Walpurgisnacht" w/Sara Mearns as the lead. I believe the NYT principal dance critic has written that Sara Mearns in this work is the greatest performance by any dancer in the world today. Nonetheless, two Brazilian tourists sitting next to me kept asking me when "the ballet" would begin. They thought this was some sort of hors d'oeuvre preceding a fairy tale story ballet, didn't seem to pay much attention to it and certainly didn't seem to appreciate Ms Mearns.
6
elliency, right you are, especially about the consistency of the many decades about the popularity of story ballets (in fact ABT has capitalized on that market -- and I still do love a good Swan Lake). Story ballets definitely pay off at the box office. Perhaps someone who knows better can answer if the City Ballet board & Martins continued the vast outreach and education as so to build an educated base of future patrons that Balanchine & Kirstein did. Working with the Ford Foundation and others, B&K did infiltrate into the American public mind set (yes, they had to esp. in the beginning) and helped to create a growing popularity that imho Martins' and the board had the advantage -- but didn't grow! There's no reason not to combine programs with story ballets, Mr. B ballets, and also while making ballets anew. Wish I knew more about the outreach and education efforts of City Ballet after B&K.
3
I get the impression a lot of City Ballet's current "outreach" is directed at a younger crowd -- esp. "hipsters". They have special performances -- now called "Art Series" -- where all tickets are $30, most works done are new non-Balanchine choreography, & after the performance there is a big party with dancing & music.
One thing they have done that I think discourages people who go on their own & not for the parties, is doing "dynamic" pricing -- i.e., whatever market will bear, with ticket prices fluctuating based on demand. Further, they don't open up the 3rd & 4th ring for sales until the 2d ring is sold out, then they charge 2d ring prices for 3rd and 4th ring seats. So ticket prices are not fixed & someone on a budget cannot go in at the last minute and get a decent 4th ring seat for say $35. By the time the 4th ring opens up, tix likely range from $60 to $100, with decent seats being at the higher end of that range. I know they were performing to a lot of empty seats, but this policy really does make it difficult for people without a lot of $ who don't buy months in advance and/or subscribe. Unfortunately NYCB doesn't announce casting until 2 weeks before performance, which dates back to Balanchine era, so someone without $ who decides at last minute wants to see, say, a debut by a young dancer like Indiana Woodward or Unity Phelan or Miriam Miller or Clare Kretschmar, is out of luck. Balanchine took great pride in "popular prices" charged for 4th rin in his day.
7
I agree about the quality of Martins ballets. Every time I've seen one, my main reaction is 'Balanchine sure was a genius'.
19
I have no qualms about keeping the Peter Martins ballets in the repertoire. (Nor do I have any qualms about seeing Miramax movies, or looking at Balthus). The reason the Martin ballets should gradually leave the repertoire is that almost all of them are terrible.
40
Fortunately, this will ultimately be quite simple, since Martins has never been a very strong choreographer - there are far better and deeper versions of Romeo & Juliet in existence than his. His earliest works, when Balanchine could still give some advice and support, including his first (Calcium Light Night, originally a solo for concert performances and then a duet when introduced at City Ballet) and a few others are of some value but, really, that is all (and not Barber Violin Concerto, which degrades modern dance). Time will march on and NYCB will have better versions of full-length ballets if they want, which were never their strength or mandate in the first place!
24
I saw Calcium Light Night in it's premiere year and I clearly remember thinking "oh dear, this is not even close to a promising start." Maybe I'm harsh but I really can't think of anything of Martins' that I thought had a touch of elan (for lack of a better word) that other choreographers at that time had. It seemed the work in Europe was gaining more finesse, Pina comes to mind, and progression of the art form. Martins tried -- and failed. Thus so did the board of the company.
8
The issue to keep the entirety of Peter Martins' work in the repertoire of New York City Ballet should be a no brainer. He lost his privilege to have his ballets performed by some of the world's greatest dancers when he slammed Kelly Cass Boal up against the wall and put his hands around her neck. PERIOD, END OF STORY! I understand keeping his full lengths in place for now and perhaps keeping his better one act ballets. Eventually the company should replace these anemic inferior versions of the classic full lengths with a new choreographer's vision, hopefully, something better. The dancers benefit, everyone wins.
21
Thanks, Michael, for your ongoing coverage of this difficult year at Lincoln Center. A quick thought on framing. So many bad faith arguments about the #MeToo movement "going too far" use the language of historical erasure, along the lines of, "If [prominent artist] is accused of harassment, does that mean we have to pretend his work never existed?" (No, that is not what women who speak up about harassment are proposing.) This isn't your intention in the fourth paragraph, clearly, but the language of 'erasing' Martins' work or "editing him out of the company's history" sidelines what is actually at stake for those who called on him to step down.
Other thing: I could be totally wrong about this, but I'd be surprised if Martins ballets other than Swan Lake, Romeo, and Sleeping Beauty remained important to ticket sales. And I'd be surprised if high ticket sales for Swan Lake, Romeo, and Sleeping Beauty were attributable to Martins' choreography per se.
25
You're right in 2nd paragraph about his works. But, similar charges can be made and have in a different time, about Balanchine and Robbins regarding their behavior. So that is the conumdrum. Why one and not the others.
3
Because we’ve evolved.
13
The Martins versions of Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet and Sleeping Beauty were mediocre (at best) when they premiered and have not aged well at all. BORING!!! If you want to see and understand why those ballets are, and will remain, classics, go across the plaza and watch them performed by ABT, where these ballets tell beautiful, timeless and universally-understood stories and are performed with clean movements, sensuality and compelling passion. ABT's versions merge with their Tschaikovsky's and Prokofiev's scores. Martins' versions are almost antagonistic to those scores, with clunky, rushed, clumsy and jarring movements. What City Ballet does supremely well is the ballets from the Balanchine and Robbins era and those who were subsequently trained in their modern tradition. Martins never joined those ranks.
7