A great talent says farewell

Julie Kent & José Manuel Carreño during his farewell at the Met

The New York Times
July 1, 2011
By ROSLYN SULCAS

A Crowd Favorite Takes His Leave

“The love for José Manuel Carreño poured across the Metropolitan Opera House stage in almost palpable waves as one by one, his fellow dancers, his colleagues and his daughters delivered bouquets of flowers at the end of his final New York performance on Thursday with American Ballet Theater, where he had been a principal since 1995.

There are few dancers as adored by both balletomanes and the general public as Mr. Carreño. Handsome, but not untouchably so; charming; infallibly courteous; a superb partner with a virile stage presence and a reliably plush, polished technique, he has been one of the standard-bearers of Ballet Theater’s reputation for brilliant male dancers.

His role of choice for his departure was Prince Siegfried in “Swan Lake.” That wasn’t taking the easy route; the part is full of the big jumps that are always the first technical casualty for male dancers as they get older. (Mr. Carreño is just 43, but that’s a lifetime of back strain from lifting ballerinas over his head.)

Mr. Carreño can still jump, although he no longer has the buoyancy he possessed years ago. His line is impeccable, his turns a thing of beauty: perfectly centered and upright as he spins, the unsupported leg outlining perfect geometric shapes. When he does execute a jump turn called “tour en l’air,” he lands with a luxurious bend in perfect fifth position, bang on the music.

Those details are a thrill for ballet nerds. More important, every step is permeated by an innate elegance and authority. You have no doubt, watching Mr. Carreño, that he is a star, although of the nicest, most un-divo-like kind.

On Thursday there were two dancers embodying the dual role of Odette-Odile. (Once customary, such casting is rare today.) Presumably this was Mr. Carreño’s choice — Julie Kent as the innocent Odette, Gillian Murphy as her evil alter ego, Odile — as was the guest appearance of the former Ballet Theater dancer Joaquin de Luz (now a New York City Ballet principal) as the prince’s friend Benno.

Oddly, the emotional rapport onstage that Mr. Carreño shared with Mr. de Luz (who danced with energy and panache) was far greater than what he had with Ms. Kent, a longtime partner who is celebrating her 25th anniversary with Ballet Theater this season. With her lyrical, elongated lines, Ms. Kent can look picture-perfect, but so mannered and grand ballerina was her performance, so languorous the tempo of music and dancing, that you could doze off between positions.

This didn’t help Mr. Carreño, who has never been a great actor, but things perked up considerably in Act III with the arrival of Ms. Murphy and of David Hallberg as the sorcerer von Rothbart. (Isaac Stappas played his nonhuman alter ego). Both Ms. Murphy and Mr. Hallberg put an over-the-top spin on their roles, neatly skirting the line between vulgarity and fun, as Mr. Hallberg seduced the Queen (Susan Jaffe, a former Odette-Odile of Mr. Carreño’s) and the princesses with callous magnetism and hilariously exaggerated timing.

Ms. Murphy and Mr. Carreño offered no less. For once that gala staple, the black swan pas de deux, was the showstopper it’s meant to be. In the coda Ms. Murphy offered quadruple and quintuple fouettés, and Mr. Carreño rose to the occasion with a bravura exhibition of his own that seemed as much an expression of excitement about finding his Swan Queen as it was a display of audience-pleasing feats.

This production of “Swan Lake,” by Ballet Theater’s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, so effectively ruins Act IV as to make the dancers quite inconsequential. It’s a pity that Mr. Carreño’s final exit here is to turn his back on the audience, run up a ramp (left! sharp right!) and throw himself into the lake in bad lighting, but so be it.

The audience members — who screamed, threw flowers, held up phones to record the moment and sobbed as Mr. Carreño, looking overwhelmed, opened his arms to us all — weren’t going to let him go so easily anyway.”

Personal comment: This is the performance I mentioned last year [in my entry for September 9, 2010] when I was talking about the dual role of Odette/Odile usually being danced by the same ballerina in productions of Swan Lake performed by major companies and smaller ones who have ballerinas up to the task. I wish I could have seen this perf as the combination of Murphy as Odile and Hallberg as von Rothbart not to mention the marvelous talent of José Manuel Carreño was an occasion not to be missed. Sigh!

ABT’s new Nutcracker: a review

Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg as Clara and her Nutcracker

The New York Times
December 24, 2010
A ‘Nutcracker’ Sprouts Alter Egos
By ALASTAIR MACAULAY

Once you’ve seen a number of different “Nutcrackers,” you might think you know all the main ways that the old ballet can be retold. But you don’t.

In Alexei Ratmansky’s new version of “The Nutcracker,” currently in its world premiere season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Ballet Theater has a production like no other. Made with complete theatrical authority from first to last, it shows many aspects of Mr. Ratmansky: satirist, storyteller, dramatist, poet. I’m impatient to see it again, but a large part of the delight it affords on first viewing lies in not knowing what’s going to happen.

This work (to which critics were first admitted on Thursday) isn’t a “Nutcracker” that leads us back to the original story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, though it takes a few unusual points from there. Instead its basic structure is that of numerous Russian “Nutcrackers” since the Stalinist era: little Clara (the Russians usually call her Masha) no sooner sees the Nutcracker, once he’s transformed into a Prince, than they fall in love-love-love and at once turn into adults. Never mind going to meet any Sugar Plum Fairy — instead they get to dance the music of her pas de deux themselves.

But Mr. Ratmansky takes that formula, tweaks it and makes it new. When his boy (transformed) and girl meet, they’re kindred spirits but from different worlds. They suddenly become doubled — they acquire mature alter egos, a twist that transforms the ballet’s sense of time and space. They’re like the hero and heroine of Philip Pullman’s superlative trilogy, “His Dark Materials” — young lovers from parallel universes.

At first it seems marvelous that we see the grown-ups they’ll become, but then Mr. Ratmansky takes us one step further and shows us how those adults still feel like the children they were. Their grand pas de deux is alternately formal and informal: they show the big, classically perfect dance shapes, arcs, gestures and steps that reveal their ideal qualities, but they also just can’t help expressing their own lesser-mortal amazement about this.

The main story is still focused on their younger selves. Mr. Ratmansky has animated the entire company. (I don’t enjoy a few supporting performances, but at every moment they’re precisely considered.) Yet amid several superb interpretations on Thursday, none surpassed those of the two central children. Young Catherine Hurlin’s partly angry, partly vulnerable, never picture-perfect Clara exemplifies the individuality of Mr. Ratmansky’s approach. Tyler Maloney as her Nutcracker Boy has the same courage and the same vulnerability. Mr. Ratmansky asks him to sustain one particular pose — arms open, face upturned, not facing the audience but on a diagonal — that suggests his mix of astonishment and gratitude, and it strikes home as something unusual in ballet, a private moment that is emotionally huge but not being sold to the public.

When these two children find themselves in the Land of Snow, it’s not a winter wonderland for them — it’s an adventure, now frightening, now freezing. The poetry of Mr. Ratmansky’s vision here is very striking: no Snowflakes were ever more ambiguous, and they have been given pouncing jumps, spinning arcs, and insistent gestures that make us feel we’re in the land of Hans Christian Andersen’s “Snow Queen.”

Later this young heroine and hero do meet a Sugar Plum Fairy — in this case, an exotically regal, nondancing one. It’s thanks to her presentation that suddenly they have another moment out of time and see their adult selves united in love and, finally, marriage.

As the older Clara and Nutcracker, Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg gave performances on Thursday that count immediately among the high-water marks of their already distinguished careers. Mr. Ratmansky has given them roles that wonderfully yoke their dual commitment to ballet classicism and to dramatic sincerity. There are spectacular throws and catches in the pas de deux, and yet acrobatics aren’t the point here; what you think about is the spontaneity of love’s first excitement.

Mr. Hallberg’s solo starts with a slow fall sideways that’s exactly what nobody expects to see in a ballet, but this quirky impetus becomes the humanizing force within the beautifully bobbing series of jumps that follow. Just as Ms. Murphy’s Clara finishes the main part of her solo (one of the blander passages of the work, admittedly), she goes right off into the wings, then sticks her head out as if sharing a joke with us. She pops straight back on and tears up the stage in a circuit of jumps and turns in which her own terrific academic clarity and fullness become charged with renewed rapture.

Mr. Hallberg starts the coda with a solo of extraordinarily shimmering delicacy, building up to a more conventional display of heroic jumps around the stage (danced with unconventional finesse). Yet not long after, within the very same number, both he and Ms. Murphy, amid a busy phrase, suddenly stand on flat feet and reel a little — as if unable to believe what’s happening to them. These dances keep saying both, “This is perfect,” and, “We can’t believe this is happening”; you feel how full their hearts are.

The production seizes your attention surely from its opening kitchen scene. True, I don’t care for the two synchronized dancing maids. (Here and in some other character dances, Léonide Massine’s choreography comes to mind, not for the first time when watching Mr. Ratmansky’s.) But the whole “Upstairs, Downstairs” layering of this household, funny and touching, is vividly, intimately introduced to us here — and there’s a memorable preview of the mice. Richard Hudson’s sets and costumes perfectly complement the choreography, giving us a partly caricatured Dickensian world that changes unexpectedly into the silver birches of a Russian winterscape.

The cartoon quality in those maids becomes more irksome when whole groups of children repeat the same gestures in unison. Then, as Mr. Ratmansky’s version proceeds, these notes of caricature become part of a pattern. The effect of this is to make Clara and the Nutcracker — like Alice in Wonderland — by far the most real and three-dimensional figures onstage. The parents and Drosselmeyer are all vivid, but these grown-ups are almost as not-quite-real as the mice and the Snowflakes and the Sweets.

That’s fine, moment by moment and dance by dance. There are various kinds of laughs to be had from the Arabian and Russian dances, as well as from Mother Ginger (whose skirts contain a real surprise). But we never sense that Clara and the Nutcracker have become visitors to a realm of purer, larger forms. Though Mr. Hudson’s Sweet Kingdom designs are bright, they have none of the poetic dimensions of his Snow Scene. Even the main point of the Waltz of the Flowers is primarily just fun — with busy, silly male bees pollinating happy, silly, jubilant female flowers — though arranged with absorbing complexity.

The entertainment level doesn’t flag. Missing, at any rate on a first view, is the all-embracing generosity of spirit that marks many good “Nutcrackers.” Instead — and it’s a beautiful paradox — the large moments of Mr. Ratmansky’s version are intimate ones.

This version will repay re-watching. Ormsby Wilkins and the American Ballet Theater Orchestra were at their very finest on Thursday, apparently loving — without rushing — the score’s rhythmic interplay and fantastic instrumentation.

Several alternate casts of dancers follow, probably bringing other nuances. I plan to see at least one more of them this year and hope that it won’t be long before I have the chance to see this exceptional first cast again.

Personal comment: I think he liked it! Merry Christmas everyone!

Jose Manuel Carreño to retire

Jose Manuel Carreño with Natalia Osipova in Don Quixote during ABT’s 2010 Spring Season


JOSE MANUEL CARREÑO TO RETIRE AS PRINCIPAL DANCER WITH AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

New York Farewell Scheduled for Thursday, June 30, 2011 at Metropolitan Opera House

Jose Manuel Carreño, a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre since 1995, will retire from the Company in August 2011 following performances on the Company’s tour to Asia. A New York farewell is scheduled for Thursday evening,

June 30, 2011 at the Metropolitan Opera House. The evening will be highlighted by a special performance of Swan Lake featuring Carreño in the role of Prince Siegfried dancing opposite Julie Kent as Odette and Gillian Murphy as Odile.

Jose Manuel Carreño was born in Cuba, where he received his training at the Provincial School of Ballet and the National Ballet School. He won the Gold Medal at the New York International Ballet Competition in 1987 and the Grand Prix at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi in 1990.

Carreño joined English National Ballet in 1990, where his repertoire included Solor in “The Kingdom of the Shades” from La Bayadère, the Prince in Cinderella, Franz in Coppélia, Albrecht in Giselle, the Prince in The Nutcracker, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and leading roles in A Stranger I Came, Études, Graduation Ball and Prince Igor. In 1993, he joined The Royal Ballet as a principal dancer where his repertoire included the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Basilio in Don Quixote, Oberon and Puck in The Dream and a leading role in Herman Schmerman.

Carreño joined American Ballet Theatre as a Principal Dancer in June 1995. His repertoire with the Company includes the title role in Apollo, the leading role in Ballet Imperial, Solor in La Bayadère, Franz in Coppélia, Conrad, Ali, the Slave, and Lankendem in Le Corsaire, Basilio in Don Quixote, the third sailor in Fancy Free, Albrecht in Giselle, Des Grieux in Manon, the Cavalier in The Nutcracker, the pas de deux Diana and Acteon, Grand Pas Classique, Other Dances, Sinatra Suite and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Sergei in On the Dnieper, the Man From the House Opposite in Pillar of Fire, the Warrior Chieftain in Polovtsian Dances, the Son in Prodigal Son, Jean de Brienne in Raymonda, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, the second movement in Symphony in C, the first and second variations in Variations for Four and leading roles in Push Comes to Shove, Theme and Variations, Without Words, Clear, Études, Overgrown Path, Petite Mort and Rabbit and Rogue. He created a leading role in Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison.

Carreño has appeared as a guest artist with companies throughout the world. Following his retirement from American Ballet Theatre, he plans to continue performing as a guest artist.


Personal Comment: In my September 3, 2010 post ‘Review of Black Swan’ Natalie Portman’s new ballet film due in U.S. theaters on December 1st, 2010 I wrote:

“Nina (Natalie Portman) being picked out of the corps to dance Odette/Odile is a huge stretch (but this is Hollywood) because the demands on stamina, technique and emotional range of the dual role are so great. In some companies the role is divided when a single dancer isn’t up to the demands of both, but doing that advertises both the limitations of the dancer and the lack of depth of talent in the company. In a major company that would never happen unless the ballerina in the role for that performance became injured”.

Well, if you have read this far you know there is another (rare) occasion when the twin roles of Odette/Odile may be divided between two Principal ballerinas; when a beloved male Principal is retiring and wants two of his favorite partners to dance with him during his final performance as a company member. Moreover, in this instance it emphasizes the depth of talent among ABT’s ballerinas Julie Kent being the personification of goodness while Gillian Murphy (in Gaynors) is the embodiment of a far darker spirit.

My wedding fantasy

Gillian Murphy and Maxim Beloserkovsky in Sylvia

ABT’s performance of Sylvia: We had a great time in NYC at the wedding and at my place on Virgin Gorda. In NYC we slipped away for a few hours to attend an ABT performance – at Lincoln Center - of ‘Sylvia’ the three act ballet by Frederick Ashton and it was marvelous! We had great seats row N starting on the aisle in the orchestra. Gillian Murphy (the auburn haired poster-girl for Gaynor-Minden) danced Sylvia and Maxim Beloserkovsky danced Aminta. Delibes music was beautiful and they were marvelous together! The performance was such a delight!

Sampling the Groom: The wedding went well. Everyone enjoyed Pirate’s gift, the sex for the wedding party. I hadn’t seriously intended to pursue a fantasy I had, but the opportunity arose as I was chatting the groom and one thing led to another. We were standing so close that as he rubbed against me I could tell he was really happy to see me! So, I’m pleased to say I was successful in having a quickie with him! It was only out of professional curiosity you understand - to see what sort of technique he would bring to the marriage bed. He is well hung and when aroused is about 7 or so inches long, but what I loved best was that he is at least 2” thick making him a really tight fit which was beneficial for us both! I was drippy wet by then being in the midst of a fantasy so we only used my natural lube. I had had his medical records hacked (just in case things got that far) to find out more about him and he had just had a complete physical, including a full panel of SDI tests, so I knew he was safe. He had no such assurance about my sexual health, but when I offered him a condom he said he never used them, but he did ask if I was protected and I said yes, but didn’t tell him what I was using. Fortunately the timing was right and I was CD27 and wearing an Oves cap so I was quite safe. Had it been two days later I would have been having my period and have been wearing a Milex diaphragm. There would have been no concern about pregnancy, but there is a certain amount of blood that coats a partner’s penis when a diaphragm is being worn to collect menstrual flow because the diaphragm moves around and the vaginal walls are coated with blood. So while there isn’t a huge mess a partner still has some blood coating his shaft when he withdraws.

Thinking back on our encounter I may have spoiled him for his bride. I certainly hope not, but I ripple-gripped him the third time he took me, when he began to falter and trying to please a man who has been ripple-gripped can be a hard act to follow. I hadn’t intended to ripple-grip him but we had so little time (about 30 minutes) alone and I wanted him to take me more than once. When he began to wilt while drilling me for the third time in 20 minutes I couldn’t let him drag things out and possibly fail to perform just ahead of his wedding night (What a psychological downer that would have been for him!) so I sucked the semen out of him with my vaginal muscles. All he could do was tighten his grip on my shoulders, quiver and gasp “Oh my God!” over and over with an occasional “Dear god, or an Oh shit, you have an amazing grip!” I love being able to surprise a new man with the strength of my pelvic muscles! He is a big well muscled man 6’4” and 230 lbs and my face was buried in his thick brown pelt of chest hair. I loved smelling the scent of his soap and sweat as he was crushing me in his arms! When I finished him off he collapsed on top of me gasping for breath and I had to struggle to roll him off me as he so large. Afterward, as he recovered, I Kegeled his load on to the sheets and then made up the soiled bed. He couldn’t walk for a few minutes and I thought surely someone would catch us because we were in the bedroom of the suite where the bar stock was being kept, but finally he got dressed and staggered out and I followed a few minutes later with no one else in the wedding party being the wiser.