Above photo: Lauren Lovette and Gonzalo Garcia, Sleeping Beauty, February 16, 2017 Look forward to New York City Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty next week. The company usually performs a full-length production over Valentine’s Day and, thankfully, it is avoiding the dreadful Peter Martin’s Romeo+Juliet. Martin’s Sleeping Beauty is a much better production that is fairly standard. NYCB is thin in the male principal ranks after the retirement of Joaquin De Luz and firing of three dancers last year because of the sex photo scandal. As a result, there will be three debuts in the role of Prince Désiré: Joseph Gordon, Anthony Huxley, Russell Janzen, with one debut in Princess Aurora: Indiana Woodward. It will be interesting to see if the men can rise to the occasion and take advantage of the opportunity. Here is the lineup of Princess Aurora, Prince Désiré, Lilac Fairy, Carabosse (asterisk represents debuts in the role):
Wednesday, February 13: Hyltin, Janzen*, Reichlen, Kowroski
Thursday, February 14: Peck, T. Angle, Laracey, Mearns
Friday, February 15: Bouder, Garcia, King*, Reichlen
Saturday, February 16 Matinée: Lovette, Gordon*, M. Miller, Anderson
Saturday, February 16 Evening: Hyltin, Janzen, Reichlen, Kowroski
Sunday, February 17 Matinée: Peck, T. Angle, Laracey, Mearns
Sunday, February 17 Evening: Bouder, Garcia, King, Reichlen
Tuesday, February 19: Lovette, Gordon, M. Miller, Anderson
Wednesday, February 20: Hyltin, Janzen, Reichlen, Kowroski
Thursday, February 21: Woodward*, Huxley*, LeCrone*, Smith
Friday, February 22: Peck, T. Angle, Laracey, Mearns
Saturday, February 23 Matinée: Bouder, Garcia, King, Reichlen
Saturday Evening, February 23: Lovette, Gordon, M. Miller, Anderson
Sunday Matinée, February 24: Woodward, Huxley, LeCrone, Smith
Lausanne Ballet Competition Finals Saturday
The prestigious Prix de Lausanne ballet competition finals take place Saturday at 8:30 am EST. Lausanne live streams the competition, allowing fans to witness the competition’s daily activities, selections, and finals. Lausanne provides a great service to the ballet world, allowing fans to see stars of the future and give a behind the scenes perspective of the competition. Videos of the previous days are on the Lausanne YouTube channel.
The competition is a big event that has a great influence on determining dancers you will see onstage in the future. From the first competition in 1973, past winners are a Who’s Who in the ballet world: Alessandra Ferri 1980; Viviana Durante 1984; Philip Neal 1985; Julie Kent 1986; Darcey Bussell 1986; Ethan Stiefel 1989; Carlos Acosta 1990; Christopher Wheeldon 1991; Diana Vishneva 1994; Benjamin Mellipied 1994; Gillian Murphy 1995 (Gillian is a judge this year); Marcelo Gomes 1996; Alina Cojucaro 1997; Sergei Pollunin 2006; Vadim Montagirov 2006.
Dancers range in age from 14-19. Prizes consist of one year’s tuition and 20,000 Swiss Francs (about $21,500) for living expenses at top schools chosen by the winner. For winners over the age of 17, Apprentice scholarships are available to such programs as ABT’s Studio Company, Australian Ballet, English National Ballet, Het Nationnale Ballet-Junior Company, Royal Danish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet. As noted on the Lausanne website, the Prix is not just a competition, but a week where candidates work in daily classes and coaching sessions with leading figures in the dance world.