The Ashley Bouder Performance
I'm making a separate post for this bc I know interest is so high.
So I came home from The Performance. First things first: Gil Bolden is absolutely amazing as a partner. I'm not sure the performance would have gone off as well as it did without him.
Ashley's celesta variation was maybe her weakest part. She seemed to have trouble with those pirouettes. Very tentative, only did a single instead of a double (or even triple like she used to do no problem). Even then, kinda biffed on the finish. Overall slow. Also a bit sad to see her jumps be so low to the ground. She had incredible elevation at her height. If you ever want to see how great her jumps once were, watch this video.
The grand pas? She fell off pointe in the first pique turn to arabesque penchee. Gil covered it up super well by grabbing her wrist and pulling her down so it looked smooth. Second one was fine. She lacks flexibility. Most of her arabesques did not really make it to 90 degrees. But after that one stumble, she was pretty much fine. I will say that she always was great at balancing, and during that Slide Ride, she started to do an arabesque penchee. Lots of applause. And her final promenade balance was great. It made me fondly remember how amazing her Aurora once was.
In the coda, her manege of pique turns was very small and pretty careful. She used to absolutely fly through those. Gil's coda was great too. He did do a huge manege of coupe jetes. Wendy obviously did not Evilly Tell the Audience Not to Applaud, because Ashley got huge applause throughout the show. During intermission I saw her husband with her family (seems her mom was there) in the promenade, all dressed up.
The artistic side? She said on IG that SPF was never "her thing" and I kind of agree. She lacks the upper body softness for the role. If you compare her to Mira or Emilie (whom I saw this season), there's just not enough sweetness and softness in her interpretation. Tiler is a "strong" SPF too but still has more of a rounded epaulement.
Ashley seemed really happy during curtain calls which is the most important. If she's happy for her performance, I'm happy for her.
Emily Kikta (Dewdrop) was a surprising disappointment. She seemed off the music, her fouettes in attitude traveled sideways, performance not up to her usual high standards.
Really enjoyed KJ in Candy Cane and India Bradley as Coffee.
I'm including a photo of Ashley in curtain calls.
