"Clear," “Meadow,'” "Ballo della Regina"
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
October 25, 2007
by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2007 by Leigh Witchel
Tall and long-legged, Michele Wiles is similar physically to Merrill Ashley, but the resemblance ends there. Ashley taught Wiles her signature role in “Ballo della Regina,” newly set on American Ballet Theatre and crowded onto City Center’s stage Thursday night. Ashley was a tall, Amazonian dancer who could blister the floor from her speed. Wiles, who made her debut at this performance, is a calm, stable dancer with extraordinary balance. None of those virtues assist her in a role that requires speed and brilliant footwork; her performance was low-wattage. By the end of the ballet she had reached the energy level she needed to start with.
“Ballo,” a quintessential opening ballet inexplicably programmed as the finale, doesn’t look bad at ABT, it still had the high spirits that makes it a joy to watch no matter who dances it. Much of Balanchine’s canon had to transfer from City Center to the larger State Theater stage; this made the opposite journey. The stage constrained the movement; entrances and exits were tentative from traffic. “Ballo” didn’t look particularly Balanchinean because of the corps’ softer attack. The ABT dancers don’t accent their footwork; Wiles hit the accents like a student who memorized her exam perfectly, but she didn’t dance them. Also making his debut as her consort, Maxim Beloserkovsky was hampered by nervous fumbles both alone and when partnering. The four female soloists were all fluid, Melissa Thomas was lovely in the first variation, but isn’t there a jumper among them? Even Hee Seo in the third variation, the one that’s all jumps, didn’t have better than average elevation. What this setting lacked most was wit; Ashley hadn’t figured out how to turn Wiles’ technical ability into wit, as Balanchine had done for her. The choreography still sparkled, but the dancers didn't.
If choreography is the act of putting one step after another, then Stanton Welch is a choreographer. “Clear” is a mediocre and inoffensive ballet, except if you happen to like the Bach that Welch wastes, or appreciate choreography with more purpose to it than aerobics. Welch substitutes tics for steps; the whole ballet is studded with twee head waggling and inscrutable arm posturing. Welch also isn’t musical; he can count the music when he isn’t jamming seven movements into four counts, but misses the architecture of the musical composition.
The ballet of seven men and an inconsequential woman (but danced with class by Paloma Herrera) couldn’t possibly be put over without world-class male dancers; fortunately ABT can and did provide them. Jose Manuel Carreño did a series of fouetté turns changing facings that any Kitri would have envied; Blaine Hoven as one of the dancers in a male duet showed off a technique as clean as spring water, as did Arron Scott in a short variation. Concentrating on the dancers seems the best strategy for watching “Clear.” That, or Ritalin.
Contemplating the spiritual realm and viewed through a scrim with its dancers flowing and receding in a tide of organic shapes, Lar Lubovitch’s “Meadow” is a touch sleepy but it uses its dancers gratefully. The vocabulary accommodates the dancers without being antithetical to their training. Marcelo Gomes and Julie Kent performed a boneless pas de deux; the kind that’s Kent’s specialty. Gomes partnered her loyally until the final moment she left him to float away into the ether, seemingly unaided.
copyright © 2007 by Leigh Witchel
