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“Filling Station, “7 for Eight”, “Diamonds”
San Francisco Ballet, Program One
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco
January 29, 2008
by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2008 Rita Felciano
San Francisco Ballet opened its 75th anniversary season on a surprisingly low-keyed note. Beautiful, elegant performances and periodic moments of choreographic poetry not withstanding, none of the works inspired completely.
"Traditions"
"Square Dance", "Prodigal Son", "The Four Seasons"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
January 29, 2008
By Mary Cargill
Copyright 2008 by Mary Cargill
The marketing department has apparently decided there is more than one Tradition to be celebrated in the Balanchine and Robbins program, but the tradition of great choreography coherently danced is the most important tradition of all, and fortunately this program had that to offer. The inevitable tradition of dancers retiring was also, quietly, celebrated, as Nikolaj Hübbe gave his final performance in “Square Dance”, proving yet again that dancing is not just about bounding high and leaping energetically. There are many dancers, some in the corps, who can jump higher and land cleaner than Hübbe at this stage, but no one can run on to a stage and generate such excitement just by looking at his partner and offering her his hand.
“The Goldberg Variations,” “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Western Symphony”
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
January 26, 2008
by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel
Now that New York City Ballet has adopted theme programming, the naming of programs passeth all understanding. The ballets in the “Spirit of Discovery” program aren’t new; it’s a Robbins and Balanchine program. Next season we’ll be treated to “All German and some Tharp,” which gets points for accuracy if not felicity in phrasing. Still, in “Spirit of Discovery” there was something to discover; several dancers made debuts in their roles.
“La Bayadere”
Kirov Ballet of the Maryinsky Theater
Opera House, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 24 & 25, 2008
by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson
Is there a lack of resolution in the drama? Are there discrepancies of dance style? If so, the Kirov doesn’t seem to notice. The company is totally unapologetic about any oddities in its beloved, hybrid production of Marius Petipa’s opulent ballet, “La Bayadere”. Audiences agree - they adore it. Starting with passions in exotic India and ending almost impersonally in the realm of Platonic essences, the 3-act/5-scene structure of the work is so strong that the three hours spent in the theater slip by at a fast clip. Three centuries – the 19th, 20th and 21st – rub against each other in the dancing and acting. Musically, geographies collide as oriental melodies straddle occidental rhythms. One hot number, a blend of tom-tom drumming and high burlesque kicks, seems suspiciously Western Hemisphere. What a mixture this is and to ignite the seven Washington performances, the Kirov announced 5 auspicious casts.
"La Bayadere"
The Kirov Ballet of the Maryinsky Theatre
Opera House
The J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
January 21 and January 26 (matinee), 2008
by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2008 by Alexandra Tomalonis
The Kirov brought Marius Petipa's oldest extant ballet save one for its yearly visit last week. Unlike other Petipa works, "La Bayadere," created in 1877, still has much of its 19th century glories: processions, character dances and extended mime scenes. The story is complicated, but clearly told: a bayadere (temple dancer) lusted after by her High Priest, loves a handsome young warrior who becomes betrothed to the Rajah's daughter as a reward for killing a tiger. After much eavesdropping, skulking about, and vows of revenge, the daughter (Gamzatti) kills the bayadere (Nikiya) by concealing a poisonous snake in a basket of flowers given to Nikiya as a gift as she dances. Solor, the warrior, then dreams of being reunited with Nikiya in Paradise. Originally there was a last act in which Nikiya came as a guest to the wedding and toppled the temple, destroying all assembled, but that act disappeared in the Soviet era, and the ballet ends with the most exquisite display of classical dancing in the repertory: the Kingdom of the Shades scene, where 32 members of the corps de ballet dance the work's soul (love enduring after death) and shows the purity of one of the world's greatest ballet styles.
“Traditions”:
“Square Dance,” “Prodigal Son,” “The Four Seasons”
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
January 27, 2008
By Tom Phillips
Copyright 2008 by Tom Phillips
Daniel Ulbricht is a spectacular dancer, a world-class leaper and spinner newly promoted to principal after six years in New York City Ballet. The title role in Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” seems one he was destined to dance, and he burst out of the tent like a wild horse in his debut Sunday, as if determined to make his mark in a fabled role. He leaped so high in the opening scene – the grand pas de chats with clenched fists made famous by Edward Villella -- that some in the audience broke into applause. Since this is a character, not a bravura role, the plaudits seemed slightly out of place, and might have served as a warning that in this story, technique and talent need to be the servants and not the master.
“An American in Paris,” “Valse Triste,” “Oltremare,” “Russian Seasons”
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
January 23, 2008
by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel
Mauro Bigonzetti has now made three works for New York City Ballet. They haven’t become repertory staples, nor should they. “Oltremare,” the newest piece that made its debut on Wednesday, has a great deal in common with “In Vento,” his prior work, especially in that both pieces are far more satisfying to dance than to watch. The dancers get to be onstage making superhuman exertions and feeling as if they’re outdoing themselves. We’re trapped in our seats being bludgeoned.
“Le Tombeau de Couperin,” “Tarantella,” “Bugaku,” “La Sonnambula”
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
January 17, 2008
January 19, 2008 matinée
by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel
Visit France, Japan and Italy without ever leaving your seat! New York City Ballet appealed to the armchair traveler contingent of ballet-goers with “Balanchine’s World,” a varied program of four of his far-flung works from the exotic to the serene.
“Le Tombeau de Couperin” was created for the 1975 Ravel Festival; its subject is the corps de ballet. The current cast at NYCB (it was the same both performances) is mixed with more senior and junior corps dancers. All of the women have danced with the company half a decade or more. Among the men, company stalwarts Henry Seth and Kyle Froman danced with several younger men; the long legged newer crop includes Daniel Applebaum, Allen Peiffer and Austin Laurent. Troy Schumacher and Vincent Paradiso, both getting some featured parts recently, are shorter and more muscular. Block programming seems to have led to more efficient casting. At least in this program many of the corps dancers performed in the other ballets as well, a few in all three.
Tehreema Mitha Dance Company
Foyer, Harman Hall
Washington, DC
January 16, 2008
by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson
Are angularity and edge Tehreema Mitha’s personal traits or do they belong to a new variant of India’s ancient dance form, Bharatanatyam? To tell dance from dancer in this instance is impossible since Mitha invented both herself as a performer and the so-called Pakistan style that she now teaches to others. The cushioned plasticity and sensual elasticity of the traditional Indian school have been replaced by urgency and a charged interplay of tensions. Mitha used this sharp approach both in dances with a classical step vocabulary and those with freer movement sources.
Franklin Talks
American Ballet Theatre--
An Evening with Frederic Franklin
Works & Process
Peter B. Lewis Theater
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York NY
January 14, 2008
by David Vaughan
copyright 2008 by David Vaughan
As anyone knows who has ever spent any time with him, for Frederic Franklin to talk for a mere evening is nothing. Leslie Norton, the author of the recent biography of him and one of the panelists on this occasion, said that the first time she went to see him, he talked for eight hours. Franklin seems to remember every step of every ballet he ever danced in, and not only his own part but everyone else's, which has enabled him to stage 19th century classics and ballets from the repertory of 20th century Russian ballet companies, but he also apparently has total recall of his own career, from his early days in vaudeville and at the Casino de Paris (as one of the back-up chorus boys for Josephine Baker and Mistinguett), through cabaret in London and the first Markova-Dolin Ballet to Massine's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and on to the various companies for which he has been director or co-director. At the age of 93 (and a half, as he put it), he shows no sign of slowing down, whether as a régisseur or as a performer of character parts such as Friar Laurence in "Romeo and Juliet" or the Charlatan in "Petrouchka."
