Balanchine Tudor Tharp ABT

“Ballo Della Regina,” “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deaux,” “Jardin aux Lilas,” “Brief Fling”
American Ballet Theatre
City Center, New York
November 1, 2008

By Tom Phillips
Copyright 2008 by Tom Phillips

It comes as a mixed blessing that American Ballet Theatre will be expanding its Balanchine repertory for next spring’s season – planning revivals of “Prodigal Son” and Mozartiana,” and even an all-Balanchine-Tchaikovsky program. It’s a good thing that America’s national ballet company is more fully acknowledging America’s greatest choreographer. The only problem is that Balanchine has never been, is not, and may never be fully compatible with the company’s style. That’s been my observation for many years, and was reinforced by ABT’s performance of “Ballo Della Regina” and “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux” at Saturday’s matinee.

“Ballo” was staged by Merrill Ashley, who inspired and defined the piece for Balanchine and New York City Ballet. It is one dance that absolutely cannot be danced in anything but the Balanchine style, which stresses movement over form, kineticism over sculpture. Its allegro passages are classical movement accelerated to the point where to stop for more than a nanosecond is to fall behind, and that’s exactly what happened to the otherwise lovely Yuriko Kajiya in the Ashley role. Hers is the classical approach of movement phrased toward a destination, and her climactic poses were delicate and graceful, except that striking them impeded the rush of energy that pushes this piece into a new, neo-classic dimension. The same was even more true in the corps, which looked stiff and sluggish throughout. Missing is the constant bend and ripple through the torso that signifies drive, desire, risk. A couple of the demi-solos showed promise: Nicole Graniero flew lightly through the second, and Simone Messmer was expansive but unhurried through the third. Eric Tamm, substituting for Herman Cornejo as the lone male soloist, landed softly but lacked the overdrive that brings this breakneck business to life.

The same observations held for “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux,” where even the elegant David Hallberg and Michele Wiles often looked hurried and off-balance, as if baffled by the shortage of time to set things up before doing them.

Why do such excellent dancers look uncomfortable with great choreography? The answer was evident from the next piece on the bill, Tudor’s “Lilac Garden,” in a totally opposite style of which ABT is the world’s master. This is a narrative piece told in gestures and tableaux, movements etched and held in space and enlivened by dramatic acting. The story itself is threadbare – a non-comic edition of “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” two women each winding up with the wrong guy, amidst foliage. But Julie Kent as Caroline and Kristi Boone as her rival wrung every ounce of pathos out of their characters’ plights.

The psychologically significant gesture is Tudor’s signature and ABT’s stock in trade, but it has no place in Balanchine’s abstract vocabulary. It may be too much to ask for one company to master two conflicting modern styles in addition to the classics, but that’s what ABT must set out to do if it really wants to make Balanchine a major part of its repertory. I know of only one company that comes close to doing it all, and they’re from Miami.

The program concluded with Twyla Tharp’s faux Scottish “Brief Fling,” which proved deeply unfit to follow the masters, with tinny recorded music, vulgar fashions -- tartan tights for the girls, and kilts under bare chests with tattoos for the boys -- and choreography that said, without a trace of Scots reserve, “hey, look at me!” No thanks. Full disclosure: I left before it ended.

Copyright 2008 by Tom Phillips