"Haieff Divertimento", "Afternoon of a Faun", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Duo, "Apollo"
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 3, 2010
by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson
Like good students dutifully doing homework in the campus library, Suzanne Farrell's dancers went through the motions of four exemplary pieces of 20th Century choreography. Above their heads one could almost see a sign requiring silence - at least on this opening night of the Farrell company's 5-day home season. Even the music, conducted by Emil de Cou, sounded muted. This isn't what one expects from Farrell, who became one of George Balanchine's most exciting dancers and also worked with the theatrically savvy Jerome Robbins and the extravagant Maurice Bejart!
For "Apollo", choreographer Balanchine and composer Stravinsky interwove Olympian awe and Delphic irony. Although this staging was the full version with the birth-scene and the final ascent of the stairs, the ballet emerged only in outline. Michael Cook's young god was too polite. More an attentive partner to his three muses, he wasn't their leader. During their solos he stared straight at them, not through them with the blind yet omniscient gaze of a Greek statue. It is the latter which conveys the difference between mortals and the gods. Nor did Cook's dancing grow enough from l'enfant terrible to other worldly. Among the muses, it must have been Natalia Magnicaballi's efficiency as Terpsichore that Apollo favored. Kendra Mitchell's Calliope and Violeta Angelova's Polyhymnia weren't as assured.
Cook and Magnicaballi were also the pair of dancers in a rehearsal studio for Robbins's "Afternoon of a Faun". He tackled the start of the "faun" role with sensual intelligence, dispatching the self-gratification of the initial stretches and bends somewhat hastily, habitually - which seems a right choice. Then, though, did he and she really bond? Her relaxation in his arms seemed just a little delayed, and he wasn't tempted to linger when stroking the length of her. Such tiny matters of timing, though, count in this delicate ballet. As a result, this particular faun-nymph encounter passed pleasantly but did not engrave itself into the memory.
The program's other duet, although an excerpt - the Act 2 adagio from Balanchine's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - left images that linger. Its dancing is stately and sculptural. The woman stretches, bends, leans and straightens repeatedly but with variation. She does it for a long duration while being supported and handled by the man. He is supposed to be the perfect partner and hasn't a single self-assertive action. All he does is give assistance, although it is with elegant restraint. The only sign of her gratitude to him is the utter confidence she shows relying on his help. Angelova, as the female dancer, had sweep with classical finish much of the time and despite a stiff costume that made her hips look wide. Momchil Mladenov displayed great decorum. Still, this "Midsummer" duo could have been danced on a more magnified scale.
"Haieff Divertimento" used to be fairly popular but hasn't been seen in a long while. Farrell's reconstruction reminds me of what I used to like and dislike about this 1947 Balanchine ballet. Its romantic pretext always seemed too pat. On stage are four couples plus one loner. Of course, he does not remain alone. The principal girl enters a little late and he gets her. Soon it seems as if their pairing, like that of the others, will lead to steady bliss. However, at the ballet's finish she disappears abruptly.
The dancing I remembered was lightly neoclassical. In this reconstruction there are some modern moves too - tense moments in the principal couple's port de bras and for her a thrust arabesque arising from a couple of forward rondes de jambe. These look awkward amidst the bouncy flow of most of the movement. I don't remember anything sticking out obviously.
Formally, as well as with steps, Balanchine seemed to be having fun: there's a lively and substantial men's section and the female chain precedes the principal female's solo.
For this reconstruction, Holly Hynes's costumes have turned "Haieff Divertimento" into a tinted ballet. It used to be black and white. Alexei Haieff' s music, though, could have used more color, pulse, and volume from the conductor. As the initially and ultimately single man, Kirk Henning had a little lost boy air. Elisabeth Holowchuk, his temporary partner, was sleek and fleet but matter of fact about being so elusive.
