Company A
"Theme and Variations", "Romeo and Juliet", "Time","Overgrown Path", "Don Quixote",
"Company B"
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
October 21, 2008
by Mary Cargill
copyright © Mary Cargill
ABT's gala was more substantial and more varied than the usual fouette fest, and two great and very different works sandwiched a group of generally interesting shorter pieces. "Theme and Variations", even with the somewhat kitchy costumes and black backdrop, remains one of Balanchine's jewels, an intricate and facinating synopsis of Petipa. Marcelo Gomes is the perfect prince, steady and generous, and he danced the difficult variation with ease, never going for big effects, but stringing the steps into a gorgeous flow; his dancing sang rather than shouted. His princess, Paloma Herrera, looked very good, with a much softer and rounded upper body than she has sometimes shown; her legs and feet are still second to none. Her dancing at times, though, was scrupulous rather than rapturous, and the magnificent pas de deux at times seemed like a demonstration, not a conversation.






