danceviewtimes

Young and Old

"Romeo and Juliet"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 9, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

ABT celebrated Frederic Franklin's 95th birthday by giving the audience another chance to see this consummate artist mime the Friar in Kenneth MacMillan's popular "Romeo and Juliet".  His entrance was greeted with warm and sustained applause, which he managed to acknowledge while keeping in character.  He made his every gesture a powerful plea for peace, and his appearance was a highlight of the second act, which can make the ballet seem as if it should be called "Romeo, ou les Harlots".
The young lovers were Cory Stearns and Hee Seo, making their New York debuts.  Both are very young (Stearns is a soloist and Seo in the corps) and very talented dancers.  Youth certainly helps to generate sympathy in the often overwrought and under-choreographed work, and there were many touching moments, especially in the final scene, when the lifeless Juliet is hauled around.  But young performers tend to dance the work, and since much of the choreography is of the "do a step and repeat three times" variety more experienced scenery chewers can act their way out of the many dead spots.

Shepherd's Delight

"Sylvia"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 29, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

With the emphasis on "today's audience" and the necessity of filling seats, ballets can sometimes seem to be a mirror, only capable of reflecting the audience's whims, and today's whims includes lots of males doing lots of jumps, or women as pretzel.  But art is also a magical telescope with the ability to look both forward and backward, to what might be possible and also to bring the past to life.  There is no astronomer through whose telescope I would rather view the past than Sir Frederick Ashton.  "Sylvia" is his twentieth century take on Tasso's pastoral paradise, where love can conquer all, reflected through the nineteenth century prism of Delibes' luscious score.  There are echoes of Ashton's beloved "Sleeping Beauty" in both the atmosphere and in the actual choreography.  Like Petipa's Prince, the hero, Aminta, is guided and protected by a benevolent supernatural power, and he doesn't really have to do anything but be his loving and noble self.  Evil exists, but is controllable; there is no feeling, as in the romantic  sensibility of ballets like "Swan Lake", "Giselle", or "La Sylphide" that the hero is out of his place, that he wants something unattainable, or that some irrational force is against him.  In Ashton's and Delibes' calm Attic world, love may be capricious but once it conquers, all is well.

Swan Song

"Swan Lake"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 27, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

In an ideal world, anyone producing a "Swan Lake" would sign an agreement stating: 1.  "Swan Lake" is a German fairy tale set in the Middle Ages; 2.  Petipa/Ivanov are better choreographers than anyone else; and 3.  Siegfried does not spend the first act auditioning for "Spartacus".  But we do not live in an ideal world, and have ABT's somewhat confused and overly hot version, which fortunately does keep the lovely second act and the Black Swan pas de deux more or less intact.  So for most of Nina Ananiashvili's actual dancing in her farewell performance, we saw "Swan Lake".  And what a swan she is, luminous, shy, regal, and fluid.  She was swannier in the lake side scene than many other dancers but never made those rippling arms into a party trick.  There was a spontaneity about her dancing, a pure, unmannered style that had not changed since she first appeared in New York with the Bolshoi all those years ago, and there were so many lovely moments.   I especially remember her quivering leg movements, as if her heart were beating through her dancing, saying perhaps, just perhaps this time she will be saved.  And her despairing arms in the last act, miming "I must die" were shattering. Her Siegfried, Angel Corella, was ardent and involved--he is the only dancer I have seen to actually appear to see the swans fly by during his fussy and lugubrious melancholy first act solo.  He has soared higher in the past, and jumped more cleanly, but there is an open-hearted charm in his dancing and a rare generosity of spirit that captures the audience.

Dancing on Air

"Airs", "La Sylphide"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 17, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

The imaginative pairing of Paul Taylor's celestial "Airs" and August Bournonville's magical "La Sylphide" makes for a very satisfying evening.  Of course, it is a lot to ask of a company to look completely comfortable in two different and distinctive styles, and no one would take ABT for either Paul Taylor dancers or Danes.  "Airs", though, had a serene and forthright glory, led by Simone Messmer as the odd girl out.  It was cast from corps and soloist ranks, including many who had made such an impression in the fall season's Taylor success "Company B".  Among these were Joseph Phillips, who danced the playful and flirty pas de deux with Kelley Boyd like an all-American faun.  Roddy Doble (who had been so exuberant in "Company B") coped well, though not quite effortlessly, with the difficult partnering.  Messmer, who had been such a magnificent Myrtha is last week's Giselleathon, combined weight with a glorious sense of movement, seeming to carve through the air, and create a separate space for herself; there is loneliness, even in Taylor's paradise.

Corps Values

"Dancers' Choice"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 14, 2009, evening

Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

The title of the Dancers' Emergency Fund Benefit had a somewhat confusing apostrophe, since there was only one dancer who made the choice, Jenifer Ringer, who served as the gracious hostess.  She explained that she wanted to give dancers, especially those in the corps, new opportunities, so there were a number of intriguing debuts.  The amount of work to put this together, to rehearse for a single performance, makes criticism seem churlish; in addition, few ballets were complete, so the overall impact was muted.  It was an evening to sit back, enjoy, and celebrate.

Back to Basics

"Giselle"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 8, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright ©  2009 by Mary Cargill

ABT's "Giselle" is their most traditional classical production; some might say "old-fashioned" but I say "timeless".  There are no extraneous interpretive layers between the simple, tragic story and the audience, no unnecessary updating or exposition--fortunately it hasn't seemed necessary to explain exactly how Albrecht met Giselle or why Myrta really hates men.  The opening night Giselle was Nina Ananiashvili, in one of her final performances.  She is physically not a typical, wispy Giselle, but her commitment, imagination, and artistry triumphed.  Yes, she has jumped higher in the past, and held positions longer, but art is about illusion, and the audience was there to cheer a performance, not measure an athlete.  Her Giselle was gentle, loving, and lived only for her Albrecht.  Even the showy hops on point, which generally are interrupted by applause, were danced with such effortless conviction that the audience stayed silent.  Marcelo Gomes, her handsome Albrecht, used his natural generosity to portray a somewhat shallow but genuinely loving hero.  Albrecht is, I think, the most interesting of the classical male roles, because it is open to so many different interpretations.  Gomes wasn't a heartless flirt, just somewhat thoughtless.  He could laugh gently at Giselle's superstitious conviction that the daisy would tell the truth about him, and made it clear that to him the story of the wilis and Giselle's fear was ridiculous.  (That made his terror at finally seeing Myrta so much more real.)

Dancing Ahoy

"Le Corsaire"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 27, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

"Le Corsaire" made its ABT debut in 1998, along with another ballet in the continuing full-length sweepstakes, Ben Stevenson's long-forgotten "The Snowmaiden", a completely unmemorable stab at a fairy tale, remarkable only for its stunning sets and the limpid performance of Nina Ananiashvili.  "Le Corsaire", while its story is even less resonant than the poor Snowmaiden's, does have pockets of brilliant choreography, led, in one performance, by the ageless Ananiashvili, looking a young and almost as technically accomplished as she did all those years ago traipsing through Stevenson's choreography.  The long-after Petipa choreography, though, shows off so brilliantly the many possible facets of female dancing; unfortunately the men's steps, many added, apparently, to give ABT's brilliant stable reason to wander around in Petipa's female world, tend to be unmusical, repetitious, and distracting.   The original ballet was French, based very loosely on the Byron poem, and Petipa reworked it for the Maryinsky.  It involves a somewhat complicated set of Barbary pirates, Greek captives, and Turkish pashas and is spectacularly preposterous.  Basically, Medora, a Greek slave with a habit of being kidnapped, loves Conrad, a friendly pirate who trusts Bribanto, an unfriendly pirate, who tries to kill him and sell Medora back to the cowardly slave owner Lankendem, who sells nubile young women to the Pasha Seyd, who dreams of a beautiful garden populated by Medora and her equally kidnappable friend Gulnare, who are rescued by Conrad and his friendly slave Ali.  But there is some serious dancing going on, and it requires serious dancers.

Sylphs and Others

"Scotch Symphony", "Quasi Una Fantasia", "Concerto DSCH"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 22, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

Balanchine's "Scotch Symphony" is a somewhat haphazard take on "La Sylphide", and despite some true romantic choreography, it lacks emotional logic.  Why does the sylph, who has spent most of her time gesturing up to the sky, where she belongs, suddenly become earthbound and perfectly happy as a bravura classical dancer?  Why do the village boys, after dancing so willingly with the local sylphs, suddenly turn into heavies, separating our hero from his own sylph.  And why, after their ominous appearance separating the couple, do they literally throw the sylph at the person not called James?  There is no real exploration of the two different worlds which so intrigued the romantic period, just some wonderful, but unconnected choreography, which can be enjoyed on its own terms, but which leads me, at least, to wish I was watching the real thing.  This season saw a new set, designed by Karin von Aroldingen, which replaced the leafy glen with what looks like a particularly arid part of the Sahara, but, while it adds nothing to the atmosphere, doesn't get in the way of the dancing.

Spring Awakening

ABT Gala
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, NY
May 18, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

ABT began its traditional Spring season at the Met with a flourish, capped by the gracious speech of First Lady Michelle Obama, stressing her support for the arts.  She was greeted by a spontaneous standing ovation (and lots of flashing cameras which added to the occasion), and the buzz generated by her presence was infectious.  The gala program was crafted carefully, to give all the principals and then some a chance to be seen, and was made up primarily of coming attractions.  This meant that few dances were complete, so critical artistic judgment is really impossible, but the evening was a lot of fun, and fortunately the fouettes were  kept to a minimum.  The evening opened with new principal Veronika Part in the "Preghiera" from Balanchine's Mozartiana, which she danced as if it were a meditation on the Lilac Fairy, seeming to bless both the four young girls and the entire audience.  It didn't have the interior mystery of Farrell's version, but it was warm, lush and beautiful.

One for the Ages

"Concerto Barocco", "La Valse", "The Four Temperaments"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 9, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

The program, and indeed, possibly this season and several to come, was dominated by Janie Taylor's haunted and haunting performance as the doomed heroine in Balanchine's surrealistic "La Valse".  This was beyond dancing, almost beyond theater--the stage seemed to disappear as the audience itself was absorbed, with the other dancers on the stage, in watching, in awe and horror, this young girl's absolute willed self-destruction.  There was nothing sympathetic or soft about her performance, it was almost triumphant in its destructive power, in its display of a will so in control that it could preside over its own demise.  Though Taylor's unearthly pallor and her mass of golden hair help to create a creature not quite of this world, her performance was more than physical.  Every nuance, from the odd, almost mime with her partner, to the first fear that she felt when she realized that Death was going to seduce her, to her final fervent determined greed to experience all that life and death could give her, resonated in her every gesture.