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Paging Miss de Mille

"Dances Concertantes", "Estancia", Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 29, 2010

by Mary Cargill
Copyright © by Mary Cargill

Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet "Estancia" is based on an old score and its original story.  The flavorful music, by Alberto Ginastera, was commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein for Balanchine in 1941 when America Ballet Caravan was visiting Argentina , but, since the company was disbanded, Balanchine passed up the opportunity.  It is hard to imagine what he would have made of the story of a city boy visiting a ranch on the Pampas, falling for a local girl and finally getting her once he had tamed a wild horse.  This is de Mille territory but Wheeldon saddled up to it.  As part of the Architecture of Dance, it has scenery by Santiago Calatrava, quite lovely scenery, but the lush palms in the background don't square with the detailed synopsis' description of the Pampas as desolate grasslands.

Next Generation on Stage

"2010 Student Showcase"
San Francisco Ballet School
Novellus Theater
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
May 26, 2010

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2010

Scheduling school performances at the end of a ballet season serves as a reminder of what it takes to produce the first-rate work we expect from professional dancers. Perhaps that's why the class parades at San Francisco Ballet's annual showcase--mercifully kept short--have a special place in my heart. Watching the frozen smiles, the careful tendus and stiff port de bras speaks of the effort and knowledge that the body has not yet fully absorbed. The youngsters know what they are striving for though much of their dancing still happens inside the head. So this is a time when A for effort is appropriate.

Back to Bach - and Weidman

“Branches,” “Fugue”
The Weidman/Bach Project, A Live Music for Dance Initiative
Baryshnikov Arts Center
New York, NY
May 18, 2010

By Christopher Atamian
Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Atamian

What makes a choreographer great?  An innate sense of rhythm, an authentic feel for movement and an understanding of the key role played by music, among other things.  Thanks to the Weidman/Bach project audience members were given a rare glimpse of choreographic genius with two rarely performed works by Charles Weidman – “Fugue” and “Branches.” 

Comp Lit at the Ballet

""Lady of the Camellias"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 26, 2010

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©Carol Pardo

The story of the Lady of the Camellias, the consumptive courtesan Marguerite Gautier, and her lover Armand Duval, has attracted everyone from Greta Garbo to Antony Tudor, from Giuseppe Verdi to Frederick Ashton. Even Alexandre Dumas revisited to his novel, based on an affair in his youth, turning it into a (much more successful) play.

Signposts

"The 4 Temperaments", "Pacific", "Push Comes to Shove", & "Cor Perdut" or "Romeo and Juliet Duo"
The Washington Ballet
Harman Hall
Washington, DC
May 20 &23 matinee, 2010

by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson

Putting works by name choreographers on the same bill is how Septime Webre, Washington Ballet's director, has closed his company's season three years running. He called this program "Genius 3". That Balanchine's "The Four Temperaments" is as ingenious and satisfying a ballet as can be found in the modern repertory is something with which few would disagree. Its counsel concerns our  predetermination and choice. The music is Hindemith - not only hummable Hindemith, as someone sitting nearby proved by joining in, but also tapable notwithstanding the dissonances. The dancers' rendition of the choreography, staged by Sandra Jennings, had bite on May 20. It was a strong cast throughout with Elizabeth Gaither and Zachary Hackstock, Morgann Frederick and Corey Landolt, and Laura Urgelles and Tamas Krizsa as the three Themes. The four Variations or Temperaments were Jonathan Jordan as Melancholic, Maki Onuki with Brooklyn Mack as Sanguinic, Jared Nelson as Phlegmatic, and Sona Kharatian as Choleric. That the Temperaments differ means distinct timings and diverse movement textures. Melancholic's light longings suited Jordan particularly well. His dancing was big and full bodied. Kharatian's Choleric was commanding, even though her gargouillading could have been sharper. Amanda Cobb gave this stir jump a bit of flash at the May 23 matinee, but she didn't let herself relax an instant in the Choleric role. This made the ballet's closing the opposite of its opening which Dustin Shane, as First Theme with Diana Albrecht, had turned mellow - perhaps because it was early on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Bite gradually returned to the proceedings with, on this occasion, Kharatian and Dylan Ward as the Second Theme, Landolt partnering Frederick as Sanguinic, and Brooklyn Mack as Phlegmatic. Balanchine's choreography for "4 Ts" is innovative classicism, whereas Mark Morris for "Pacific" and Nacho Duato for "Cor Perdut" step outside the main tradition. 

An Anniversary at ABT

"La Bayadère"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 19, 2010

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©Carol Pardo

Poetry and melodrama share the bill in Natalia Markarova’s production of "La Bayadère ." Poetry came first with premiere of the Kingdom of the Shades scene in 1974. Plot and melodrama followed six years later as the ballet expanded to fill a full evening. Thirty years on, "La Bayadère" is, with "Giselle," one of the only ABT versions of full-length story ballets derived from Petipa which, though wheeled out with numbing frequency to fill the four thousand seats at the Met every spring, has not yet worn out its welcome. Over the years, it has given countless dancers a chance to shine, here, Veronika Part as Nikiya and, in his company debut as Solor, Roberto Bolle. But injury intervened and Marcelo Gomes replaced him.

Unrelated Solos

"Unrelated Solos"
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Steve Paxton, David Neumann
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
May 21, 2010
by Tom Phillips

Copyright 2010 by Tom Phillips

It doesn't seem accidental that the Baryshnikov Arts Center is located neither downtown nor uptown, but in the ugliest part of midtown Manhattan, on West 37th Street in Hell's Kitchen. In this dreary setting, sandwiched between the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the Lincoln Tunnel, BAC is also halfway between Lincoln Center and Greenwich Village, and thereby able to reject both the ritzy romanticism of the former and the anti-establishment establishment of the latter. Instead it is going for the real thing in dance -- stripping away the layers of posturing and illusion to reveal the human body in motion. And nobody does it better than Baryshnikov himself.

Nothing New Under the Sun

"The Four Temperaments," "Outlier," "Cortège Hongrois"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 15, 2010

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©Carol Pardo

“I usually start with a really heavy concept.” That quote, from Wayne McGregor, founder of Wayne McGregor Random Dance and resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet, is pretty far from the ethos of the New York City Ballet where music is the wellspring of movement. McGregor also favors media as décor; sometimes the most forceful partner in a Gesamtkunstwerk. He has a predilection for isolating the movements of body parts well beyond the accent of a flexed foot. Finally, his training firmly anchored in modern dance. Put it all together and we're pretty far from the familiar in the house that Balanchine built. That may be exactly why the New York City Ballet commissioned “Outlier” from him for the “Architecture of Dance New Choreography and Music Festival.”

Philadelphia Story

“Square Dance,” “Afternoon of a Faun,” “Requiem for a Rose,” “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated”
Pennsylvania Ballet
Merriam Theater
Philadelphia, PA
May 9, 2010

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2010 by Leigh Witchel

Pennsylvania Ballet offered a solid, well-programmed mixed bill with some pleasant surprises.

“Square Dance” was the only long-term repertory item.  The company’s been doing it since 1982; this version was staged by Sandra Jennings.  The Merriam is the company’s secondary stage (the larger Academy of Music, a mid 19th century architectural gem next door to the Merriam, is the main theater). “Square Dance” looked cramped on the Merriam stage. Curved sections seemed flattened and linear as if moved from three to two-dimensional perspective.

The Royal Ballet of Flanders' 40th anniversary season

by Marc Haegeman
copyright 2010 by Marc Haegeman

The Royal Ballet of Flanders celebrated its 40th anniversary this season. Within the local cultural state of affairs this is nothing short of a miraculous event which has to be welcomed with as much relief as joy. For Belgium’s only academically trained professional ballet company, these four decades have been neither easy nor obvious and more often than not healthy artistic aspirations were overshadowed by a chronic lack of funds. And they still are. The arrival of Australian Kathryn Bennetts as artistic director in 2005 resulted in a change in approach. Serious efforts to upscale production standards and profile did definitely contribute to put the company on the map – if, perversely, perhaps with more success abroad than locally. One of the main issues, however, remains the development of a repertory. In dropping everything anterior to 2005 Bennetts bravely made this responsibility totally hers. Yet the current season wasn’t in any way different from the preceding ones, in that it didn’t give us any real indication where the company is heading to and in what way it is going to survive the next 10 years. While solid productions of "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake" were recently acquired, the emphasis lies clearly on performing the beloved Forsythe – to compare this season Flanders will have danced 12 performances of "Artifact" and 12 of "Impressing the Czar" against 8 of the new "Swan Lake" – and the newly added pieces don’t always inspire the same amount of confidence for the future.