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Where's the Ballet?

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet: "Red Sweet" (Jorma Elo/Vivaldi, Heinrich Igniaz Biber)
Tulsa Ballet: "Por Vos Muero" (Nacho Duato/Old Spanish Music)
The Joffrey Ballet:  "Age of Innocence" (Edwaard Liang/Philip Glass and Thomas Newman)
Ballet Across America, Program III
J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
June 18, 2010

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2010 by Alexandra Tomalonis


The three days of Ballet Across America gave us a chance to see what nine very different companies were dancing in 2010, and the answer seems to be: not much ballet. This has been an issue for some years now. Some artistic directors and choreographers used to say, "But we are doing ballet!" That didn't work, so now one is more likely to hear that ballet is of a former time and this is the dance of our time (nice try) or "It doesn't matter what it's called as long it's good," which could be a point if the works were actually good. But the fact remains that people expect to see what they buy a ticket to see, and, just as when one goes to a modern dance festival or Hip Hop Night one does not expect to see "Agon" or "Lilac Garden", when one goes to something called "ballet" one expects to see ballet. Friday night was mostly contemporary dance night at Ballet Across America, and, from what I overheard as I roamed around at intermission, I was not the only one baffled at how little ballet was on view. What's going on out there across America?

In the Black Box Darkly

Memphis's "In Dreams", Arizona's "Diversions", Pacific NorthWest's "3 Movements"
Ballet Across America II #2
Opera House, The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
June 17, 2010

by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson

Advice attributed to Balanchine is to close your eyes if you don't like the choreography and listen to the music. He was thinking of the sort of music he chose for his ballets - from classical through romantic to neoclassical or, on occasion, baroque and 19th Century ballroom plus, once, electronic. Much harder is closing your ears. Sometimes it can be done mentally and I tried during Ballet Memphis's rendition of Trey McIntyre's "In Dreams" to Roy Orbison and cronies' country rock.The sound just wouldn't let itself be shut out. These songs, unlike The Greasy Beans' bluegrass score on opening night, grated. McIntyre has an aim: he wants to be hip to what's happening now. That, though, is a vain and trite notion. He's best at squeezing sensuality out of duets but tends to be predictably slick in devising ensembles. The cast of three women - Stephanie Mei Hom, Julie Niekrasz, Jane Rehm - and two men - Jonathan Powell and Steven McMahon - was attractive and able. Why, though, did Memphis have to brandish pop entertainment? The company also has nuanced work in its repertory. Arizona's and Pacific Northwest's choices weren't as regionally stereotyped. Or was "In Dreams" the Kennedy Center's decision?   

Music Lessons

"La Source"
"Monumentum pro Gesualdo/ Movements for Piano and Orchestra"
"Luce Nascosta"
"Who Cares?"

New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center, New York
June 18, 2010

by Tom Phillips
copyright 2010 by Tom Phillips

It’s not enough to dance to the music, you need to dance with the music. That was the object lesson in Friday’s NYCB program – with a senior principal and young soloist showing the way. Both Jenifer Ringer, dancing to Gershwin in “Who Cares,” and Ana Sophia Scheller, dancing to Delibes in “La Source,” made the music their own, and added a dimension of play in the same way a good vocalist puts her own inimitable touch on a song.

Setless, Step-based and Bold

Houston's "Falling", Farrell's "Monumentum" & "Movements", North Carolina's "Shindig"
Ballet Across America II #1
Opera House, Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
June 15, 2010

by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson

 What ballet companies across America have in common was one of the questions asked during opening night's post-performance discussion with artistic directors. Assembled on stage were Houston Ballet's Stanton Welch (an Australian), North Carolina Dance Theatre's Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux (French) and Patricia McBride, and Suzanne Farrell of her own company. Kim Kokich (Kasimir K's daughter, Alexandra Danilova's godchild, and a critic and former dancer) was the moderator. Apart from Bonnefoux's reference to American energy, the four panelists pretty much stressed differences among their companies, particularly regional differences. It struck me that not one of the four ballets on the program had a set or props to demarcate "place". One was aware instead, subtly or directly, of space. This awareness depended not only on the lighting design but, too, on steps. Much of the dancing was step-based, although George Balanchine's "Monumentum pro Gesualdo" and his "Movements for Piano and Orchestra" also showed other choreographic building blocks. All three companies performed boldly.  

Ballet Arizona's Balanchine Evening

"Divertimento No. 15", "Prodigal Son", "The Four Temperaments"
Ballet Arizona
Symphony Hall
Phoenix, Arizona
12 June 2010 (matinee and evening)

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2010 by Helene Kaplan

To see a program with the range and depth of "Divertimento No. 15", "Prodigal Son", and "Four Temperaments" in a single evening is a rarity; to see each piece performed in a way that emphasized its originality, yet was clearly part of a whole, is a rare privilege, and that is what was on view in Phoenix last weekend.

Graham and Politics

“American Document (2010),” “Chronicle (Excerpts)”
Martha Graham Dance Company, Political Dance Project
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
June 11, 2010

By Christopher Atamian
Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Atamian

Kudos to the Martha Graham Dance Company for having the chutzpah to present its daring “Political Dance Project.”  This venture pays homage to the spirit of the 1930’s when modern dance took on pressing issues of the time such as racism and the plight of the oppressed.  Martha Graham held deep political convictions—she notably refused to participate in an arts fair associated with the 1936 Berlin Olympics in protest over the Nazi regime.

Scrambled Eggs

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
June 14, 2010

by Mary Cargill
Copyright © 2010 by Mary Cargill

Few classical ballets have the impeccable documentation and performing tradition as this most glorious of Petipa's works.  The Royal Ballet based its version on notes smuggled out of Revolutionary Russia, and these notes are now available for anyone in the Harvard Library.  Petipa's impeccable architecture and magnificent musicality are there for the asking, as the monumental 1999 Kirov reconstruction showed.  But for some inexplicable reason, ABT chose to base its current version on the revised text that Konstantin Sergeev created in 1952, which chops up many of the patterns.  This is most obvious in the Prologue, which is now musically and choreographically muddied.  Watching this production is like being promised a Faberge Easter egg and being given with a box of stale peeps, an even more disappointing gift, since the real thing is there for the asking.

Home Grown

ABT Premieres
"The Brahms-Haydn Variations," "On the Dnieper," "Fancy Free"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
June 11, 2010

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2010 by Carol Pardo

Friday night was prince’s night off at American Ballet Theatre. No Siegfried, no Désiré, no Romeo or Solor, princes in all but name. A soldier, sailors and a whole slew of updated classicists (how can you be heroic when the woman swooning in your arms is doing the backstroke?) took over the stage in a program focused on works premiered by the company, dating from 1944 to last year.

Mixed Doubles

“After the Rain,” “Luce Nascosta,” “Who Cares?”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 10, 2010

by Kathleen O’Connell
copyright © 2010 by Kathleen O’Connell

 
“Luce Nascosta (Unseen Light), Mauro Bigonzetti’s fourth work for New York City Ballet, looks dramatic but isn’t drama. A lot goes on—furiously, and for a long time, too—but nothing ever happens. Lit by Mark Stanley in striking chiaroscuro, nine couples dressed in black engage in the kind of fraught, convoluted partnering that’s “dramatic” in the sense of looking like mortal peril, but is in reality only a simulation of drama. We see emblems—of what? dysfunction? cruelty? torment?—but not the arc of a human encounter. It’s all sound and fury, signifying nothing more than a reflexive, moody angst that’s the lazy sentimentality de nos jours. 

Goodbye, Sweet Prince

"Serenade", "Who Cares?", "Chaconne"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 13, 2010

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2010 by Mary Cargill

Philip Neal gave his farewell performance at NYCB Sunday afternoon to an appreciative audience, who applauded his every entrance.  These entrances, like his career, were understated, elegant, and devoted to the art.  He had originally been scheduled to perform what looked like a tag-team arrangement of Balanchine's boisterous "Who Cares?", but the final program saw him in "Serenade" and finally in "Chaconne"; this was apparently his choice for his final appearance, and that elegiac and courtly work was a fine summation of his virtues.  "Serenade" centers on its women, and Neal made his first entrance unobtrusively in the back, focused on Jenifer Ringer as his waltz partner; I expect I was not the only one with tears in my eyes at the sight of such loving generosity.  "Serenade" was magnificently performed by all its dancers, including Ringer as the watlz girl, Megan Fairchild in the Russian variation, and Sara Mearns as the so-called Dark Angel.  Ringer brought a wonderful range of emotions to her role, without over-dramatizing the feeling of loss.  Fairchild, too, was very expressive, going from explosive jumps to the mysterious sadness of the sisterhood, gently offering her hand in that beautiful vignette of comfort and sorrow.  Mearns used her pliant back and power to haunting effect.