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Love’s Labors Found

“Giselle”
Pacific Northwest Ballet
McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington
June 3, 2011
June 4, 2011 matinee and evening

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2011 by Leigh Witchel

How much does it matter whether a ballet is historically correct?  Less in some ways than is obvious, more in others than we realize. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s historically informed “Giselle” was a labor of love for company director Peter Boal and two dance researchers, Doug Fullington and Marian Smith, who sifted through historical material and created a performing edition for the stage.

The sources consulted spread out over six decades of the 19th century.  The earliest are two detailed manuscripts produced by ballet masters as aids to their own staging. Antoine Titus’ notes, translated by Smith, date from 1842, only a year after the ballet’s premiere. The notes of Henri Justamant date from the 1860s, but were found at a flea market in Germany less than a decade ago.

Ashton's "Romeo and Juliet" Revived

"Romeo and Juliet"
The Peter Schaufuss Ballet
Guests: Stephen Jefferies, Alban Lendorf, Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev
London Coliseum 11-17 July, 2011

by Judith Cruickshank
copyright 2011 by Judith Cruickshank
 
  First, honour to Peter Schaufuss for resurrected this lovely ballet, first by showing a pas de deux at a gala in 1973 and then spending long hours reconstructing the entire ballet from an amateur film.  He then had to persuade Frederick Ashton to give his permission for the ballet to be staged, not such an easy task as it might appear.  And after a good deal of pleading, Ashton said yes.

 

Bizet x 2

"Carmen Suite," "Symphony in C"
The Mariinsky Ballet
Lincoln Center Festival 2011
The Metropolitan Opera House
New York, New York
July 16, 2011 evening

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2011 by Carol Pardo　

Between Prosper Mérimée’s Carmen, one of the hottest heroines in ballet or any other art, and the cumulative power, from snowball to cannonball, of Balanchine’s "Symphony in C," the final program of the Mariinsky’s week-long engagement could—and should—have blown the roof off the Metropolitan Opera House. Instead, the company’s farewell to New York was unexpectedly subdued.

Out and About (Russian Ballerina Edition) 6/20-7/15/2011

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2011 by Leigh Witchel

• “Coppelia” American Ballet Theatre (Osipova/Simkin)
• “Anna Karenina” Mariinsky Ballet (Lopatkina/Smekalov)
• “Carmen,” “Symphony in C” Mariinsky Ballet (Vishneva/Smekalov, et al.)

Immersed

“Duets,” “Squaregame,” and “Inventions MinEvent”
Merce Cunningham Dance Company &
Merce Cunningham Repertory Understudy Group
Lincoln Center Festival Merce Fair
Frederick P. Rose Hall
New York, NY
July 16, 2011 (Afternoon session)

by Kathleen O’Connell
copyright © 2011 by Kathleen O’Connell

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Legacy Tour has done more than offer a last look at some of the great choreographer’s notable works before the troupe disbands at year end. It’s also making the case—especially through its revivals—that many of these works can and should be preserved in active repertory somewhere once Cunningham’s own company is gone. Not merely because the works are the products of genius, but because the average dance-goer, and not just adepts, might genuinely enjoy watching them. The three works performed as part of the Lincoln Center Festival’s Merce Fair—“Duets” (1980), “Squaregame” (1976), and “Inventions MinEvent”—weren’t just accessible, they seemed designed to help even a novice dance-goer see what all the fuss is about.

Forms of Flight

"Extraordinary Moves"
River-to-River Festival
World Financial Center Plaza
New York, NY
July 15, 2011

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2011 by Martha Sherman

A cascade of bodies fell from the sky as the River to River Festival bridged circus and dance against a brilliant summer sunset. STREB Extreme Action’s “Human Fountain,” the third act of “Extraordinary Moves” at the World Financial Center, offered the most dramatic, but not the only flight of the program. Joined by Australia’s Strange Fruit and juggler Michael Moschen, the STREB dancers combined risk and grace in what indeed were extraordinary moves.

Playing Horsey

"The Little Humpbacked Horse"
Mariinsky Ballet
Lincoln Center Festival 2011
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 12, 2011

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2011 by Mary Cargill

"The Little Humpbacked Horse", choreographed by  Arthur Saint-Léon to a score by Cesare Pugni in 1864 for the Mariinsky, was the first ballet based on a Russian theme.  Over the years, many hands have reworked it, and the current version has only the story to connect it with the original.  Pugni, et al. were replaced in 1960 by a Rodion Shchedrin score (written originally for Maya Plisetskaya) and the current version was choreographed in 2009 by Alexei Ratmansky.  The story, based on a fairy tale by Petr Yershov, is packed with incident, not all of it clear without studying the synopsis, but basically "once upon a time, there were three brothers, and the younger one was thought to be a fool...".  Well, the fool ends up with the Princess and the kingdom, with the help of a feather from one of the firebirds and a little magical horse (prone to turns a la second). 

The Mariinsky's Opening Night in New York

"Anna Karenina"
The Mariinsky Ballet
Lincoln Center Festival 2011
The Metropolitan Opera House
New York, New York
July 11, 2011

By Michael Popkin
Copyright 2011 by Michael Popkin 

More impressionistic dance drama than pure ballet, Alexei Ratmansky's "Anna Karenina" tells the story of Tolstoy's doomed heroine in a series of swiftly moving dramatic incidents, with video projections behind the action providing scenic changes and minimal but suggestive sets used in the actual performance space.  Act One dramatizes Anna and Vronsky's affair from their initial encounter to its physical consummation in about ten brief scenes that flow into each other and last no more than three to five minutes each.  Act Two takes the story at the same pace from Vronsky's fall at the racetrack through the couple's elopement to Venice, Anna's return to St. Petersburg and attempt to see her son, and finally her ostracism and suicide.

Broken China

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 9, 2011, Matinee

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2011 by Mary Cargill

"The Sleeping Beauty", the grandest of ballets, is the final program of ABT's summer season.  The much-maligned production has improved markedly since its 2007 premier, but it is still profoundly flawed.  The sets and most of the costumes tend to minimize the production; the sets by their general tackiness and boxiness, which limits on the dancing space, and the costumes by their garish colors and peculiar faux-medieval style.  The worst aspect, though, is the chopped-up choreography.  Most of the set-pieces are there--the Rose Adagio, most of the fairy variations and the final pas de deux, but the serene architecture of the prologue has disappeared, and the 1952 Soviet version has been substituted, with lots of ungainly lifts.  It is like watching a set of china being smashed--parts of the pattern are recognizable but the pieces don't fit together.

600 Rms Riv Vu

“The Sleeping Beauty”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 6, 2011

by Kathleen O’Connell
copyright © 2011 by Kathleen O’Connell

Alina Cojocaru could probably win your heart dancing Aurora in ratty practice clothes on a bare stage, but even she and Johan Kobborg—last minute substitutes for Natalia Osipova and an injured David Hallberg—can’t rescue ABT’s troubled production of “The Sleeping Beauty” from its various excesses and deficiencies. At least their lovingly danced and theatrically rich portrayals of Aurora and Prince Désiré on Wednesday evening did provide a balm for the show’s self-inflicted wounds.