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Company?

“Swan Lake”, “Monumentum & Movements”,
“Allegro Brillante”, “The Concert”
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
November 28, 2014
 
by George Jackson
© 2014 by George Jackson
 
Amazing that the dancers, performing together in front of an audience for only one weekend this season, could make each of the four or five ballets (depending on whether you count “M & M” as one or two pieces) look distinct. Crucial choreographic differences were clearly visible, even on opening night. What was achieved against all odds deserves the investment of more time together by artistic director Suzanne Farrell and her cast of 38 or so. As things stood, the men's group was an odd assortment of body statures and technical types. It should have shown more cohesion. Among the soloists, women and men, was there a single one who scattered enough stardust? Still, every ballet had value and “The Concert”, the comic last one, left the audience in high spirits. In the first ballet, “Swan Lake”, it was the prop swans, not the human ones, that gave the evening an awkward start.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet's Michael Cook and Natalia Magnicballi in George Balanchine's "Swan Lake." Photo by Rosalie O'Connor.

Hodworked

"Dawn"
Hodworks
Abrons Arts Center
New York, NY
November 23, 2014

by Tom Phillips
copyright 2014 by Tom Phillips

  

Hungarian choreo-grapher Adrienn Hod warns us in a program note that her works "do not compromise; they do not want to please." She achieves this by denying the audience much of what people find pleasing in dance -- graceful movement, melodic music, some kind of story or character development, costumes, sets, a comfy seat at a certain aesthetic distance. All are dispensed with in "Dawn." In the beginning, four dancers walk on before an on-stage audience, seated in a tight circle just a few feet from the performing space. The dancers take off their clothes, and square off in two male-female couples, then slowly start to grapple with each other.

Photo by KNI

Windmill Keeps on Turning

"Don Quixote"
Mikhailovsky Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
November 22, 2014, matinee

by Mary Cargill 
© 2014 by Mary Cargill

The Mikhailovsky Ballet's production of "Don Quixote" lists seven choreographers (Petipa and Gorsky, of course, but also Fyodor Lopukhov, Kasyan Goleyzovsky, Nina Anisimova, Igor Belsky and Robert Gerbek) plus one stager (Mikhail Messerer). It would probably take a dance archaeologist to sort out the different layers and figure out who actually did what, but the outline and choreography of this production is very similar to the one the Bolshoi brought last summer which only gave Petipa and Gorsky credit. Like the Bolshoi version, this one has a rather bewildering cast of characters, most of whom have almost nothing to do with the story.  

 

Photo of Marat Shemiunov as Don Quixote © Costas Cacaroucas

Royal Ballet Triple Bill

"Scenes de Ballet," "Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan,"
"Symphonic Variations," "A Month in the Country"
Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
The Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
London,  UK
18 October – 14 November 2014

by Judith Cruikshank
copyright 2014 by Judith Cruikshank

An evening of Ashton. You might imagine that this would be a regular occurrence at the Royal Opera House, but not so. The founder choreo-grapher seems to be more honoured in his absence than by frequent performances of his ballets.  So I'm happy to report that unlike most of the other programmes in the first part of the Royal Ballet season (the exception is Alice in Wonderland) there were no cut price offers or noticeable empty seats.

The evening offered three substantial ballets and one pièce d'occasion; “Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan”.  “Scenes de Ballet” is a lovely piece and said to be the choreographer's favourite.  It demands considerable precision from the corps de ballet, a quality somewhat lacking at both the  performances I saw.  I would however except both the male quartets who were bang on the nail.  

Photo:   Yasmine Naghdi, Vadim Muntagirov, Marianela Nunez and Yuhui Choe in "Symphonic Variations."

Timeline

"Le Halte de Cavalerie", "Class Concert", "Prelude"
Mikhailovsky Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
November 19, 2014

by Mary Cargill 
© 2014 by Mary Cargill

The Mikhailovsky's triple bill was a brief trip through its archives, featuring a one-act Petipa comedy, a 1960 Bolshoi classroom extravaganza and a 21st century piece by its former director Nacho Duato. The program was presented in chronological order, but unfortunately, the quality of the choreography was in descending order, though the dancing throughout was generally first rate. "Le Halte de Cavalerie" is late Petipa, from 1896.  Petipa's one-act works are not well-known in the west and his name is generally used as a synonym for over-long, crowd pleasing full-length works, but single act ballets were not invented by Diaghilev. The Mikhailovsky's version was set for them in 1975 by Pyotr Gusev, a famous Russian dancer who had studied at the pre-Revolutionary Maryinsky. (He was a classmate of Balanchine's.)  He would have seen the Petipa version, so this may be as close as we can get to the source.

Scene from "Le Halte de Cavalerie" © Sveta Tarlova

Shaman in the Theater

"Mago"
Dohee Lee
Forum and Grand Lobby
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
November 15, 2014

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano, 2014

Korean-born Dohee Lee's "Mago" is an ambitious, excellently realized work that straddles Dance Theater and performance as ritual. I am not sure where and if exactly the two concepts overlap except that I could fully enter the first but not the second. Lee calls herself a contemporary performer/shaman/healer, and with "Mago", an elaborate three-part installation piece, she addressed all of those identities. The care with which she put this ninety-minute work together leaves little doubt about her being an artist of considerable originality and accomplishment. But how far this "healing" practice can go seems less clear. Art and ritual can heal but isn't it the practice of them that makes them effective? Watching it roll by in front of you, even if you are comfortable entering the audience-participation invitations, seems more problematic. Additionally, doesn't ritual also arise out of a common culture — something less generalized than our basic humanity?

Dohee Lee in "Mago". Photo: Pak Han

And Paris Burned with Passion

“Flames of Paris”
Mikhailovsky Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
November 16, 2014 (matinee)

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2014 by Marianne Adams

How could you make Stalin’s favorite revolution-themed ballet a success in 2014? A faithful reconstruction would hardly seem like the right strategy, yet that is precisely what Mikhail Messerer, Mikhailovsky Ballet’s Ballet Master in Chief, did in staging his revival of Vasily Vaynonen’s classic “Flames of Paris.” The approach turned out to be worth the risk, earning the ballet two nominations for the prestigious Golden Mask Theatre Award in Russia in 2014 (for best choreographic work and best choreographer) and a standing ovation from the New York audience.

Photo of Ivan Vasiliev as Philippe and the cast of Mikhailovsky ballet Photo © by Costas Cacaroukas

Tableaux for a Revolution

"The Flames of Paris"
Mikhailovsky Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
November 15, 2014 (evening) 

by Carol Pardo
copyright ©2014 by Carol Pardo

Mikhail Messerer, ballet master of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, possesses that rare trait, a sense of history. Perhaps, given his family (son of Sulamith Messerer, nephew of Asaf Messerer, cousin of Maya Plisetskaya) this is inevitable. It is that sense of history that led him to use all the resources at his disposal to revive Vassily Vaynonen’s "The Flames of Paris," originally produced in 1932 to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. And therin, if you expect dance to take pride of place, lies the rub.

 

Photo © Costas

Tumultuously Fierce, Tumultuously Lyrical

"Shostakovich," "Rasa"
Alonzo King Lines Ballet
Lam Theater
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
November 14, 2012

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

Despite the fact that Alonzo Kong has put his stamp on dancers' bodies and what we used to think of as ballet for over two decades, he still manages to surprise us. The clarity of this double bill's intent and the surety with which he drew it out of his company made one grateful for King's ongoing explorations. Despite the fact that three members -- the elegantly articulate Madeline DeVries, a silken yet powerful Shuaib Elhassan and petite but also fiery Laura O'Malley -- are new, they already have become Alonzo dancers: fierce, generous and fearless. Add to them the two virtuosos, Babatunji and Jeffrey Van Sciver, as well as the young Adji Cissoko who joined last year, Lines is just about a new company. And they looked fabulous; everyone has an individual voice, everyone is part of a whole larger than they are alone. The first-rate music in this well-balance evening, of course, did its part.

Robb Beresford and Courtney Henry in "Shostakovich"
Photo © Quinn B. Wharton

A Season Takes Flight

“Swan Lake”
Boston Ballet
Boston Opera House
Boston, MA
October 30, 2014

by Dale Brauner
copyright © 2014 by Dale Brauner

After a six-year hiatus, “Swan Lake” is back at Boston Ballet, which began its 2014-15 season with a new production of the beloved P.I. Tchaikovsky ballet by Mikko Nissinen, the company's artistic director. Each time a new iteration of “Swan Lake” is introduced, we anticipate which way the stager will go. All this tinkering is not surprising, since the ballet has endured changes since its premiere in 1875, even in Tchaikovsky’s lifetime. The ballet as we know it took shape in 1895 when Marius Petipa with his assistant Lev Ivanov choreographed their version for the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. In Boston, Nissinen, who is credited with the choreography “after Petipa and Ivanov,” presents a rather traditional telling of the classic. He keeps Petipa’s four-act structure but has only one intermission, between the second and third acts. Even though there’s an effort to streamline, the evening still clocks close to three hours.