"After You", "Le Spectre de la Rose", "Valse Fantaisie," "The Green Table"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 23, 2015
by Carol Pardo
copyright ©2015 by Carol Pardo
This program followed a tantalizing arc from the courtesy of Mark Morris’ new work "After You" to otherworldly "Le Spectre de la Rose" and "Valse Fantaisie," to end--all too familiarly--in this world with "The Green Table" where courtesy, not even mask deep, is only a pretext for war.
Death is the central character in Kurt Jooss' "The Green Table" and a wonderful role for a male dancer. Roman Zhurbin was sinuous and insinuating, at his best when he appeared compressed like a tomb slab, only to slyly, suddenly arrive at his full height. But in his first performance, he lacked force and stature and his stomping rhythm which should stay in the mind like a ticking bomb, needs more sharpness and volume. This time out, the character who compelled attention was The Young Girl as danced by Skylar Brandt. Having seen the man she loves go off to war, she spent the rest of the performance looking for love in all the wrong places. She even reaches out, with a long and pliant torso, to a client in a brothel, and settles into the arms of death as into those of a lover, perhaps relieved that the search is over. As Death, Daniil Simkin as The Profiteer also chose to convey the sinuousness of his character, but without any sense that he's wound tight like a spring, and, like any bird of prey always on the lookout for the main chance. Instead, he exaggerated the looseness of his thin limbs and the reach of his white gloved hands; Mickey Mouse came to mind.
Although it quotes Alphonse and Gaston, "After You" is imbued with the bon ton of its score by Mozart’s pupil Johann Nepomuk Hummel, the speed of New York life and the fleetness children playing tag in dew soaked grass. The stage picture is in a constant state of flux; even the adagio movement is never fixed. That sense of spending a summer at play is reinforced by the changing colors of the cyclorama: teal, to Kelly green, to warm pink while the dancers are outfitted in shades of pink or orange or saffron yellow, no two alike. "After You" is warm and charming, a pleasant and attractive way to spend half an hour, but, once the curtain comes down, it evaporates like confetti after a wedding. Only a couple of deep bends with grand open arms, executed by Gillian Murphy, provided a moment to breathe and a sense of weight (as well as a reminder of the power of invincible technique).
Both "Le Spectre de la Rose" and "Valse Fantaisie" (the version originally choreo- graphed in by Balanchine in 1967 rather than 1953) are short ballets long on atmosphere, and full of jumps, that human attempt to defy gravity, though the former has a plot while the latter takes its cues solely from its score by Mikhail Glinka. One is drenched in attar of rose while the other permeated by the scent of lilacs at dusk. This performance of "Spectre" belonged to Herman Cornejo, not just because he held an arabesque on one leg for what seemed forever, and without a wobble, but because we saw the dream of the young girl just returned from, and dreaming of, her first ball through him. His arms, Oriental like something out of Ruth St. Dennis, enticed Sarah Lane to dance; his beat expressed the exaltation of being swept up in the dance and the dream. So it was surprising that he almost broke the spell twice: by jumping beyond the edge of the set at one point, then by executing his final jump with both knees bent, like Puck in Ashton’s "The Dream", muddying one of the most famous exits in ballet.
Like "After All", "Valse Fantaise", a company premiere, looks beautiful. 
The costumes, by Larae Theige Hascall, blend green, white and dark blue and the contrasting textures of velvet and tulle, brightly lit. Though the ballet is minor Balanchine, it can be magical. But it has been turned into a rather flat little display piece, no lilacs, no aroma, just hothouse blooms, danced as if just presenting the steps were all that was needed. Even if that were the case, Hee Seo and James Whiteside were overwhelmed by the speed of those steps.
Photograph credits from top to bottom:
Scene from “The Green Table”. Photo: Marty Sohl.
Herman Cornejo in “Le Spectre de la Rose”. Photo: Marty Sohl
Calvin Royal III, Stella Abrera and Arron Scott in “After You”. Photo: Rosalie O'Connor
Herman Cornejo in “Le Spectre de la Rose”. Photo: Marty Sohl
Hee Seo and James Whiteside in “Valse Fantaisie”. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo: Marty Sohl.