"Don Quixote"
Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky, Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones
American Ballet Theatre
Opera House
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
Thursday, 31 March 2022
by George Jackson
copyright 2022 by George Jackson
It was fun, this production of a 19th-Century Russian ballet. Not sophisticated humor but shrewd slapstick. Danill Simkin blazed as the barber Basillo so that people in the audience asked whether it wasn't Baryshnikov. No, it was Simkin indeed in the barber boy role. As his love Kitri, Isabella Boylston was pliant and crystal clear. Devon Teuscher had two parts, not a good idea because it confuse the viewers. Teuscher had verve as the street dancer and dignity as dryad queen. As the cupid figure, Amour, Lea Fleytoux was filligree to the utmost. This ballet's abundance of pantomime parts were a reminder that movements can express character, passages of bravoura dancing by soloists and corps kept proceedings lively.
The music by Ludwig Minkus hasn't the nuance ofTchaikovsky's ballet scores but propels the story. Compared to this century's "whim" choreographies, the old "Don Q" provides satisfaction.
Isabella Boylston and Danil Simkin in American Ballet Theatre's production of "Don Quixote." Photo by Gene Schiavone.