Miami City Ballet brought the heat to City Center last night in a blazing performance that included Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements, La Valse, and Tharp’s In the Upper Room. First and foremost, Haglund must compliment the corps for its definitive sensational style with each member dancing as though the success of the whole evening hinged on her or his performance. Wow. And Wow, again.
Eddie is right. Symphony in Three Movements and La Valse do look great on the smaller City Center stage. In fact, they look significant. Kudos to all of the dancers for their flying exits into the wings with accelerating energy. After the first few minutes, Haglund hoped that there were plenty of doctors in the house.
When the curtain opened on Symphony, the absolutely gorgeous line of ladies in white was still as could be while simultaneously storing explosive energy that suddenly released into a Tier 1 caliber performance that made Haglund remember why Symphony in Three Movements was indeed a masterpiece. Thank you, Eddie, for putting the Master back into the masterpiece.
Haglund cannot remember the last time he saw La Valse, but he knows he never saw it as a drama piece. Stunning! Perfectly stunning.
In the Upper Room was at maximum force last night. A trip for the audience. New York knows this piece so well that it recognized when the unpredictable score was coming to an end and burst out in Yeahs! and applause. Standing and hollering. Haglund was on the edge of his seat during the final section and could not believe how the dancers’ energy increased exponentially at Mach 5. The little energizer Jeanette Delgado led a truly superlative performance of a piece for which New York holds some very high expectations. Yo!
Haglund didn’t plan to attend the second program, but now believes that he owes it to himself to see those pieces as set by one of the originators – something we long to see in this area.
What perfect timing for Miami City Ballet’s visit to Manhattan. Many who fell in love with and worshipped Edward Villella when he was on the New York stages decades ago are now reaching retirement age and moving to Florida. No doubt, this week will rekindle a few romances.
Haglund is simply at a loss for appropriate shoes to award such a spectacular performance, but he thinks this Pump Bump Award says it all:
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