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What a terrific and exhilarating revival of Twyla Tharp’s Bach Partita last night with sensational violin soloist Charles Yang. Wow, can this young man ever lean his weight into Bach for a powerfully stirring sound!
Thirty-six dancers accelerated through Tharp's unique balletic traffic patterns, changing lanes without signaling, dropping down into the fast lane, driving on the shoulder, exiting and entering casually or fiercely – breaking and rewriting ballet's rules of the road. So many in the cast have been driving in Tharp’s traffic since they first got their licenses that there was a winsome ease and obvious joy about being behind the wheel again.
Gillian Murphy, Marcelo Gomes, and Stella Abrera deftly steered the ensemble in what is sure to be the highlight of this fall season. The patterns created by the dancers were so clearly classical but then nudged into the contemporary with an unexpected plié, alternate direction, flexed foot, quick change of weight, and for Stella Abrera, an amazing slow aerial somersault into the torso of her partner Calvin Royal. In general, there was a much less chaotic atmosphere than when ABT danced Tharp’s works in the 1970s and ‘80s, although Polina Semionova and James Whiteside struggled with obvious tension and awkwardness.
Since Tharp created Bach Partita in 1983 for a group of unparalleled ABT artists including Cynthia Gregory, Fernando Bujones, and Robert LaFosse, many choreographers have imitated her and attempted to shout over her with their noisy convoluted gymnography, but none has musically mastered the ballet-contemporary hybrid as well as Tharp. By the way, maybe one reason we haven’t seen this in the past twenty years at ABT is that Kevin McKenzie was snubbed for the original cast. While Bach Partita was said to have been a great challenge to re-set this year, one wonders why that was the case when nearly all of the original cast members are still available for guidance and reference.
Yuriko Kajiya, Luciana Paris, Devon Teuscher, Misty Copeland, Craig Salstein, Nicole Graniero, Skylar Brandt, and Adrienne Schulte “get” Tharp and last night delivered it with delightful authenticity. Maybe they, along with Murphy, Gomes, and Abrera, will inspire Twyla to create one more for the road. Oh, baby, come on, just one more tall one for the road. Set ‘em up, Joe . . .
The other two ballets on the bill last night were Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides and Mark Morris’s Gong. The first disappointed for its performance quality; the second disappointed for its content.
Les Sylphides is one of the most exquisite classical ballets on earth when it is performed with an adequate cast. Last night’s match up of Hee Seo with Thomas Forster looked utterly ridiculous. Forster, such a natural poet and a very tall dancer, had to repeatedly bend so far over to pick up the much shorter Seo – who clearly subscribes to the Julie Kent mantra of trying to be as heavy as possible – that it looked like he was moving a box in a warehouse. Forster’s solo, however, was very elegant. It’s so satisfying to see such a large, strong man who has the flexibility in his back to achieve a 90 degree arabesque. Hee Seo’s Prelude missed a lot of the points of stillness that contribute to the poetry and her bourrees were very pedestrian. There was no perfume, no innate beauty in her movement, and most disappointingly, no special musicality.
Isabella Boylston pushed through the Mazurka variation with all the grace of a football linebacker. Her classical dancing was homely and lacked elegance. So, why is McKenzie shoving this dancer of limited artistry down our throats in classical repertoire? Maybe months ago he assured Nikolaj Hubbe that he would send the Royal Danish Ballet a Principal-level dancer in that phony artist exchange deal trumped up to explain McKenzie’s continued importing of 2nd rate dancers as guest artists. So now he’s padding her resume with uncooked performances of classical works to make her appear classical enough to promote. It defies all honest artistic judgment to suggest that Simone Messmer was not classical enough to be a principal at ABT but Boylston is. And to see this dancer touted above the classical purists Stella Abrera, Sarah Lane, and Yuriko Kajiya and ushered past them to receive opportunities in which she fails miserably is to witness malfeasance by the steward of America’s national ballet company.
In last night’s performance of Les Sylphides, only Sarah Lane and the Corps de Ballet managed the lightness, imagination, and sylph-like grace expected in this ballet. Even then, there was too much pointe shoe noise on the stage. There shouldn’t be so much as a single clump on this stage. No other ballet company that dances on this stage makes a sound. There are no excuses.
As much as Haglund loved the dancers in Gong – especially Herman Cornejo – it was an irritation and a total waste of time. Isaac Mizrahi was in attendance to enjoy his costumes which looked like they were inspired by a box of Crayolas but were enhanced by Michael Chybowski’s creative lighting. Such total nonsense.
In the first two performances of ABT’s fall season, we have seen works by three MacArthur Fellowship winners. Only Tharp’s work seemed genius-like. And before anyone suggests it – No, we don’t want to see a block program entitled MacArthur’s Park (and Free Ride) that highlights the work in ABT’s repertoire by all five MacArthur winners: Tharp, Cunningham, Taylor, Morris, Ratmansky. But a new romping, stomping, fast moving Tharp ballet would be nice.
The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Gillian Murphy, Marcelo Gomes, and Stella Abrera, who can dance in anything (even in this winged double-soled platform beauty) and to Charles Yang for their life-affirming performances in Bach Partita.