ABT - Fall Season Opener 10/21

It would be easy to go overboard with the analysis of ABT’s Gala performance. We’ll do a little of that. But first let’s summarize at the top by saying that while the evening had its merits, the overall impression was one of a company struggling to breathe. When Kevin McKenzie appeared before the curtain to give a brief speech, he struggled to convey enthusiasm. He even struggled to make his thanks to supporters sound sincere and not simply desperate and obligatory.

The program – Mark Morris’ After You, Frederick Ashton’s Monotones I and II, and Twyla Tharp’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations – were all danced well but with little impact. The redeeming feature of this collection of work was its high level of musicality – unforced musicality in the first two pieces while somewhat forced in the last.

After You, a new commission from Morris to lovely music composed by Johan Nepomuk Hummel in 1829, was a surprisingly seriously-crafted effort. Throughout, Morris showed a fondness for the use of trios - which is actually a well-known Ashton characteristic, e.g., Monotones – and a tremendous respect for the shape of classical port de bras – also a huge aspect of Monotones. Morris frequently had his dancers deeply bend to the side with arms in fifth en haut (over the head) in a manner quite similar to Ashton’s dancers in Monotones. Did it look like Morris was copying or quoting? No, it looked like a shared language being spoken, perhaps with a different accent, but nevertheless, a shared language.

The dancers in After You, men and women alike, were draped in loose jumpsuits in vivid shades of orange and pink designed by Isaac Mizrahi. They didn’t look exactly like his ready-to-wear line, but clearly were influenced by it. The gentle gathering at the waistlines gave them a hint of Victorian era styling which connected nicely to the 1829 music and to some of the concepts of manners and politeness within the choreography which was overall quite tidy.

Twelve dancers of equal billing – with Stella Abrera and Gillian Murphy being slightly more equal – danced ebulliently in mostly trios but also pairs, quartets, and ensemble. Dancers’ phrases would come to an end by feeding into other dancers’ phrases with shared texts – also a characteristic of the Tharp piece which closed the evening. Throughout After You, dancers marched off or on to the stage (Hummel’s music is known as “Military”) and cavorted in basic ballet terminology without resorting to extremes. It was an example of doing more with less.

Calvin Royal and Sterling Baca were the main partners to Stella and Gillian. The other members of the cast included Lily Wisdom, Skylar Brandt Catherine Hurlin, Devon Teuscher, Joo Won Ahn, Jeffrey Cirio, Craig Salstein, and Arron Scott. Jeffrey Cirio, ABT’s newest imported soloist, had a featured solo. He’s a competent technician, barely tall enough to partner Skylar Brandt. The reason for his hire remains a question mark - like so many before him.

An overall impression of this new Morris piece is that it could eventually function like Balanchine’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. It would be a nice piece to turn over to the corps de ballet.

Monotones I and II will settle into the repertory after a couple of performances. Monotones I with Stella Abrera, Isabella Boylston and Joseph Gorak was the more ready of the two this evening. While Isabella’s arms and hands were under control, the rest of her did not match the tight classical line in the adagio of the other two dancers. As the more earth-connected trio in green unitards and caps, the Monotones I cast was more floor-bound than the celestial-connected trio of Monotones II (Veronika Part, Cory Stearns, and Thomas Forster in white unitards) which saw lovely, lengthy Veronika frequently elevated. Both parts of this ballet are equally lovely to watch but leave the viewer wanting more, like maybe a Monotones III that involves all six dancers.

The evening concluded with Tharp’s complicated response to Brahms’ response to Haydn. Things looked a little messy in places. (Twyla is on tour.) Standouts were Gillian Murphy, Christine Shevchenko, Joseph Gorak, Sarah Lane, Sean Stewart, Luciana Paris, and Blaine Hoven. Why in the world McKenzie cast Maria Kochetkova instead of Luciana Paris opposite Herman Cornejo is a real headscratcher. Luciana and Herman have danced a lot together outside of ABT, and she was marvelous tonight - a real Tharpster. There are some people who just “take” to the Tharp style, like Luciana, Blaine, and Sean Stewart and then there are others who don’t, like Daniil Simkin and Roman Zhurbin. This isn’t a ballet that a company can put together in a couple of weeks. Even though its style is loose and kinetic, it becomes quite apparent when people are  unsure what they are supposed to be doing.

The HH Pump Bump, which covers the spectrum of Mizrahi's costumes, is bestowed upon Mark Morris who surprised us with his serious effort in After You:

Comments

[melponeme_k]

I thought Monotones was miscast. Boylston should not have been in this, she ruined the line of Abrera and Gorak. Sadly, Veronika Part was too tall a girl for II. I go by the gold standard examples of Elizabeth Parkinson from the Joffrey that was filmed years ago and Marianela Nunez just recently. Those folding turns in the beginning are quick, and Part was just too big to maneuver.

[Annie H.]

I like seeing Veronika even when she is miscast, but my overriding impression of Boylston has always been that she cannot fit into an ensemble. As a demisoloist, she was continually out of sync with her fellow dancers. I honestly used to wonder if it was a bid for attention!

Haglund, I know exactly what you mean about Tharpsters. I feel like I need to go back over my old programs to pick out more of them. Stiefel and Radetsky spring to mind. Murphy and Herrera. Paris and Kajiya. Kristi Boone. Whatever happened to her?

[Haglund]

Hi, Annie H.

Kristi moved down south with her husband, Isaac Stappas. She had a baby a year or two ago.

She was a fab Tharp dancer as was Laura Hildago, a current principal at Queensland Ballet. Hildago along with Maria Riccetto, Nicole Graniero, and Yuriko Kajiya were some of the best red-footed bombers in In the Upper Room - ever! Stella is a tremendous Tharpster. Beloserkovsky and Corella got it, too. One of my most favorite memories in In the Upper Room was when the tall, blond, gangly Hallberg and the short, dark, muscular Cornejo came flying like bullets down the diagonal together doing the exact same steps in perfect unison. No one has ever seen it since and probably never will again.

[Liza]

Well, I had the misfortune of seeing Copeland, Simkin, Kochetkova in Monotones I: painful and boring. They were, all three of them, wobbly and messy. I wanted to stand up, clap my hands together briskly, and call a time-out and a do-over for these three.

In Monotones II, Veronika looked like a goddess: long, elegant lines and fully embodying the music. My husband sat up and asked, "Who is THAT?" while we both later confessed to having dozed off during Monotones I.

WHAT is going on with casting??

[Haglund]

It is so interesting that the NYT dance critics failed to report on the second cast of Monotones even though Macaulay tried hard to make it seem that the ballet was the most important part of the season. It's as though they stop themselves from writing anything that might be contrary to the paper's established and ongoing narrative about Copeland: "Never let absence of skill get in the way of purchased celebrity." And also the paper's desire for ABT to continue to load up with imports and guest artists becomes fragile in the wake of a lousy performance. What a joke it all is.