ABT over the weekend

Fokine's Le Spectre de la Rose and Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie, presented over the weekend by ABT, were made some 50 years apart to beautiful melodic music composed in the first half of the 19th Century. Both Weber’s Invitation to a Dance for Le Spectre and Glinka’s Valse Fantaisie in B minor for the Balanchine ballet were born as piano solos and later richly orchestrated. They are happy listening, and that certainly helped during their three performances on Friday and Saturday. Weber’s music warmly invites fantasy while Glinka’s is an irresistible invitation to waltz.

The performances of Le Spectre by Herman Cornejo and Sarah Lane on Friday and Saturday nights transported the viewer into the Young Girl’s dream in which the rose that she wore to her first ball came handsomely alive and danced with her. Sarah was pitch perfect as the Young Girl dancing through her dream. Herman carried the closest physical resemblance to Nijinksy (the original interpreter) that Haglund has ever seen. Compact with chiseled legs, he also has strong arms that delicately swirled the fragrance of the rose over his head. Where Sarah achieved the sense of fantasy with modest port de bras and sensitive musicality, Cassandra Trenary (at the matinee) was too aggressive in her handling of the choreography, flailing her arms like she was in the middle of Princess Florine and Bluebird. True, her Princess Florine was one of the highlights of last season's Sleeping Beauty performances, but that doesn’t mean that we want to see it embedded in every other role she dances. Daniil Simkin’s Rose suffered a setback early in the performance when he slipped and fell. Hopefully, it all looked more frightening than it actually was, but it was clearly a very hard meeting of bum and floor. He recovered and completed the performance with an unexpected steadiness and calm.

Haglund wishes that ABT would not dance Balanchine’s work unless they are willing to invest in high-end staging. Too many of the choreographer’s brilliant works are degraded through ineffective, misguided staging where the stager works hard to mount mannerisms but doesn't introduce dancers to the heart of the work. The stager's handling of Symphony in C was just criminal. The staging of Duo Concertant was an embarrassment. Now comes Valse Fantaisie, for which there is a definitive performance standard on the internet for everyone to see as well as recent respectable efforts by SAB students in live performances.

The weekend performances led by Hee Seo/James Whiteside on Friday and Saturday nights and by Devon Teuscher/Joseph Gorak at the Saturday matinee were too slow. Whiteside was able to capture the sense of “catching up to the music” that the Balanchine men convey in this ballet, but it looked like it was all just pretending. The ballerinas’ flourishing of the arms and shoulders was so overdone that it looked like they were performing caricatures. Did we mention that the tempo was slow? It yielded enough time for each ballerina to perform huge sprawling grand jetes in manège with loping steps in between. Where were those faster than fast, lighter than light running steps between those jetes that should have been more breezy? It seems the stager couldn’t teach these two ballerinas how to run fast.

Thankfully, Joseph Gorak demonstrated that he could move decisively and effortlessly at a high rate of speed while looking like he could still go faster and higher while maintaining gorgeous lines. His Saturday matinee performance was just remarkable and in such contrast to the one before and after him. What gifts this man has.

The Valse Fantaisie corps de ballet at Friday and Saturday nights’ performance didn’t have too many problems but overall, with the exception of Melanie Hamrick, they didn’t bring their legs down from battements so that the feet pressed softly but firmly into the floor. Why wasn’t SAB graduate Courtney Lavine part of the Valse Fantaisie casts instead of some of these neophytes who were just out there swinging their legs around? Honestly, why is ABT hiding this gorgeous ballerina with fine Balanchinian form who can also convey beautiful classicism? We know why, and we may write about it at length if the situation doesn’t self-correct this spring. It is unacceptable to hide a talented dancer because of the jealousy of someone who is less capable and has less classical beauty.

There were several highlights in the second casts of works over the weekend - the main one being Stephanie Williams and Blaine Hoven in Tharp’s Brahms-Haydn Variations. Wow, has Stephanie’s hard work with smaller performance groups over the summer paid off. Every performance now reveals more luster, more understanding of how to connect with the audience, more ownership of the choreography, and more confidence. Blaine’s partnering skills are looking almost as assured as those of Marcelo Gomes. (We are praying that he was first to sign up for the Sleeping Beauty Special Forces prince crew for Stella Abrera’s Rose Adagio in the spring.) Both Blaine and Stephanie shone brightly in the Saturday matinee cast of Mark Morris’ After You. Herman Cornejo, in the same cast, really elevated his role by nailing the tongue-in-cheek humor with brilliant seriousness. The viewer’s eye was also continually drawn to Tom Forster whose cat-like grace is so unusual for a man of his great height and strength. It would have been nice to see him in the role of Death in The Green Table.

Luciana Paris and Arron Scott in the matinee cast of Brahms-Haydn were sublime. Luciana has been relegated to gypsy, pirate lady, and harlot roles for far too many years. She’s got real classical chops and we deserve to see more of them.

The HH Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Stephanie Williams and Blaine Hoven for their outstanding principal performances in Tharp’s Brahms-Haydn Variations.

Comments

[melponeme_k]

I wondered why ABT attempted Balanchine at NYCB's home base. Especially when their dancers are not trained for the speed the choreography requires.

Their Valse was indeed slow, but even with the tempo change, Hee Seo could not keep up. She started out bright but became noticeably winded as dancing progressed. I could see her feet dragging a little when she ran behind the Corps.

At this point in time, I'm wondering if the Balanchine Trust is hurting his ballets more than they are helping them. No company will ever be able to perform the ballets like NYCB or even Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Heck, even Gelsey Kirkland could stage them better. The rest? Why not let them do what they do best? It won't be Balanchine but at least it wouldn't be a mess.

I also agree that it seems they are deliberately hiding Courtney Lavine. There was no reason at all for her to be banished to the back row in Brahms-Haydn Variations.

[Haglund]

IMO, the best Balanchine that we have seen ABT dance in the past 20 years is Mozartiana, especially Nina Ananiashvili's interpretation which she learned directly from Suzanne Farrell.

[SM]

Haglund, I do you hope you write at length on why Ms. Lavine is being held back. Whether it is Copeland or ABT Management that is the driving force, it needs to stop. I do find it curious that for all her "talk" of being a champion for diversity, she has failed to ever mention that there is another ballerina of color currently at ABT. I agree with melponeme on the point about the Balanchine Trust. If a company can't do it justice, they should just not perform Balanchine ballets.

[Haglund]

Thanks, SM.

[Jennifer]

Insightful review. I was lucky enough to see the Friday evening performance and share your enthusiasm for Spectre. Roman Zhurbin was impressive as Death in Green Table. Even without Marcelo's height and star quality, Roman commanded the stage and the role, IMO.

[melponeme_k]

I suspect that Courtney Lavine is not being propelled in her ABT career because her presence exposes the lies Copeland/her media agent used to create their superstar juggernaut myth.

One - Lavine was an SAB student and would have most likely been invited to join NYCB if ABT has not swooped in to invite her to ABT early. (https://worldofballerinas.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/courtney-lavine-abt-corps-de-ballet-cocolavine-on-ig/) Copeland, in her book, implied SAB (NYCB) of racism in not accepting her.

Two- One of the main arguments Copeland uses is that her body has to be accepted for diversity and to represent AMERICA. However this argument has the unspoken implication that black dancers can't achieve classical body standards. Lavine shows that this is not true.

For Lavine's sake I hope that she starts to get bigger dance roles. But considering ABT's track record, I hope she also has an exit strategy.

[Amy]

@SM. I have noticed on her Instagram page that she NEVER and I mean never posts pictures of herself with female ballerinas. Mainly her photos are self-promotion and marketing. Some are selfies. Very few with fellow male dancers. And absolutely zero with any other female dancers. I wonder how many people are in her ear regarding stuff like this? It seems she has some crazy manager or patron that is treating her like Carlotta from Phantom.