ABT 7/3 & 7/5 evening Tchaikovsky ho-hum

It is a mystery why ABT occasionally pops a Balanchine ballet into a season. It’s as though they think that it’s not necessary to dance Balanchine regularly in order to dance him well. By “well” we mean at New York stage standards and in comparison to New York City Ballet whose acute clarity and blazing speed are not only unmatched but now seem unapproachable for ABT. But the muddling of Balanchine during Monday’s and Wednesday night’s performances of ABT’s final week of the spring season was only one of several signs of ABT’s devolution into a struggling regional ballet company. 

 

Same Soup, Different Bowl

 

The company premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher was little more than a rehashing of choreographic ideas, a rehashing of costuming ideas, and a rehashing of lighting ideas that we’ve already seen in Ratmansky’s Symphony #9 which he made for ABT as part of a Shostakovich Trilogy a few months after he made Souvenir for Dutch National Ballet.  It really doesn’t matter which came first; what does matter is that Ratmansky has given us the same soup in a different bowl and is expecting us to slurp it up. When lovely Stella Abrera stealthily skulked her way downstage along side the wing while watching Sarah Lane and Alban Lendorf who were dancing, all we could think was, “Oh, this again?” The whole ballet was a tiresome bore in which the dancers were made to jump through hoops for no reason - like the halftime entertainment at the Westminster dog show. Ratmansky isn’t re-inventing ballet technique with his addition of nonsense, he is obscuring its beauty. 

 

In the re-configured 3rd Act of Ratmansky’s Sleeping Beauty presented here as a one act closer, there was more rehashing. The addition of two segments from Nutcracker – the bumbling buffoons now re-named the Three Ivans and a worthless piece of Americanized Chinese schtick – added nothing but time to this 3rd Act. “Oh, this again?”

 

Many of the divertissements were danced superbly particularly the Bluebird Pas de Deux by Sarah Lane and Gabe Stone Shayer. He managed some squeaky clean Windex-worthy double tours and pirouettes. Luciana Paris as the Diamond Fairy had the requisite Cs, most notably clarity and finely cut shapes to her movements. Our Grand Pas de Deux couple, Cassandra Trenary and Joseph Gorak (substituting for Herman Cornejo), were engaging and danced their variations splendidly. But the fish dives were mediocre - all done with the prince holding Aurora with both arms instead of just one. 

 

No effect

 

AfterEffect seemed even worse than on its first showing two years ago. Here Marcelo Gomes tried to out-nonsense Ratmansky with adolescent-inspired, even infantile choreography. If one were to ask a 7-year-old hyperactive boy to make up a dance, he might well throw himself on the floor, raise his hands, and wiggle his fingers like the dancers did in this ballet. And then mommy and daddy would applaud his cuteness, but probably not throw him $100 for the privilege of sitting there and watching him. 

 

A pretentious, sophomoric quotation under the title in the Playbill “To those who have fallen… and those who prevail” did nothing to clarify the manic happenings on the stage all of which started at top speed from the opening notes of Tchaikovsky’s Souevnir de Florence, Op. 70. Such seriousness, such angst, such phoniness. “Oh, this again?”

 

The scenery, a replication of a painting by Francoise Gilot entitled Question and Answer, was the most interesting aspect of the ballet. The costumes by Reid & Harriet included white unitards with Holstein-type splotchy stains, which while not unattractive, made the female lead, Misty Copeland, look like a bovinerina.

 

But the ensemble dancers danced their hearts out - every manic step - and certainly appreciated the opportunity to show how they could actually do steps, seeing as this has been the season when that ability has been questioned time and time again with regard to the principal ladies in iconic roles. Christine Shevchenko turned her couple of minutes on stage into the major role of the ballet. Tom Forster, thank god somebody has him moving his legs and feet around more, was the highlight among all of the men. 

 

Balanchine on 4 cylinders

 

Whoever said that Isabella Boylston is a "Balanchine ballerina" needs to go back to school - and perhaps take an ethics course while there. No amount of fudging the aspect ratio of a New York Times video to make her look taller and thinner or speeding up and chopping the music to make her look faster will erase what we had to witness on Monday night - oy!  Such heaviness, awkwardness, unevenness, and goopiness have we rarely seen in the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux - except for when Misty Copeland tried to dance it a few years back to show everyone what a Balanchine ballerina she was (eye roll). Why would ABT dare put this PdD in such a mediocre form on the New York stage when it knows that New York City Ballet regularly presents it in stellar fashion with Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, and Ashley Bouder? Wait, we know the answer to our question. It’s that McKenzie & Co have their heads so deeply buried in the sand that they do not know of the brilliance that is being presented right next door. They don’t bother to look. That was the problem with Symphony in C the last time ABT presented it; nobody at ABT bothered to consider the STANDARD currently being set by Balanchine’s own company. Well, the audiences know the STANDARD. And this performance sucked - and not just Boylston’s performance. Joseph Gorak was half-marking most of his choreography. It was energy-less, but oh so pretty – and small. The both of them completely wrecked the climactic fish dives toward the end. Such a bad match up of dancers. We should have been watching Skylar Brandt with Blaine Hoven or Gabe Shayer dancing this.

 

Wednesday night’s Tchai Pas with Gillian Murphy and James Whiteside was much brighter, more sophisticated, and more cleanly danced, but it was still so much less than what it should have been. Gillian isn’t back to 100% shape following her series of injuries, and unfortunately it showed in the straining and earthbound execution of the choreography. Whiteside is generally difficult to watch because of his Marfanic features which he actually seems to accentuate with stage makeup, but he got the job done and had the requisite energy in his dancing. The dancers sailed into the fish dives which turned out to be okay, but nothing spectacular and hardly had the thrilling plunge that we routinely observe at New York City Ballet. 

 

Which brings us finally to Mozartiana. Veronika Part and Blaine Hoven, who performed the leads on Monday night, were first paired in this ballet years ago. At the time, even though Blaine was fairly young and inexperienced, his matchup with Veronika showed promise. A few years have gone by and maturity looks good on Blaine along with his re-formed physique. His pairing with Veronika is now one of equals, and he is the most complimentary partner for her other than Marcelo Gomes with Tom Forster a very close third. Veronika’s Preghiera was as beautiful as it could possibly be. Ballerinas without long arms need not apply for this choreography, and boy, does Veronika have arms. The image of her stretching backward and opening her face and arms to the heavens is one we won’t ever forget. Her variations were danced with lightness and a full heart - a truly gorgeous performance. It is always a surprise to be reminded that Blaine, who is a fairly big guy, can move with Balanchine-worthy speed and clarity. Those legs of his looked mighty fine in white tights, too.

 

Wednesday night Christine Shevchenko made a good start in the lead role along side David Hallberg. Hopefully, she will figure out how to make her arms look longer, because the rest of her is stunning. It appeared that she had been carefully coached on Farrell mannerisms, particularly with the presentation of the jaw line, but she seemed to wear the mannerisms well. Her Preghiera didn’t have the depth of Veronika’s but her second variation had a charming wit about it that few other interpretations retain. Hallberg was unsteady during the first half of the ballet, missing pirouettes and cautious in his allegro which sometimes got a late start, but in the second half after he charged through a four revolution pirouette with a nice finish, he seemed to instantly relax. We’re not sure what he was doing in the final line with all the other dancers at the end, but it was good to see that he still has his sense of humor.

 

Daniil Simkin was cast as the Gigue soloist for both nights. Monday night he looked like a fish out of water. Wednesday night he was more organized and ready. At the second performance, those simple jetes that require being done in one count instead of the normal one-two count were quite impressive. Monday night he didn’t seem to understand what was required. Haglund has fully appreciated Daniil in almost everything he has danced this season, the exception being his Ali which was so full of self-love and slow tricks that we couldn’t even bring ourselves to write about it. But the Albrecht and Siegfried were clearly enjoyable.

 

The Mozartiana quartets of four corps women and four little girls left much to be desired. First, can’t ABT find four young little girls for these roles? These little ones looked like they were junior high schoolers. Nor did they move with the energy that we expected. But then, that was a problem with the adult corps women who danced like they were on individual postage stamps. Zhong-Jing Fang, lately showing some control of her staccato-itis, was so overdoing the hand affectations that they nearly looked like a caricature.

 

All in all, this Tchaikovsky Spectacular isn’t worth $100 to see, maybe $30 on a Rush Ticket, but good luck with that. It simply isn’t worth the money. We wish ABT would take into consideration when planning programming & casting just how hard people have to work to be able to set aside $100 to see ABT dance for two hours. Considering the actual minutes of performing delivered by the dancers, ABT probably charges more for a seat than the Met Opera does for most of its productions. It just is not worth it these days and may not be until McKenzie is ousted.

 

The HH Pump Bump Award, a high platform stiletto with (well-deserved) purple heart, is bestowed upon Veronika Part. She's earned it.

 

 

Comments

[Inessa]

I had to check the date on that article calling Boylston a "Balanchine ballerina" to make sure it's not an April Fool's joke that ABT took seriously and posted on their page three months later. Boylston lacks the grace, speed, precision, and overall talent necessary to execute the choreography the way Balanchine envisioned it. To her credit, her social media is full of photos and clips of her in the studio. Celebrina doesn't even bother to work on getting better any more; nearly all of her social media presence can be reduced to professional photoshoots and stuff not related to ballet.

[Brian]

The two extra numbers in Aurora's Wedding were in the 1921 production, choreographed by Nijinska. The Oliver Messel production of Sleeping Beauty continued to include the Three Ivans.

[angelica]

Perhaps the celebrina phenomenon is only going to proliferate now that public relations seems to be the new route to fame in the ballet world, or at least at ABT. When talent, technique, and artistry are absent, aspiring ballerinas may now turn to the media to make their names. I gagged when I saw the headline of the NYT article and couldn't believe what I was seeing in the clip. Who decided that Boylston was "A Natural Balanchine Ballerina"? Was that her own idea? In the old days, such an appellation would come from a learned, well-informed critic.

[Haglund]

I forgot to mention in the review that Hallberg simplified the ending on one of his variations. He turned it into a simple double tour. Most often at NYCB we see it as double-double or sometimes single-double. I believe that Blaine did a single-double on Monday night. Not a big deal, but nevertheless shows that Hallberg is still cautiously making his way back.

[Rose]

I don't know that Hallberg will ever be back to what he once was. His dancing seems very cautious. I don't blame him, but he's no spring chicken either. ABT needs to get some tall, strong guys up to principal level immediately. That should be priority #1 for them.