ABT 7/7 American Splendor an offender

At the end of the first ballet last night a white cloud appeared on the stage. A little old man with receding hairline floated out of it, eyes blinking rapidly as he took little sniffs through his nose. He wore a black string tie and rolled up shirt sleeves and appeared slightly disheveled. He spoke in broken English:

“I rest happily in backstage area since 1983, and then — and then (he scrunches up his face) –– I need to change program right now. Single Zig and Eye Zag do another night. We do over Theme and Variations and make right. I conduct.”

 

He hadn’t just rolled over in his grave as ABT butchered his Theme and Variations, he rose up from it to wrestle back control of his masterpiece from ABT’s outgoing director who has never been able to get it right. This time was just too much for the choreographer. American Splendor was an offender.

 

What is happening to Joo Won Ahn, the male lead in Balanchine's Theme and Variations? Who has gotten into this man’s head to convince him to dance with the caution of someone walking through a mine field? Last night was excruciatingly painful to watch. From the opening moments, he seemed recoiled and defeated. The tendus were like the first ones in the morning, lacking in stretch and importance — and uncrossed. His first set of double pirouettes to fourth position were so slow that any other dancer would have had time to do triples. Hesitate. Hesitate. Hesitate, thanks in part to a lazy tempo. The double tour/pirouette combination was ballet’s equivalent of Chernobyl. Ahn had a complete meltdown. The audience could be heard grumbling in McEnroe tones “Are you serious?! Are you serious?!”

 

At the opening bars, we weren’t sure about Devon Teuscher either. Nerves were apparent. Feet were not planted. But then she seemed to realize that the entire responsibility for this ballet was going to rest on her gorgeous shoulders. The woman took over, and she gave a whopping huge performance – not like anything we would see in the House of Balanchine but something we’d experience at the Palais Garnier. Her majesty matched Tchaikovsky’s measure for measure. Her clarity matched his clarity note for note. Was it all too slow? Yes, definitely: so slow that Devon had to add balances to fill out the music. But if the slow-motion killed the thrill of this ballet, it revealed its glory, too. Unfortunately, we need both thrill and glory. This ballet deserves nothing less. 

 

The demi-soloists and corps were, in part, rough. Those who clearly understood where to dance on the music chaffed against those who didn’t. McCune, Frenette, Tamm, Sebastian, and Hoven anticipated the music and hit their marks beautifully. Most of the ladies were still in Swan Lake mode—and why shouldn’t they dance that way with a sluggish tempo that felt like a raw egg smoothie going down.

 

Single Eye (Alonzo King) and ZigZag (Jessica Lang) required neither orchestra nor affection for ballet but did require great patience. What’s worse than seeing professional ballet dancers as backup to singers? Answer: seeing professional ballet dancers as backup to taped singers. Not that we don’t love Tony Bennett. In fact Haglund’s greatest ever experience in the Metropolitan Opera House was in 2011 when Tony Bennett made his debut singing at the Met. Re-live it here. But Lang’s fluffy ZigZag, a faux Broadway-type revue, is the poor man’s Susan Stroman. It relies on kitschy flounce and costumes that try to recapture the sashaying big dress styles of the 1950s.To its credit, it gives a lot of fabulous, underused dancers a chance to step out and be seen, such as Michael de la Nuez. The man simply explodes every time he catches the spotlight.

 

Single Eye is one more pretentious Angst & Yank ballet that can’t be forgotten fast enough. Nothing new here. Nothing articulated. A lovely gold front curtain and some fetching costumes, but little else. Is anyone else sick and tired of the cliched pose of the turned in leg crossed over the side of the knee of the other leg that one of King’s dancers made famous in a poster decades ago? Every ballerina seems to need to mimic it, and King seems to have made it his signature. 

 

We can’t watch this program again in its entirety but will find a way to see what Brandt & Cornejo do with T&V. The cheap factor is just too overwhelming and it is typical of how McKenzie has missed the mark over and over and over again. No Pump Bump Award for this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Jeannette]

Hey, at least NY got T&V - albeit weakly performed - in this triple clunker bill. The Kennedy Center/DC didn’t even get that but, rather, Ratmansky’s digital trifle Bernstein in a Bubble, slightly modified for live stage.

It’s called “American Splendor”? More like American SPLENDA…as in fake sugar/chemicals/phoney baloney.

[Haglund]

SPLENDA ---- Bwahaha!!

[Solor]

You really should change the title at the top to "American Splenda" (with credit to Jeanette) inasmuch as this report will probably outlast both the King and Lang ballets.

[Haglund]

Splenda's advertising tag lines:

Original:
"Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar" (through a lawsuit, this was determined to be misleading)

Current:
"It starts with sugar. It tastes like sugar, but it's not sugar."

Total poison -- literally and metaphorically.

[fondoffouettes]

T&V is my desert island ballet, and it almost feels painful when it's not performed well. I wonder if it wasn't wise to plan such a demanding Balanchine ballet when the company is three-quarters of the way through a season of grueling full-lengths`. Glad to hear Teuscher performed well, though. I'd like to see Brandt and Cornejo but can't justify buying a ticket given the other pieces on the program.

[Haglund]

FOF, you might try a Rush Ticket for $35 and then move forward. Many, many empty seats.

https://www.metopera.org/season/tickets/rush-page/

[Jennifer]

I was also disappointed with the performance last night. Poor Ahn had such a rough time. Might he have been tired from over use during the Swan Lake run? I agree with Jeannette that this program which included T & V was more enoyable than the similar one offered at the Kennedy Center earlier this year.

I enjoyed ZigZag, particularly in its use of the six corps members dressed in black and white.

Do you have any theories why Herman Cornejo replaced Calvin Royal for one variation in Single Eye? Seemed odd when Royal danced the rest of the ballet and appeared in ZigZag.

[Haglund]

I don't know why there was a replacement in Single Eye. Maybe they thought that adding Herman to the cast would make people like it better or tolerate it better or complain less.

[Jeannette]

The Kennedy Center premiere of Single Eye had separate roles for Cornejo and Royal. Cornejo danced a solo (in a floppy unflattering tunic, no less), while Royal danced in the second of two pdds…the last one, with Teuscher.

[Haglund]

That's what we got, too.

[Jennifer]

Thanks for the explanation. I saw the Kennedy Center premiere but did not remember this detail. Maybe the Met program listing Calvin Royal for the variation was an editing error. I did think it was interesting to have Skylar Brandt paired with Calvin Royal in this piece. We are unlikely to see that combination very often given how tall male principals are in such demand to dance with ballerinas who are not as petite as Skylar.

[Marta]

Hi Haglund,
Your review of Teuscher/Ahn T & V is making me sad, as I'm seeing this cast Saturday night! I can't get down there in time to see the matinee. Not looking forward to those other two "ballets" on the program. And yes, I am really sick of the cliched, and not beautiful, pose of the turned in leg crossed over the side of the knee of the other leg!

[Haglund]

Marta, given that Saturday night's performance is supposed to be a tribute to Kevin McKenzie, I would imagine that the team is trying its best to bolster up Ahn's mental toughness. He can do double tour/pirouette as well as most anyone. He just seemed to psych himself out over the importance of the moment. This season he is a far different performer than we have seen in past years as Solor, Ali, and Albrecht.

[Allie Kenney]

I was also there last night.All I can say is I was grateful Ahn didn't drop or injure Teuscher. As I watched Teuscher, as decent as she was, all I could think of was a good half dozen or so principals and soloists at City Ballet I'd like to see in that role (at NYCB it is done as 4th movement of Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3, which they haven't done in at least 4 or 5 years). I wasn't really very familiar with Ahn -- assumed he could jump, but likely wasn't a very good partner. He just didn't seem to be able to do anything last night. I had to wonder if one of those corps guys could have done a better job.

I thought the whole thing was just deadly slow. Several years ago both NYCB and ABT did "Symphony in C" in their spring seasons. It was interesting to see both and compare. I dislike NYCB's new costumes and much prefer those ABT shares with or borrows from Canada. Both performances were okay, but the ABT one seemed very sluggish in comparison. This was what I felt last night, only in this case the overall performance was also disappointing.

[Allie Kenney]

On the two other works last night. though I didn't much appreciate either work, I did enjoy some of the dancers. I thought Skylar was terrific, though not sure why she spent so much time on the floor. I had no idea Forster and Bell were so big, esp Bell. I had seen Forster before but didn't realize how tall he was. And I think it was Chloe Misseldine I saw in a variation with an unusual, sort of modern tutu. She is someone I'd like to see more of. I thought Catherine Hurlin looked kind of ridiculous in the Tony Bennett thing all sort of googly eyed and mugging. Maybe that was part of the choreography, but I could have done without it, the dancing was plenty.