The Czech composer Leoš Janáček was already 72 years old when the majestic orchestral work Sinfonietta came tumbling out of him. The piece had been commissioned for the Sokol Festival, a gymnastics festival in Prague sponsored by the Sokol movement, an all-age gymnastics program that was based on the principle of “a strong mind in a strong body” and would later became a source of patriotic and national pride.
The brass fanfares and swirling piccolo flourishes beg for the leaping and turning and the precision duos, trios, and multiples that Czech choreographer Jiri Kylian envisioned for Sinfonietta when he chose it for his eponymous ballet which his Nederlands Dans Theater premiered at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina in 1978. The festival’s theme that year was the celebration of Czech composers.
ABT’s first performances of the work in 1991 while under Jane Hermann’s direction were critically acclaimed from one coast to the other: “exhilarating,” “bold,” “a perfect showcase [for ABT],” “rhapsodic,” said the real dance critics of the time. But since then, audiences have rarely had the opportunity to see ABT’s dancers in this glorious ballet. Last week’s opening cast boasted eleven principal dancers and three others who should be on principal track in one of the most energized, celebratory, unleashed, unifying, and passionately danced performances that we have seen from ABT in quite a while. In a word, it was uplifting.
Not so with what followed. Christopher Rudd’s race-based work, Lifted, purportedly represented a journey of self-everything: -reflection, -confrontation, and -love with a healthy dose of -pity and -victimization thrown in. All of this was danced by Black artists whose talents were recognized when they were children and who received the same type of encouragement and financial assistance that many, if not most, of ABT’s dancers have received in their careers: YAGP scholarships, SAB scholarships, Kirov Institute scholarships, ABT National Training scholarships, gold medals in international competitions. The choreography failed to make the argument that the dancers' constant obsession with the mirrors on stage was any different than the mirror-obsessions of their non-Black colleagues. Mirror-obsession is quite simply a dancer thing. And the obsession goes way, way, way, way beyond skin color. So who and what did these dancers represent? And was this dance the “ground-breaking” piece that Kevin McKenzie claimed in his opening remarks? To answer the last question first - no. It was mediocre contemporary anything-goes choreography far beneath these talented dancers to perform. What was the message? Most probably it was a reflection of Rudd’s own personal experiences and views of the world and of how the injustices of the past continue to inform the present. It’s not a bad message to make, but the message will not make up for bad choreography. There is no grade “E for Effort” or “M for Message” that serves as justification for spending oodles of money on lousy work product.
Or lousy costumes, like in Ratmansky’s The Seasons, his frenetic disoriented concoction to Glazunov’s beautiful music. In a nutshell, it was ADHD spun into choreography. Did it show off the dancers? Absolutely! Did they love the challenge? Seemingly so. Was there a lot of action on stage? Like last night’s Halloween Parade, it just kept coming with one outlandish costume after another. ABT, please put this away until the threads disintegrate and you regain the fabric of your senses.
ABT’s senses were partially regained and the audience’s senses were rewarded with the return of Ashton’s The Dream. But thank goodness for second chances. Our opening cast led by Gillian Murphy, Herman Cornejo, and Daniel Camargo as a last minute substitute for Cory Stearns weren’t quite ready to bring their imaginations along with Ashton’s. The dancers looked tired and unsure. The corps, less than bright and sparkling. At the final performance on Sunday, however, this crew brought its magic. Cornejo’s Puck appeared to be 20 years old again. Murphy found her inner sassy Titania. Camargo’s Oberon stunned with his control, finesse, and power. And then there was Tyler Maloney as Bottom who stole every scene he was in with his elastic expressions and hilarious hoofing.
In between these two performances, we watched the absolutely stunning debut of Cassandra Trenary as Titania opposite Camargo. This was Shakespeare’s dream of a Titania, if not Ashton’s. Feisty, impudent, unpredictable. Her mime stung Oberon but her lovely arabesque and soft port de bras bent his will. His authority enraged her but his charm ultimately won her over.
Also debuting at this performance was corpsman Elwince Magbitang as Puck. Flashes of brilliance and hints of what will be made this a highly successful debut. Hopefully, he had the opportunity to watch Cornejo on Sunday, because that is the standard that has been set.
Another startling debut came with Patrick Frenette as Demetrius. Never have we more enjoyed watching this secondary role. Frenette made it Oscar-worthy with dramatic details from his own imagination. Here’s the thing. All of this new-found dramatic power will inform this technically-talented dancer’s Albrecht, Siegfried, and Desire just as soon as ABT opens its eyes and casts him. He is someone to look for in each cast, and he makes every role noteworthy.
The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Patrick Frenette and Cassandra Trenary for their remarkable debuts in The Dream.