Haglund's Heel

observations 5/24

        This should enrage the American Woke Folks who dedicate themselves to wiping out Petipa's masterpiece.

        Vladimir Malakhov is taking his re-imagining of Petipa's La Bayadere into Asia. That's right, Ukrainian-Russian Malakhov is taking the Golden Idol, The Great Brahmin, slaves, temple dancer, shades and the whole nine yards right into Hong Kong with Brazilian Marinela Nunez, Ukrainian Iana Salenko, and Russian Vadim Muntagirov as guest artists with Cuban-American Septime Weber's Hong Kong Ballet. Yep, he's going to toss Petipa's fantastical imagining of long-ago India right in the faces of the adoring Asian audience.

        The promotional video looks spectacular. Note the use of the finger positions that the American Woke Folks find so offensive and intolerable. Honestly, the Americans had better get on the case and get over to Asia to explain to the Asians why they should be offended by this fantastical Russian romanticizing of storybook India.

 

NYCB 5/10 Here she is – better late than never!

        Our little pink renegade in the red Azalea Corps de Ballet of Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park has appeared at last. Seemingly always late getting to the stage, she didn't show up this year until it was almost time for bows – like something out of Jerome Robbins' The Concert.

        But oh, isn't she a beauty. Funny how this garden parallels life. Just when we were thinking how we really missed so many of Balanchine's big ballets -- although the season's offerings have been nothing to sniff at -- out trotted this big old beautiful rose-scented Robbins ballet that we hadn't seen in years to bring a little extra enchantment to the garden. Brandenburg hasn't been seen in a decade and a half on NYCB's stage, and oh what a beauty of a ballet it is. It's full of surprises and humor, full of imaginative step combinations, full of ballet comfort & beauty, and exquisitely danced by its cast of twenty. How did this ballet get left out of the Robbins 100 Festival a few years back?

        For his last ballet, Robbins borrowed the best from himself for Brandenburg. At times, it even looked like he was reminiscing about his excursion with Tharp. The intense focus on clean structure seemed almost architecturally engineered. There were so many appealing arrangements of dancers that the ballet could be a poster for the Elements of Composition: pattern, focus, contrast, balance, rhythm, whatever. Even the dated costumes looked charming with their girly sleeves for the women and masculine-like rolled up sleeves & vests for the men. How did this ballet get left out of the Robbins 100 Festival a few years back?

        Indiana Woodward and Anthony Huxley anchored the first of four sections with their charismatic PdD, but it was the Corps de Ballet that stole the spotlight with their joyful dancing. As lines of dancers trafficked through one another in complex formations to the music's 137 beats per minute (it begs to be steppy), some looked a bit unnerved by the combination of speed and complexity of the choreography. Positions went awry once or twice, but it was never at risk of devolving into, say, the opening of Glass Pieces. Dancers' lifted their arms high in V formations during allegro like Paul Taylor's dancers did when they happily skated through the same music in Taylor's Brandenburgs created a decade prior to Robbins' ballet. Just the fact that both Taylor and Robbins were drawn to this same music is confirmation of its danceability, dancesuasiveness, and danceliciousness.

        The incredible centerpiece of this ballet was delivered by Mira Nadon and Aaron Sanz, two dancers whose own imaginations opened more possibilities for this choreography than perhaps Robbins, himself, ever imagined. The PdD was a welcomed reminder that PdDs are not about continual manipulation of the woman's body or 10 minutes where the entwined dancers can't let go of one another. Here we saw the dancers separated physically half of their time, their limbs circling each other's limbs without touching or at times dancing the same steps apart -- no physical connection but oh were they ever communicating.

        Also on the program was a spirited performance of Robbins' Fancy Free led by sailors Roman Mejia, Joseph Gordon, and Andrew Veyette; Passers-by Mary Thomas MacKinnon, Alexa Maxwell, and Malorie Lundgren; and Maxwell Read as the Bartender.

        Balanchine's Agon was the serious soul of the program which opened and closed with Robbins' infectious joy. Unity Phelan, who is just starting to wrap her legs around this lead role, didn't exhibit the expected authority and sharpness during the iconic moment when she spun around before throwing her leg in attitude behind her partner, Adrian Danchig-Waring. Taylor Stanley debuted his Sarabande solo to the difficult Stravinsky horn passage, and Emilie Gerrity gave a crystal clear rendition of the Bransle Gay, if a bit demure.

        Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, Louboutin's Lip Chick patent pump, is bestowed upon Mira Nadon and Aaron Sanz for their extraordinary interpretation in Robbins' Brandenburg.

 

Wheeldon and Pyres at NYCB When the math doesn't work

        Arriving at our blessed $38 seats for our first view of Christopher Wheeldon’s new “abstract” work for New York City Ballet entitled From You Within Me, we were met by a front scrim bearing the stunning atmospheric painting by Kylie Manning. Rich marine blues and greens suggested a water scene, perhaps the ocean or a glen or an inlet surrounded by lush landscape. It was a lovely reminder of ABT’s Swan Lake curtain. Noting that Wheeldon had chosen to use the same Schoenberg music that ABT’s Antony Tudor used for his dramatic Pillar of Fire and had lifted a line for the title from the Dehmel narrative poem which inspired both Schoenberg and Tudor, we began to wonder, “How could Swan Lake-ish scrim + Pillar of Fire music + Dehmel narrative reference = abstract ballet?” 

        Soon the dancers appeared behind the scrim at the side of the stage entangled in a blob of humanity from which individual dancers dramatically reached up and out before sinking back into the blob which was rotating counter-clockwise. As individual dancers withdrew from the blob, we immediately noticed the geometric beauty of the back zippers on their red, very see-through mesh unitards which led directly down to the straight cracks in their exposed buttocks. We wondered, “How could Swan Lake-ish scrim + Pillar of Fire music + Dehmel poetic reference + red baboon butts = abstract ballet?” 

 

        Sara Mearns, arguably NYCB’s most melodramatic ballerina, devoured Wheeldon’s phrases in solos of whipping arms, spinning turns, expressions of torment, and the expansive movement for which she is known and prized, but we wondered, “How could Swan Lake-ish scrim + Pillar of Fire music + Dehmel poetic reference + red baboon butts + melodramatic ballerina = abstract ballet?” 

 

        We’re still wondering.

 

        Wheeldon was unmistakably inspired by the dramatic undercurrent and emotional riptides present in Tudor’s famous work. The stilted pointe poses and the torso angst alone made that argument. He seemed to want to simulate the mental turbulence that Tudor found within Schoenberg’s music without the benefit of a storyline — thus, we had unfocused emotion and dramatic reachings without any indication for what the dancers were reaching. It was a story ballet of mostly blanks that the viewer was supposed to fill in as he wished. Like Flo sings, “That’s not my job.”  A ballet that suggests a storyline but doesn’t deliver is not an abstract ballet; it’s a half-cooked story ballet, that’s all.

 

        So what about the choreography — assuming it was abstract? Not all that interesting, we’re afraid. Wheeldon excels in group movement, but solos and PdD can frequently look generic — like they might show up in any of his other ballets. A PdD exquisitely danced by Peter Walker and Aaron Sanz included the obligatory gymnastics and entanglements of our time, but the movement itself — except for some perfectly wonderful arabesques — wasn’t visually interesting as abstract movement, although we’re sure that it must have been challenging and interesting for the dancers to perform. Unfortunately, whether the dancers love (or hate) dancing the choreography is no measure of how satisfying the audience finds it.  

 

        Alysa Pires’ new choreography, Standard Deviation, never made it outside 68% of the data set of steps that we see in most contemporary choreography - not even one standard deviation. It was beyond boring, teetering on tedious, and made more unwatchable by the dancers’ unattractive unitards that went up to their necks and looked straight out of Discount Dance Supply. Dancers solemnly made various geometric forms with their arms while standing or motoring around in lines and while trying in vain to find some importance in what they were doing. Then, like a Hail Mary Pass thrown by the hopelessly losing quarterback, Pires sent Tiler Peck to center stage to do fouettes. Cringe-worthy is being too kind. 

 

        In sum, we’re glad that these new dances aren’t on the schedule for next season, not even for $38.