Julia Child lectured about dance, although she didn’t realize it at the time. Back when television was honest – thanks to no editing capabilities – if she accidentally broke a yolk in her kitchen, she made a joke out of it. Her kitchen counter was often cluttered, and she utilized tools that looked like they’d been used thousands of times over many decades. Her hand-mixer, for instance, had almost all of the paint rubbed off of its motor encasement. She even licked her fingers occasionally just like we all do in our own kitchens. One of Julia Child's tips to cooks was:
When you have a few cake formulas and filling ideas in your repertoire, you will find that it’s pretty much an assembly job – you can mix and match a different way every time.
That pretty much describes the new choreography that we see on the stages of New York by those who are much vaunted by, well, people who should know better along with people who know nothing at all. Same formulas, same filling ideas, different packaging.
But let’s talk about Mark Ryden’s delicious designs that are for the first time being adapted to the stage in ABT’s fantastic production of Whipped Cream as choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. We saw the first two performances in Costa Mesa at the Segerstrom Center in March where the stage is not as deep as The Met Opera’s. The overall effect at the Segerstrom was one of more intimacy, and details of the designs were more visible. The curtain rose to reveal a country setting with a little white church from which children would blast through its doors to the outside in celebration of their Confirmations and climb aboard a pink flowered wagon to be driven off to the pastry shop. At the Segerstrom, the pony pulling the wagon seemed so much closer to the audience. Its eyes sparkled. Its magnificently coifed mane looked soft to the touch, and it pawed the ground like a real pony – as we said in our original review, it was better than a real pony. But on the mammoth stage at The Met Opera on Monday evening, the magic was less visible because the pony and wagon were so far upstage. We think that our pony needs to come more downstage, and he should give a whinny or two when the curtain rises.
Already in the first scene, the darkness and Grimm-like layering of complexities in Ryden’s surreal world were evident. The children laughed, the children played, the children celebrated and climbed aboard a beautiful wagon pulled by a stunningly handsome pony – all against a backdrop of dark clouds with whipped peaks billowing above the sharp shapes of giant conifers. The sharpest of the shapes would appear in the final scene when the narrow, towering Nicolo, Master of Ceremonies slowly glides to center stage to marry The Boy (Daniil Simkin) to Princess Praline (Sarah Lane).
At the center of the Pastry Shop in Act I were cascading shelves where the confections, tea, and coffee were stored. For his much anticipated entrance back to the Met stage after a three year absence, David Hallberg did not rush down a ramp onto the stage nor did he leap from the wings with a splashy jete. Nope, he casually came out of the can. Of course, we are talking about the coffee can on the shelf as he was Prince Coffee. Costumed in blond and dark roast stripes with a Turkish fez hat, he was about the furthest thing from our fond memories of David Hallberg. But his dancing had the familiar grace that we had missed for so long. He steeped and stewed after Princess Tea Flower (Stella Abrera) who initially wasn’t that interested, particularly when at first it seemed that Prince Coco (Joseph Gorak) and Don Zucchero (Blaine Hoven) might be able to spice up her cup with a little more pleasure. But Princess Tea Flower and Prince Coffee swirled their aromas in a lovely PdD and discovered that they were one another’s true brew.
In Act II, The Boy (Daniil Simkin) who had been taken to the hospital after indulging in too many sweets in the pastry shop, had a series of nightmares until Princess Praline (Sarah Lane) arrived atop a huge white and pink snow yak with an army of characters to save him. We previously described their dancing when we reviewed the world premiere last March. Last night, they had even more charm and sweetness to go with their delicious dancing.
The production overall is a tremendous pleasure to watch – but not for the choreography which was for the most part inconsequential. The music by Richard Strauss in some places is not all that danceable. Ratmansky’s reaction to that seemed to be to cram in as many steps and as much choreographic minutiae as possible to win over the viewer – especially in Act I which was so over-choreographed that it became tiresome. This was the exact same type of over-choreographing that we saw in On the Dnieper which was Ratmansky’s very first ballet for ABT eight years ago. There, the Prokofiev music was not particularly accessible to dance; so, Ratmansky crammed a zillion steps and choreographic minutiae into it to compensate. Only at the very end of Whipped Cream, when Simkin performed his over-the-top happy dance to express his relief of being out of the hospital and his joy of finding Princess Praline, did the steps and the music appear to be in love.
Complaining aside, this is a ballet very much worth seeing for its designs and charm. Just remember that its main course is dessert.
Wednesday afternoon, Devon Teuscher will debut as Princess Tea Flower. Given her affinity for Ashton’s complex and speedy choreography, we are sure that she will do well in this sudden and very taxing assignment in her schedule. As Julia Child said, If someone offers you a freshly caught whole large fish, like a salmon or a stripped bass, don’t panic; take it!
The H.H. Pump Bump Award goes to David Hallberg for his most welcomed return to his home stage.
