Lots of brave dancing on display at the opening performance of ABT’s Le Corsaire. It wasn’t on the level of the courageous dancing that we remember from the Noche Latina evenings of a long time ago when the grand old man of the cast, Julio Bocca, came flying out of the back corner of the stage and threw a flying triple tour assemble with the kick of a winning World Cup goal. Argentina didn’t win that year, 2006, but maybe they would have if they’d enlisted Bocca, Corella, Carreno, both Cornejos, Herrera and Reyes. What a time that was, oh lordy...
Still, the levels were pretty high last night. The highlight of the evening was the gleaming, polished elegance of Skylar Brandt’s Medora and Sarah Lane’s Gulnare who were at once distinctive and complementary.
With her fabulous face that is readable far out into the theater, Skylar created humor by overplaying the seriousness of her character’s predicaments. But it was her dancing that astonished. At this moment in time, Skylar is the prima ballerina of ABT whether she’s accorded the title of principal or not. Simply put — in terms of technical levels, musicality, classical form, reliability, and theatricality — she is on top. Last night, there were a multitude of details in her dancing that reminded us of Irina Dvorovenko, who assists her with role preparation these days and who probably got most of her own details from Irina Kolpakova. The held positions in balances, the lowered arms that heightened the torso, the turn of the face and opened expression, all of it reflected brilliantly through the polish of an uncompromising academic correctness. These days, every time Haglund sees Skylar dance, it makes him treasure Dvorovenko all the more.
Sarah Lane’s Gulnare was all soft beauty and refinement reinforced with a steely structure of squareness that enabled her to hold balances for an unusually long time and turn with supreme stability. And she always looks stunning in that yellow tutu. She and Blaine Hoven (Lankendem) produced some glorious, airy dancing in their PdD. He lifted her high; she took the opportunity to luxuriate in her beautiful positions. Blaine’s partnering was flawless, as we’ve come to expect, and his grand allegro was handsome with a nobility that one doesn’t usually observe in this character. But there was something wrong with the pirouettes last night. His first set of pirouettes were supposed to open to second position, but instead petered out and closed in fourth. The problem was either that the music was too slow or that Blaine didn’t want to turn fast enough to commit to an extra revolution before extending the leg to the side. It just wasn’t right. There was a tendency — also with Arron Scott’s Birbanto –– to drop character as soon as it was time to prepare for a pirouette and concentrate on classroom technique. Come on, guys, don’t drop character to prepare for a pirouette.
Somebody who never drops character to prepare for a pirouette because he never can get to them fast enough is Daniil Simkin who was our spectacular Ali for the evening. Here was some courageous dancing – he added so many bells and whistles to the Act II variation that it was like fire engines, the Salvation Army, and the circus all coming together at one time. Even though Skylar and Sarah were the highlight as stated above, Daniil is the one who is prompting Haglund to buy tickets to another couple of shows to see him try to pull off that manege of flying triple turns. Oh my goodness, were those a pleasure to watch. They didn’t end as he intended but he didn’t bail on them and start doing pique turns either. His spectacular surprise of multiple pirouettes that ended with spread eagle arms and backbend not only had the crowd screaming but also laughing in utter disbelief. Good show from this guy!
Brooklyn Mack was a guest artist that ABT brought in for a few performances, and he ended up subbing for an injured Herman Cornejo on opening night. Mack was a secure partner for Skylar and offered many huge jumps, but there was an unpolished roughness and heaviness to his dancing that wasn’t even right for the rough pirate, Conrad. While we can understand why he might have wanted to try as hard as possible to jump as high as possible, the sickled feet at the end of not quite stretched legs were not pleasing to see. Mack's expression wasn’t blank as in the past, but he did not convey the exaggeration in the role of Conrad that all of the characters in this ballet need in order to make the comedy work. It’s just so hard to understand why this guest was brought in instead of giving Tom Forster an opportunity to dance a role that he was born to dance. He possesses so much power and beautiful technique, great feet, charisma, comedic timing, and he can run a string of pearls through his teeth in a way you’ll remember until you die – and maybe later, but that's in another ballet.
Roman Zhurbin was a deliciously disruptive Pasha, even more silly than in past years. It’s hard to believe that there are still a few morons out there who think that the portrayal of this character is somehow racist or anti-whatever and that the caricature of him is improper. Geeze Louise, a pasha is a political figure, not a religious figure — and what, pray tell, is more American than making fun of political figures?
The Odalisques were a mixed bag with only Melanie Hamrick acquitting herself with the expected success. Her feet were absolutely gorgeous and attached to scrupulously lined legs. There is a harmony between what is going on below the tutu and what is going on above it that is lovely to watch. Zhong-Jing Fang was in her own world musically, nearly missing the beginning of the trio’s first diagonal pass because she was luxuriating in stretching her neck and head. Throughout her variation her mouth was going like she was chewing gum. There is so much potential that could be realized in Fang if she would just stick with the choreography and stop adding stuff. Catherine Hurlin showed considerable courage in her turning variation, but didn’t quite pull off those triple turns. We’re confident that we will see them eventually, but just not last night.
While there was plenty of bravery on display last night, unfortunately ABT chose the coward’s way in pimping itself out to the Woke Set by altering sections of choreography of a 20+ year old prized production because of publicity sympathetic to those few who constantly engage in hypervigilance and self-victimizing. This is the same ABT that not long ago had a white man fiercely bouncing a black woman's tits on stage in a Liam Scarlett dance and then had its longtime supporter and sometime board member Susan Fales Hill tell the press that it was a wonderful ballet with real life maturity, and there was nothing wrong with that.
That said – the choreographer/owner of this Le Corsaire production is still alive, and she has every right to change her work. Unfortunately, the changes made (whipless slavemasters, removal of a prayer scene) didn’t enhance the production and looked like patchwork or simply omitted choreography. But as we said, it is the choreographer’s freedom to make those changes. It does lead down a slippery slope that sends ballet sliding head first into more people’s political agendas and Hokey-Wokey. Soon there will be calls in the NYT to alter MacMillan’s works to make them comfortable for the Woke Folk who never go to the ballet anyway. Gosh, what would happen if everyone decided that they couldn’t bear to read the NYT because original owner/publisher Adolph Ochs had a habit of squeezing women against the wall at the NYT office or that in 1917 the Times pined for the days when most blacks “admitted the superiority of the white race and troubles between the two races were unheard of.” We need to save the ballet from the Wokes who wear a scent of McCarthyism.
The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Skylar Brandt and Sarah Lane – oh, okay, and Daniil Simkin for their glistening and courageous dancing in the opening performance of Le Corsaire.
