When the Americans’ loudest complaints about Russian ballet dancing are the smiles and the rich operatic bows, you know their asses have been whooped. Apparently, no one should dare not dance Balanchine exactly as New York City Ballet does. By that, we mean ig-zakt-lee, not iks-hahk-lee or eek-zaxt-lee. When in Amerakuh, speak Amerakuhn dammit. (For the love of all humanity, please vote by the end of tomorrow.) Good heavens, some of this snooty-snoot that Haglund has been hearing about the visiting companies’ performances makes locals sound like a bunch of Parisians.
Without a doubt, it’s important to ballet and also gratifying to New York City Ballet that companies throughout the world want to dance Balanchine’s great works and want their audiences to experience them. But there are no other companies on the planet that devote themselves to Balanchine’s ballets like NYCB does. There are no other companies on the planet who require potential dancers to push through the rigors of SAB, then take a daily class that focuses solely on the Balanchine-espoused technical demands, and spend all working hours trying to stay true to the underlying dancing principals that have made the company and Balanchine’s ballets so great. There are no other companies on the planet that do this. So why should anyone expect that a company that arrives for a festival will match NYCB musical counts (which can vary widely on any given night), NYCB aesthetic (which can vary widely on any given night), or any aspect of NYCB’s performances at all? Honestly, it sounds like the locals believe that the visiting companies were trying to be disrespectful since they didn’t mirror what is or has been seen here on NYCB’s stage. Maybe it’s time to look in the mirror, folks.
On Thursday evening, the Mariinsky Ballet’s interpretation of Balanchine’s Apollo was filled with stunning dancing, sensitive characterization, and elegant beauty. This crew hammered home how fundamentally important it is in this art form to start out with the right physical instrument. If the instrument isn’t right, the aims of the choreography cannot be achieved with excellence. Ballet isn’t about being the best average one can be. It’s not democratic. It’s not an art where we all vote on whether turnout, straight narrow legs, length in the limbs, a clear arabesque, and minimal body mass are important.
Xander Parish as Apollo clearly portrayed the young god who needed instruction from his muses. His boyish face showed the frustration of not yet being able to master his god-tasks. He conveyed Apollo’s struggle and disorientation as the liminality in his transformation to a full-fledged god. The moment when his head rose from the open palms of the Muses’ hands could not have been played more clearly. By delivering the expression with the force to reach the back of the Mariinsky Theatre, he may have whammed those in the forward rows of the NY City Center unexpectedly. But he was clear. His solos were technically and aesthetically gorgeous: shapes in the air, shapes on the ground, shapes standing still. It was impossible not to admire his artistry. We say this while clearly remembering how completely underwhelmed we were the last time we saw him on stage. Xander has quite literally made his own Apollo rite of passage.
Maria Khoreva, Anastasia Nuikina, and Daria Ionova as the Muses are all 2018 graduates from the Vaganova Academy. Khoreva, who danced Terpsichore, has already been promoted to First Soloist bypassing the ranks of Coryphee and Second Soloist, and doing virtually no time in traditional corps roles. What an amazing opportunity it was to watch this fledgling fly with such poise, precision, and grace. A couple of times, we thought that she veered dangerously close to turning her pas de deux with Apollo into a love duet, but we ultimately decided that she was expressing her love for her art form, not the hot god before her. Especially beautiful was the “swimming” moment while poised on Apollo’s back where the arch in her back and the length in her neck were extraordinary. The final pose with her arched torso tucked against Apollo’s arched back was a gorgeous image. Both Calliope and Polyhymnia danced equally well. Polyhymnia had a little struggle with the pique pirouettes to arabesque plié with the finger to the lips, but nothing more than what we’ve seen on NYCB’s stages from its long time principals.
Thursday night’s program included NYCB in Concerto Barocco. It was danced dreadfully slowly which made it a bore. Maybe the tempo was adjusted down so as to avoid problems dancing in the smaller space. Both Maria Kowroski and Abi Stafford danced as though they were tired. Russell Janzen dispatched his partnering duties reliably and cleanly.
The Royal Ballet couple Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé brought their game up considerably from the night before and delivered an energetic Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux.
The San Francisco Ballet’s Divertimento No. 15 suffered some from the narrow stage. These are excellent dancers who would have appreciated being able to really cut loose for the New York audience, but were somewhat confined. Their dancing was scrupulous and refined, however.
Sunday’s closing performance of the festival included the Joffrey Ballet in The Four Temperaments. Jeraldine Mendoza in the Third Theme and Yoshihisa Arai in Melancholic were commanding. Unfortunately, the rest of the company didn’t match them in authority. Given the difficulties that Christine Rocas and Victoria Jaiani had with Sanguinic and Choleric, respectively, we wondered if the Joffrey had actually danced The Four Temperaments much in Chicago. It was not a fully baked loaf, so to speak.
Along with the Mariinsky’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux redux, the Paris Opera Ballet performed the Divertissement Pas de Deux from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Taken out of context, this PdD was not very interesting. The dancers (Sae-Eun Park and Hugo Marchand) were like print & plaid together. Neither made a strong impression in this dance even though we know from having seen them perform before that they are fantastic dancers.
American Ballet Theatre’s Symphonie Concertante to music by Mozart turned out to be one of the highlights of the three performances that Haglund saw - for two reasons. First, NYCB doesn’t dance the ballet so we have no idea what it would look like if dispatched with Balanchine styling and speed. Second, ABT danced it very, very well in their own style. Christine Shevchenko, Devon Teuscher, and Thomas Forster were an elegant and glistening trio of academic beauty. For quite some time, many have wondered why Forster has been so underutilized in major full length works at ABT. While we were certainly transfixed by the beauty of Shevchenko and Teuscher, we suddenly snapped to a new alertness when Forster arrived on stage. For such a huge man, he certainly moves with the grace of a panther. Charming, handsome, killer lines, gorgeous feet, huge jumps, beautiful pirouettes, youthful arabesque. And his dancing has always been superior to the management-favored, audience-abhorred James Whiteside.
ABT’s corps looked very comfortable dancing on the smaller stage. Tidy lines, bright smiles, lovely port de bras, no need to rush or stretch to reach a position. It all looked very pleasant. No stress, no mess. We can’t fail to mention how gorgeous the Theoni V. Aldredge tutus were. Every woman on stage looked like a million dollars.
Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon the Mariinsky Ballet for their Apollo.