Twyla Tharp’s new concoction for Herman Cornejo, A Gathering of Ghosts, is a catch-all crazy good time. Her "what if " scenario of the ghosts of great historical/literary figures such as Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, Proust, Murasaki, the North Wind, Madame de Staël, along with someone named Irene, etc. meeting up with Cornejo, who will eventually become the brightest ghost of his own generation as Tharp suggests at the end, is a clever choreographic device. But she could have used characters named Hail Mary and Last Night’s Meatloaf and it wouldn’t have mattered.
Cornejo was brilliant as he wandered through what looked more like Tharp’s choreographic ghosts of ABT’s past than anything new. Even the opening strains of Johannes Brahms’ String Quartet in G Major, Op 111 revealed where Philip Glass got a musical idea for In The Upper Room, Tharp's 1986 masterpiece. We saw glimpses of her past works all mixed up and costumed eclectically by Norma Kamali. It’s as if Tharp told the designer, “You gotta save me. Go crazy. Spend all you want. McKenzie will just add a bogus costume fee to the ticket price to cover the nonsense.” And crazy the designer went. Blaine Hoven wearing a painted unitard with wide tulle skirt that opened to the front suddenly turned to face the back of the stage and clasped his hands behind his scapula the way he did as a bare-chested hunk in In The Upper Room. It was almost as if Tharp was saying the costumes didn't matter; it all would work regardless of the costumes. And in the case of her dances, it always does. But when men lifted women upside down in the splits or carried them on stage overhead with their legs in a diamond shape, it was a reminder that new ideas are really hard to come by in ballet. We heard the echo of Marie Antoinette, “There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.”
A Gathering of Ghosts is a terrific tribute to Cornejo with whom Tharp seems to have been as fascinated as she was with Baryshnikov. And Cornejo has obligingly molded himself to be the ultimate classicist with a funky side just as Baryshnikov did for Tharp. The choreography that she made for him here showed that he's got plenty of razzle-dazzle left and just the right amount of chutzpah to make it all charming. But this dance will not likely survive past Cornejo’s time which is approaching its conclusion. And then what? By what, we mean what becomes of the investment in a large new work with expensive costumes that has been built around one key person. Is ABT so rich that it can splurge on productions that have little or no future past a certain dancer? It’s true that Tharp might be able to continue to recycle her choreography, but what about the costumes? Oh, wait – the obvious answer is to saddle the ticketbuyer with a forced contribution called Costume Fee and then just pack up the costumes after a few uses and forget about them. In the past decade, ABT has overspent mightily on costumes, including costumes on major failures. But will ABT learn from its failure in sales this season when the public refused to foot the bill? Probably not.
This program also included Balanchine's Theme and Variations which looked terribly constipated. It hurts to say this, but ABT should not even consider dancing Theme and Variations again until a new director is installed who can resurrect the ballet's beauty and energy. And the company should not dance Theme and Variations again until the women can do entrechat six and bourree at a single speed to the music. Watching the corps bourree around on the stage was like watching the start & stop traffic on 9th Avenue at rush hour. Some of the ladies were step-step-step-step-stepping quickly in their bourrees while others were slowly clomping left-right-left-right as though their toes hurt. Doesn’t it matter to the ABT artistic team if the corps women’s feet aren't moving at the same speed? Jeezus, it didn’t even seem to matter that within a side line of corps dancers, one person didn’t even know which foot should be in front during bourrees. And these shrimp-sized dancers all danced as if they were running out of space. All in all, they made a shrimp-sized impact.
Nor was it the finest hour for our principals Sarah Lane and Joseph Gorak although their second show was considerably better than the first. But after all these years, not having double tours performance-ready is just not excusable. Nor is fumbling a simple lift of the tiniest ballerina to the shoulder. Good heavens, Sarah could have lifted Gorak to her shoulder with less trouble. The constipated musical tempo led Sarah through some very slow chaines and pirouettes. Had this been Tiler Peck dancing, she would have exploited the tempo by turning even faster, not more slowly. Theme and Variations should not look like a walk down Lazy River Lane.
The evening closed with a vibrant performance of Ratmansky’s hyper-kinetic The Seasons. Overheard on the way home, “I liked the middle one the best. The last one was kind of manic.” Oh, yeah, manic is a good description. There were too many ideas swirling throughout and too much minutia thrown in to address every note of Glazunov’s hummable melodies. The frantic arm movements of the corps de ballet often distracted the eye from the principal dancers. Still and all, we were happy to see Blaine Hoven get a well-earned chance to show what a brilliant artist he is. As the Summer Faun, he uncorked a thrilling barrage of aerial allegro. Blaine can do double tours, pitch petit allegro, gun through grand allegro, and has always been able pick up a woman or three and load them on his shoulder. And nobody looks better in white tights. Nobody. So why hasn’t he ever led Theme and Variations?
The ABT dancers are adept at Ratmansky’s dense, detail-filled choreography. Winter's Snowflakes were able to pick up where they left off in Ratmansky's Nutcracker and accelerate. Most of the other dances were similarly complex. Not much that the ensembles danced aligned with or complemented the principals’ choreography. There was a lot of independent action on stage but not a lot of symbiotic design. Nevertheless, we enjoyed seeing so many dancers featured. We’ll never see half of them in anything that McKenzie directs.
As the Summer's Spirit of the Corn Flower, Isabella Boylston retained her homely sloppiness from the waist up. Cassandra Trenary was a bold and scene-stealing Bacchante in Autumn. Zimmi Coker and Skylar Brandt as The Rose and The Swallow carried the Spring. The choreography for Winter out-paced Aran Bell who hasn’t yet caught up with Ratmansky’s style – but he’s obviously trying hard.
The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a faun-colored sparkling stiletto, is bestowed upon Blaine Hoven who no matter how high he steps up can't seem to get in McKenzie's line of sight.
