Upon opening its first season at Avery Fisher Hall this evening, American Ballet Theatre just may have acquired the distinction of becoming the only company ever to present seasons at all three of the major venues on the Lincoln Center campus: New York State Theater, Metropolitan Opera House, and now Avery Fisher Hall. Quite remarkable.
Even if tonight’s program was a mixed success, it was an evening of repertory perhaps nearly as mixed as that which Miss Chase concocked during ABT’s formative years. It was 70 years ago this month that she and about 16 dancers were furiously preparing for what would be the January debut performances of Ballet Theatre: Les Sylphides, Carnavale, Jardin aux Lilas, Judgment of Paris, Dark Elegies, The Great American Goof, Giselle, Swan Lake, La Fille Mal Gardee were all in the works at that time – even before a theater had been found and reserved for the performances. There’s probably no point in wondering if the choreography being created these days represents an evolution or devolution - it’s probably both.
Before we got to see any dance this evening, however, we had to listen to a couple of bimbos with 2nd grade reading skills read “their” prepared remarks to open the evening. Normally McKenzie delivers this annoyance and manages to do so without giggling, butt swinging, and stumbling over his own words. Thankfully, the ladies tumbled to the bottoms of their pages relatively quickly but then presented their behinds in a slow walk across the stage for their exits.
Alexei Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas opened the program to music by Domenico Scarlatti. This was a beautiful offering, stunningly danced by Julie Kent, Xiomara Reyes, Stella Abrera, David Hallberg, Herman Cornejo, and Gennadi Saveliev. Dressed in simple white dresses with bare legs, the ladies flirted with their partners and frequently changed partners – perhaps just sampling what was out there – but all eventually ended up with whom they were destined to be. The men were spectacular in their individual allegro sections, but it was the women who teased out the gaiety and underlying melancholy in the beautiful sonatas. Abrera was breathtaking in her pas de deux with Saveliev. Her gentle, sweeping lyricism and long, effortless line wove through the adagio exquisitely. Haglund is so grateful to see her back on stage after such a long and unfair absence.
Aszure Barton’s One of Three to Ravel's Violin Sonata in G proved to be quite a disappointment, not to mention a waste of money. It had more than a little “college phys ed major dance requirement” element to it. Basically it was a concoction of elementary ballet steps (lots of legs to the ears) and modern dance cliché movements. ABT’s Make a Dance program for middle schoolers could produce something with better content.
The three women in the cast, Gillian Murphy, Misty Copeland, and Paloma Herrera, each had her own confrontations with groups of men. Murphy’s long white dress was designed to draw attention to her bust. Her choreography was a few arabesques and some facial expressions. Copeland’s costume – with revealing halter neck and white skirt, was designed to draw attention to her bust and her hyper-extended legs and hyper cavus feet. Paloma, who is becoming all too adept at successfully selling the mediocre choreography that has been turning up during the Fall seasons, managed to sell it once again with charm, charisma, and attack-and-get-it-over-with drive. Her connection with the audience was immediate upon her entrance, and her rapport with partner Carlos Lopez was excellent.
Haglund has admitted that he adores these dancers so much that he would pay money just to watch them push grocery carts down the supermarket aisle, but he doesn’t ever want to see this Barton piece again. No thank you.
Following One of Three, Veronika Part performed Michel Fokine's The Dying Swan. She was heartbreakingly beautiful, but the lighting design for the performance was either really bad or non-existent. Haglund is used to seeing The Dying Swan on a darkened stage with the Swan lit brightly. Because both the pianist and cellist were positioned on the stage, the stage was lit more brightly than it should have been which detracted from the otherwise glorious performance.
Benjamin Millepied presented Everything Doesn’t Happen At Once to a collection of music by David Lang of Bang on a Can fame. It was Einstein who enlightened us with “The only reason for Time is so everything doesn’t happen at once.” While Millepied surely does not present as a choreographic Einstein, he has managed to put together a dance that has a strong beginning, a strong ending, and things of interest connecting the two. He used a large group of dancers, 24 in all, and moved them in mass in criss-cross patterns and straight horizontal and vertical lines. He uses way too much pedestrian movement as segue to little dances and pas de deux. In fact, it seemed like there was more pedestrian movement than dance. That might be a good tool to use for Robbins’ Glass Pieces, but Glass Pieces has already been done. We don’t need a repeat or something imitative. Without meaning to go all Crowe Ransomish, Haglund thinks that the piece stands on its own without the benefit of a lot explanation from Millepied and makes a non-narrative choreographic statement. In other words, Millepied is finally cooking with gas. If the piece has a high wow factor – and it does, unashamedly – well so does Le Corsaire. And what’s more wow than vaulting off a cliff to one’s death in a lake below?
The dancers were terrific in Millepied’s piece, particularly Maria Riccetto and Danil Simkin in their individual efforts. Simkin displayed his gymdanstics skills with flying leaps and multiple pirouettes at warp speed. All of it very thrilling, but yes, rather commercial. The central pas de deux was danced by Isabella Boylston and Marcelo Gomes - not a good match-up. Isabella has all the feet and legs that she needs but still presents as a corps dancer with a rather dead expression on her face. Haglund was happy to see Isabella's progress in classical roles during the Spring season at the Met when she was forced to bring more to the performance aspect of her dancing and he hopes to see that again.
Haglund had a good time this evening and awards this Golden Cleats Pump Bump to Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas .
Go Yankees
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