Haglund's Heel

Mikhailovsky Ballet – Don Quixote 11/21

While sitting in the midst of a mostly Russian-speaking audience at Friday night’s Don Quixote by the Mikhailovsky Ballet, it occurred to Haglund that perhaps, just perhaps, this company didn’t travel all the way from St. Petersburg for his personal enjoyment or the enjoyment of the American audience that we commonly see at ballet performances at Lincoln Center. They came for the more than 1-1/2 million Russians who live in the tri-state area. Occasionally, the local Russian population shows up at Lincoln Center for a ballet performance of an American company that features a star from back home, but never in the numbers that they do when a company arrives from St. Petersburg or Moscow. There's nothing unusual or wrong with that. Americans living around Osaka probably flocked to Nishinomiya recently to watch Robinson Cano, Evan Longoria, and the MLB All Stars play a group from the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants in an exhibition game even though they might not routinely attend local Japanese baseball games. They were probably pretty thrilled to witness Evan Longoria hit a grand slam home run and didn’t much care that it wasn’t the World Series.

At last night's performance, audience members warmly appreciated the artists in this colorful and attractive production, but didn't go overboard the way that they sometimes can do. The evening's lead performers were younger, less experienced dancers who stepped on stage without the benefit of already having big reputations to help prop them up.

There is a facial expression that dancers sometimes can’t hide when accepting applause following a variation. The bottom half of the face has a confident smile and genuine appreciation of the audience’s response, but the eyes subtly reflect the realization that they could have done everything a lot better and a wish for the instant do-over that they never will have. They know that they had the ability to knock it out of the park like Evan Longoria, but it wasn’t their night to do it. And so it was with our young leads last night at the Mikhailovsky. Angelina Vorontsova as Kitri and Victor Lebedev as Basilio gave an okay performance that was not the best that they could give and certainly not the best that they will give in the future. It was, however, our last look at them for a while.

Ms. Vorontsova is already somewhat known – not for her dancing, but for being a protégé of the controversial Nikolai Tsiskaridze and as the girlfriend of the Bolshoi dancer convicted in connection with the attack on Sergei Filin.

Lovely, strong feet with high extensions that she forced to their maximums throughout the night, Vorontsova was clearly in her elements of vibrancy and power. That was all fine for the joyous and natural Kitri in Acts I and III, but she did not have the delicacy, maturity or purity of line to pull off Act II’s ballerina solos. And, yes, she was a little fleshy in places that tended to catch the light, particularly during the grand pas in Act III. A beautiful and very charming smile along with youthful energy took her a long way in the performance. Right now, she has good basic carpenter tools but not the craftsmanship needed to carve out a Kitri that is unique or extraordinary in any way. Her series of fouettes were done with her hands on her hips for all 32 counts but for some reason they didn’t look particularly spectacular. She was able to hold attitude poses on pointe for extra counts but they didn't hold much value and sometimes interfered with the musicality of the dancing phrases.

Basilio was a big stretch for Victor Lebedev, who is a more natural Albrecht or prince type. He isn’t yet strong enough to pull off a convincing Basilio and would have looked better opposite a ballerina with a similar lengthy physique. He did not attempt any one-armed lifts and he had some difficulty manipulating Vorontsova as she dropped from an overhead lift into a fish position. Otherwise, his partnering was smooth, particularly in the rotation of Vorontsova’s pirouettes. His own pirouettes, however, were not quite as pristine as he would have liked although a few clean double tours interspersed with pirouettes were a good sign of better things to come. His final series of turns a la second were a blaze of power and perfection without moving out of place - the kind of performance that makes you want to check back with this guy on a regular basis.

Ekaterina Borchenko danced the Queen of the Dryads by the book without making any mistakes but without making herself interesting. Espada, Mikhail Venshchikov, and the Street Dancer, Valeria Zapasnikova, were sufficiently dramatic but not particularly sultry.

A cohesive crew of soloists and demi-soloists wearing orange sherbet colored tutus in Act III, led by Anna Kuligina and Ms. Zapasnikova, were as skilled and personable in their dancing as any major company anywhere. They looked, for all intents and purposes, like the future stars of the Mikhailovsky Ballet.  

Here in the land of legendary Don Q performances, it would be easy to sniff at what's not spectacular. But we won't. These very young artists, several of whom eschewed the traditional paths through the ranks of the more prestigious Bolshoi or Mariinsky to join the Mikhailovsky, have shown that while they may just be getting started, it won't be long before they are upholding Russia's ballet tradition without the aid of anybody else's stars.

Mikhailovsky Ballet – Giselle 11/12 matinee

When America’s middle tier ballet companies tour Eastern or Western Europe and present Balanchine works as part of a program, there are probably some in the audience who are disappointed because they were expecting to see something on the level of New York City Ballet. After all, the dancing comes from America; it’s Balanchine; there are standards to uphold. When a ballet company from St. Petersburg comes to a major stage in New York with Petipa on its main course platter, it’s hard not to expect something tasty through and through. Expectations are high because St. Petersburg is, practically speaking, Chez Petipa.

So it was somewhat disappointing to see that the Mikhailovsky Ballet’s Giselle really didn’t approach the level of the extraordinary Giselles that St. Petersburg has exported to us over the years. There were some satisfying moments in Wednesday afternoon’s performance – it’s always nice to discover promising new dancers – but overall the performance was a snooze that didn’t wake up until Albrecht’s variation in Act II.

The 2007 production by Nikita Dolgushin is thin on mime, simplifies some of the choreography, and employs an odd usage of the quite stunning scenery.

Our Giselle and Albrecht for the afternoon were Anastasia Soboleva and Victor Lebedev. Both are quite young – she graduated from the Bolshoi’s feeder school in 2010 and he graduated from the Vaganova Academy in 2010. But it was not the debut for either even though at times it looked like it might have been.

When Soboleva popped out of her cottage for the first time, we instantly fell in love with her exquisitely long and finely shaped arms, her beautiful face which looked as though she could be our own Sarah Lane’s sister, and her wholesome, unaffected charm. But some labored hops on pointe, the substitution of attitude turns with the leg in front instead of behind, loosely pointed feet, and some miscalculated arabesques in Act I dampened our enthusiasm. Act II, however, revealed a more composed and focused artist but still there were some technical problems in Giselle’s variations. The developpes a la seconde were shaky and extremely high but without a finely formed foot at the end. The penche arabesque was frightfully unsteady. But here in Act II, Soboleva was able to transform her character from life to spirit through the use of her delicate arms and elegant neck.

In Act I, Lebedev’s Albrecht was not particularly engaged in what was happening on stage, but he likely wasn't too worried about it because of what he had up his purple sleeves for Act II. A beautifully proportioned danseur whose turnout escapes him frequently, Lebedev raised his dancing another level or three in Act II. In his variations, he flew down the diagonal with assembles each of which ended with a soulful and extraordinary flexible backbend. His arabesques and attitudes were gorgeous in form, dramatically balanced, and exceeded those of Giselle’s. His pleadings with the Wilis and his efforts to escape to the right and then to the left conveyed his desperation and his loss of will. When Myrtha finally commanded him to perform his entrechat sixes, it seemed that he had nothing left to give. But oh wait, 35 entrechat sixes later, he finally flung himself onto the forest’s floor in a heap of exhaustion. The roar of the audience drowned out the howling of the hungry Wilis. Giselle burst into the action, and saved him.

The forest scenery in Act II curiously rose up and down, sometimes creating the effect of being blown by the wind. Giselle’s grave was in the downstage corner, but there were other graves along the back of the stage. When Giselle made her final exit, she bourreed not toward her own grave but upstage toward the other grave markers in the back. It looked like maybe she might return to a grave other than her own. Wouldn't that be an interesting twist?

Myrtha was performed by Irina Kosheleva. Though magisterial, her grand allegro often seemed forced. The front leg and foot of the grand jetes were high above a dropped torso. There was no sense of wisp or flight in her jumps. Irritated woman, yes; vengeful spirit, no. After seeing Sam Shepard’s take on revenge in A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations) at Signature Theatre on Tuesday night, we think perhaps someone should give him a shot at enhancing Myrtha’s scheme. Holy bloodbath, Batman; but Shepard sure does have a way with words.

Hilarion, in this production referred to as The Gamekeeper, was excellently portrayed by Andrey Kasyanenko. His dance to the death before Myrtha and the Wilis was one of the most dramatic sections of the performance.

The demi-soloists and corps de ballet were proficient in both acts. Act I included a nice touch in which the peasants, both men and women, criss-crossed the stage in a manner that seemed to foreshadow the voyage of the Wilis in Act II. The Peasant PdD was performed by Anna Kuligina and Ivan Zaytsev who had all of the correct technical change in their pockets. The Wilis were mostly very lovely if at times a little noisy in the feet.

It was a treat to see the Mikhailovsky Ballet with its very own artists instead of a crew of imports who obscure the true picture of the company. We’re going to check back in on Victor Lebedev on Friday for Don Quixote to see what his Basilio brings. In the meantime, we’ll bestow upon him the H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Gucci stiletto in royal purple.

observations - 3/18

It looks like Phil Jackson won't be coming to ABT's front office or to coach - not at this time. Knicks fans have reason to live: Troubled club now in Phil Jackson’s hands 

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Kristina Shapran will dance the lead role in Giselle at the 2pm matinee on Wednesday, November 12 when the Mikhailovsky pulls into the Koch Theater this fall. Tickets are on sale now.

What has the new artistic advisor to the general director been up to? Maybe Altynai Asylmuratova will make the trip with the company, fall in love with New York, and want to stay.

Speaking of Giselle, when Baryshnikov was running ABT, he took Gelsey Kirkland and himself to Minneapolis to dance Giselle. Next month, the city not only isn't getting ABT's A-team, it's not getting the B-team or even the T-team. Not very thoughtful of amurika's national ballet company.

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The 2014 Jerome Robbins Award will be presented to the Paris Opera Ballet on June 19, 2014 at Palais Garnier in Paris. Outgoing director, Brigitte Lefèvre, will accept the award on behalf of the company. From Ms. Lefèvre's written acceptance addressed to the Robbins Foundation:

As I am about to leave the company I served with passion for over twenty years, I receive this award with a particular emotion. I cannot help but express my gratitude to Jerome Robbins. I had the pleasure of hosting him in the 1990s when he came with four of his ballets which brought the number of his ballets to fourteen that have entered the rep since 1974. The Paris Opera Ballet owes so much to Jerome Robbins. Through regular visits with his "second family" as he liked to say, several generations of performers have experienced first‐hand the diversity of his work.

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Wendy Whelan indicated in a recent interview for an article in The Atlantic that she will officially retire from NYCB during this coming fall season.

Today, Whelan is making small progress with her injuries; she has starting doing light exercises. However, she intended to be back on stage this month for her freelance dance project, Restless Creature, but had to postpone the tour due to delays in her recovery from hip surgery.

She still plans to appear in the NYCB’s spring season—but in City Ballet’s fall season, she told me, she was bidding goodbye to ballet. She will retire.

“I’m gonna go,” she said. “Because I’m hoping that that will take the pain away.”