ABT – Prokofiev Celebration – 6/1

Alexei Ratmansky, newly signed celebrity free agent, stepped to the Yankee mound for the first time tonight.  The expectations and pressure were enormous.  The entire Steinbrenner family was in the house watching.  Feeling the pressure, A-Rat threw every pitch in his arsenal as fast and as hard as he could from Inning 1 through Inning 9.  He impressively struck out a number of hitters, but he had to throw a lot of pitches to do it.  The poor catcher was exhausted before the 7th Inning Stretch.  With the help of his teammates, all of whom are destined for the Hall of Fame, A-Rat ecked out the win.  He's off the schneid.  Now he can relax and get down to the business of figuring out how he can use his unique finesse and imaginative pitching to help the team going forward – without wearing out the catchers.

On the Dnieper by Alexei Ratmansky premiered tonight to a fairly packed house at American Ballet Theatre.  Haglund found the Prokofiev score underwhelming – perhaps just underwhelming for dance.  Even though he generally loves Prokofiev, he couldn't attach to the music emotionally or find the story within the music.   Ratmansky's choreography for the most part was incredibly steppy, if not crammed with steps, particularly for the corps.  Less might be more.  A lot less might be best.  That's all Haglund has to complain about. 

There were some truly interesting and innovative minutes in the piece, most notably a solo for Veronika Part which was stunning for the speed, direction and level changes, and demands on Ms. Part's technique. As they used to say about the Reds Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench: Veronika's speed is deceptive.  She's actually slower than she looks. Well not tonight folks.  She kicked up a whole lot of cherry blossoms with amazing speed.  Her performance as Natalia, the one Sergei discards in favor of a younger, peppier Olga, was extremely involved and believable.  Nobody, and Haglund means nobody, does Victim as well as Veronika.  A wonderful performance tonight.

Some of the other highlights were the final PdD between Sergei (Marcelo Gomes) and Olga (Paloma Herrera) as they received the resigned Natalia's best wishes and went off on their happy ways.  Lush, romantic, not crammed with unnecessary technique, it really was beautifully worn by Marcelo and Paloma.  Also, it may be the most likeable, hummable part of the music.

Another striking moment was the brief PdD between Sergei and his mother, Georgina Parkinson.  Haglund moved to the edge of his chair wondering what might become of this.  But it was all innocent, and very, very interesting as well as enjoyable to see Georgina dancing again.

David Hallberg was Olga's fiance who got dumped for Marcelo.  He had a couple of very complex solos.  It was nice to watch David move through the choreography, but it was never quite clear what his character was supposed to be portraying in the movement.

Haglund loved the scenery:  cherry trees in full bloom, a HUGE moon that changed throughout the night, long wooden fences that occassionally were moved around by the dancers to suggest a change in location, and cherry blossoms all over the floor.  It was worthy of a Met opera.

The other two pieces on the program were Balanchine's Prodigal Son and Kudelka's Desir.  Herman Cornejo and Michele Wiles were terrific in the Prodigal Son leads as were Sean Stewart and Arron Scott as the servants and Vitali Krauchenka as the Father.  One had to guess that the pain in Herman's face as he crawled around on his knees might be real.  His final scene following the exit of the Siren was downright good drama, and Krauchenka's eyes of the Father as he carried the Son home were fantastic!  Michele gave a first rate performance.  The role suits her perfectly, and she was a convincing dangerous seductress.  Haglund believes she probably was a better match with Cornejo than she would have been with the originally cast Stiefel.

Desir was nonstop pyro-partnering for three main couples and three corps couples.  It was all very interesting for the first 10 minutes, but thereafter, it was a repeat of most everything that came before.  Blaine Hoven and Gillian Murphy manuevered through their very athletic PdDs very masterfully.  When a few of the cherry blossoms from the final ballet, On the Dnieper, started to descend from the ceiling, Blaine and Gillian smiled, but it didn't phase them.  Carlos Lopez and Misty Copeland performed PdDs that were even more athletic, and then Cory Stearns and Isabella Boylston performed a pretzel pas which showcased Isabella's beautiful feet and extensions, and her full throttle force.  They received loud applause and bravos from one particular section of the orchestra. 

Haglund awards this minature rose petal filled stiletto Pump Bump for, as one audience member commented, "an unusual, inventive program with great dancing – but not always the type of choreography we're used to."

  

  

 

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