Joo Won Ahn’s relationship with Le Corsaire is – shall we say – complicated. Actually that’s not quite accurate. Our relationship with Joo Won Ahn in Le Corsaire is what is complicated. It’s not likely that we’ll ever forget how he dumped our glorious ballerina, Veronika Part, to the floor like a Peterbilt front-end loader dumping rock into a pit and then sprawled on top of her during his debut as Lankendem a few years ago. But we may have to forgive him eventually – perhaps sooner than later.
On Saturday night, Ahn as Ali the Slave was the sensation in the sensational cast of Le Corsaire’s closing performance. He along with Christine Shevchenko (Medora), Cassandra Trenary (Gulnare), Brooklyn Mack (Conrad) and Aran Bell (Lankendem) delivered bold, high risk dancing in a two-hour round of one-upmanship. Ahn came out on top and even scored extra points with his blistering manege of double tour assembles that he brought back from the brink of disaster time and time again and concluded with one heck of an exclamation point to claim his victory. Even if he had rolled one of those assembles to the floor, we sensed that he would have rolled to his feet and fought back to finish the job. A fast manege of double tour assembles may not exactly be Ahn’s “thing" at the moment, but everything else is, it seems: high flying saut de chat, huge double tours, sizzling pirouettes, bullet-like coupe jetes – and all of it accomplished with the high velocity that this production demands in order to be its most entertaining. It was another courageous performance from an ABT dancer this week.
Christine Shevchenko soared through all three acts as Medora – her adagio work was as rich with beauty as her allegro was brilliant. Shevchenko’s willowy limbs and long, narrow torso created exquisite arabesque lines that curved gracefully from the back of her neck through her spine and out to the edge of her toes. Near the conclusion of the bedroom pas de deux with Brooklyn Mack’s Conrad, Shevchenko launched herself toward Mack’s chest and he lifted her upside down overhead so that her body was absolutely vertical except for the gentle arch in her neck as she turned her face toward the audience. The pose was as spectacular as any we’ve ever seen in the 20+ years of this production. Shevchenko’s power was admirable when it came to the big steps – such as in her fiery fouettes and turns a la second, and yet, her precision was never compromised.
Brooklyn Mack opened and closed the run of Le Corsaire as Conrad and sandwiched in other performances of Conrad and Ali during the week. The opening performance was okay but lacked Conrad’s character. The final performance four days later showed a much more relaxed Mack who was confident theatrically while blasting his way through some terrific grand allegro. Aside from a few wince-inducing sickled feet and careless leg positions in Act III, he was great fun to watch. There was more exaggeration of character than earlier in the week which made his performance much more likeable.
Cassandra Trenary, new to the role of Gulnare this season, was beyond lovely in both her dancing and interpretation. Her distinctive phrase punctuation which we found overdone in her Aurora in Sleeping Beauty was absolutely perfect for the role of Gulnare. While the matchup of Trenary with Aran Bell’s Lankendem wasn’t particularly harmonious, the two of them seemed to make it all function technically. Particularly lovely were those two lifts in which Gulnare held her legs in a wide second position — there was an element of restraint that made the whole image much more beautiful than the overly-athletic split that others have favored in past seasons.
Aran Bell as Lankendem got all the steps fabulously, particularly the spacious jetes and the deep knee bends in the landings of assembles, but he wasn’t convincing in character. He was out on stage showing us how Aran Bell would portray Lankendem instead of showing us Lankendem. The red pajamas didn’t seem to liberate Bell the way they liberated Malakhov, Carreno, Beloserkovsky, Simkin, Saveliev and others who knew that they could steal the show if they packed enough sleuth, slime, and Buster Keaton into their character.
Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Joo Won Ahn for his fabulous dancing and great competitive spirit in Le Corsaire on Saturday night.
4 responses to “ABT 6/15 — More courageous dancing”
I’m simply amazed at Aran’s ability to digest so much new rep this season. Debuts in Corsaire, Swan Lake, and Beauty, not to me mention some other featured roles, and the fact that he took on Romeo last season. Any one of those would be a lot to tackle while keeping up corps roles. He certainly has a bright future.
I’m simply amazed at Aran’s ability to digest so much new rep this season. Debuts in Corsaire, Swan Lake, and Beauty, not to me mention some other featured roles, and the fact that he took on Romeo last season. Any one of those would be a lot to tackle while keeping up corps roles. He certainly has a bright future.
I hope Aran has a bright future. McKenzie is running Bell exactly the way he ran Stearns early on. Lots of energy and opportunity was invested in Stearns because he looked like he might be the next cat’s pajamas. But it wasn’t to be, unfortunately, and it turned out to be an over-investment in one artist while many others lost out on opportunities.
I hope Aran has a bright future. McKenzie is running Bell exactly the way he ran Stearns early on. Lots of energy and opportunity was invested in Stearns because he looked like he might be the next cat’s pajamas. But it wasn’t to be, unfortunately, and it turned out to be an over-investment in one artist while many others lost out on opportunities.