ABT 6/25 matinee
Reading the waters of Swan Lake

It was just another Died and Gone to Heaven afternoon with Veronika Part as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. The performance was what one waits for all year long – the quintessential reading by an artist whose physique and soul were born to tell this story. The breadth of wingspan alone gave Veronika’s Odette a majesty that few others in the world today can equal. The beautifully sculpted shoulders and long arms, perfectly shaped hands and fingers, exquisitely svelte torso, and magnificent S-shaped limbs helped to turn the afternoon’s Swan Lake into Lake Superior in more ways than one.  

Veronika is the true Trumpeter Swan among all of ABT’s swan queens, the one who lives Odette and Odile and makes us believe the tragedy and trickery of each. She arrived at the lake with every flight feather in her glorious technical plumage immaculately groomed. Her arabesques soared. Her balances sang. As Odette, her pirouettes swirled with an undercurrent of sadness and passion; as Odile, her 32 counts of fouettes were a rip current of tease and torment ending with a clear double pirouette and clean finish. As Odette, she pleaded her story and misery to Prince Siegfried with such clarity and passion that he could not help but be overcome by his own intense emotion. One happy change noted in Odette’s mime was that her mother’s tears rained off of her fingertips all the way down over the edge of her tutu just the way in which Nina Ananiashvili used to mime them. Most of the ABT swan queens pour their tears into the bra area or make it look like Odette is bowing her head to sneeze into her hands.

While it is true that Veronika’s Swan Lake performances opposite Marcelo Gomes are always life changing experiences for the the audience, she doesn’t need him or Roberto Bolle or any big name danseur to be her Prince Siegfried in order for her to create extraordinary magic on the stage that is always the highlight of Swan Lake Week. Their partnerships would drive the audience into ecstacy, but if Veronika doesn't have the pleasure of their company, she still pulls off a wham of a performance.

Contrast that to the casting of light & little Hee Seo opposite only the biggest, burliest principal men who can carry her through easy-assignment performances and act as her crutch. Hee doesn’t do especially well when dancing with the less than top tier partners with whom Veronika and most everyone else must dance. So, not only is Hee being given extraordinarily strong men who will carry her performance, but those men are being taken out of service as partners for other taller women who deserve a partner of complimentary height and strength. Being carried through a performance will fool the newspaper critics into giving nice reviews, but it won’t make Hee a better dancer any more than it made Julie Kent into a fully functioning ballerina while she was carried through her career by partners who could be her crutches. It won’t help Hee's fouettes. It won’t help her backward chugs in arabesque. It won’t help her batterie. It won’t help any aspect of her dancing that requires more than looking beautiful while being controlled by a male partner.

Perhaps Hee should seek help from Yuriko Kajiya for those out of control traveling fouettes before Yuriko leaves ABT to go to Houston Ballet. In the unlikely event that Yuriko were to begin traveling forward, she could just make a quarter turn, then another, and travel back upstage. She’s been rotating the direction of her fouettes for years which seemed to be lost on unobservant audience members who pig-squealed in awe when guest dancer Kochetkova did them in Don Q. Honest to god, there are people who flock to see guest artists and pig-squeal all over themselves when they have no clue what the company’s own dancers can offer.

It’s been eight years or so since we last saw Marcelo as Siegfried to Veronika’s Odette/Odile during the Met Season. ABT refuses to give the Met Season audience the best that money can buy, because a Veronika/Marcelo duo makes all the other couples look so much less worthwhile. It is what it is. Some dancers, like Hee and Julie, need to try harder instead of relying on management to hide the better duos to make them look like more accomplished artists.

Veronika’s Prince Siegfried on Wednesday was Cory Stearns. They first danced Swan Lake together in 2010 after “injuries” caused both Marcelo and Roberto Bolle to withdraw. Haglund’s eyewitness report of the stressful events of that ultimately successful, happy evening lives on at this link.

Stearns has improved much in the drama department thanks to lots of acting work in ballets such as Lady of the Camellias, Onegin, The Bright Stream and anything in which he can work intensely with a coach or stager other than Kevin McKenzie. The problem with his drama is that it doesn’t generally get far over the footlights, in part, because of his small face and features, and in part, because he has not yet learned how to raise his face to the upper levels of the house so that the light catches it. The problem is exacerbated when he dances with partners who are much shorter, because he looks down at his partner instead of seeking ways in which to direct his face into the light. A little makeup highlighter to separate the brows from the eyes might help, too.

Stearns’ Act I started out a little sleepy. He needed more power and stretch from those feet and legs to get into the air faster and travel farther. What frequently drives Haglund crazy is Stearns’ slow acceleration and slow deceleration in the non-dancing stage movement. All too often, it looks like he’s slowing down and pulling up to a stop after unsuccessfully chasing down a tennis shot. There has to be more definitive authority in his starts and stops. He had what it takes when confronting Roman Zhurbin’s swamp creature Von Rothbart and Jared Matthews’ purple Von Rothbart on Wednesday; so we know he can do it.

Stearns' partnering of Veronika was right on the money all afternoon, and he got in some terrific lifts including that big overhead lift that travels upstage in Act IV until Siegfried turns and flips Odette into a lower modified fish position and continues to carry her downstage. Stearns didn’t mess up at all, and in fact did much in the way of complimenting Veronika’s lines with his own. The supported turns were pleasing, but, of course, were helped a lot because Veronika was on her game when it came to pirouettes. Stearns' solo dancing was clean and often had good energy. His landings from double tours were excellent, even textbook perfect in some cases. By the end of the performance, he had won us with his effort and noble bearing.

Blaine Hoven as Benno danced a well-controlled PdT with the beautiful Stella Abrera and Melanie Hamrick, but Blaine's dancing did not have the fire or flexibility that we have seen in the past. On the other hand, his theater skills have grown immensely. Stella is one of the few women at ABT who commits to doing flying sixes and entrechat sixes in her variation while most others scratch their ankles with entrechat quatres or royales. Regardless of her spectacular, principal level performances, this beautiful, accomplished dancer continues to be disrespected by Kevin McKenzie who doesn’t want to advance her because she’s so valuable in her lower station. That type of personnel management would get you kicked out of any thriving corporation, but with ABT, it seems to be a condoned practice.

Melanie Hamrick completed the trio handsomely. Maria Riccetto used to be the third member, and she is much missed, but Melanie’s crystal clear positions and high energy were very pleasing to watch. The other night, Haglund was talking with some of the regulars at Rudy’s Bar & Grill on 9th Avenue about Melanie and her fascination with septuagenarians. Hal and Chester, after whom the porky mascot out front was modeled, volunteered to keep Melanie company. So, there’s no need for her to go flying off to Zurich if she’s feeling a little lonely. Just come on down to Rudy’s on 9th.

Jared Matthews disappeared into the character of the purple Von Rothbart even better than he did on Monday. McKenzie’s inability to recognize and reward this artist for the level of his dancing is a huge failure, the consequences of which will be felt by all of us when Matthews decamps to Houston Ballet with the equally talented and under-used Yuriko Kajiya at the end of the season. His Von Rothbart was nearly as detailed as Marcelo Gomes’ defining characterization and was as well danced. He made you love the character’s treachery and evilness. The dynamics of Jared’s acting and danci
ng have become among the best in ABT; he’s like the Dustin Hoffman of ballet who can do drama, comedy, romance and everything in between. There is no reason why a deal could not be worked out so that Jared and Yuriko could hold dual positions with Houston Ballet and ABT. The New York audience has much invested in them and sees their bright futures even though McKenzie doesn’t.

Haglund doesn’t want to forget to remark on Gillian Murphy’s lovely Act II Odette from Monday evening before an injury caused her to withdraw from the performance. Her creamy port de bras was exquisite, and we could feel Odette’s suffering. Also important to note was the fantastic Act I Pas de Trois by Sarah Lane, Yuriko Kajiya, and Joseph Gorak which was near perfection. The Act III PdT found our prince-to-be in a swirl of confusion, but that’s totally forgiven in light of the remarkable performances that he has delivered this season.

The Cygnets on Monday night were less uniform only because of the distraction of one pair of jugs bouncing up and down while on Wednesday afternoon another Cygnet's little trip that held potential for complete disaster was recovered nicely.

In addition to Melanie Hamrick, another corps member who continues to catch the eye for her cool, long lines of swan beauty is Courtney Lavine whose delicate face reminds one of Virginia Johnson from the 1980’s Dance Theatre of Harlem. But there is no doubt that some culling of the corps needs to be done. When there are dancers who look more like Monica Lewinsky or members of the League of Lady Wrestlers than ballerinas, you know it’s time to freshen the flock.

The First Position Pump Bump Award, clear diamonds from the House of Borgezie, is bestowed upon Veronika Part who is miraculous in her artistry and unparalleled today in her overall interpretation of Odette/Odile.