Last night’s performance of Airs with a cast made up of corps members Kelley Boyd, Simone Messmer, Luciana Paris, Leann Underwood, Roddy Doble, Joseph Phillips, and Sean Stewart just proved that Sean Stewart must have committed some awful, even capital, crime for which he is now being punished by denying him leading roles throughout the ABT repertory. The man danced head and shoulders above every other person on the stage in Airs last night (and those the night before) – but oh yeah, his crime? – he’s short and there are only so many shrimp roles to go around. His second offense – he left ABT for several years during which he accumulated experience that made him a better dancer than if he had stayed. His third offense – he’s not a kid. It’s three strikes and he’s incarcerated in the corps for life. This guy has brilliant classical and contemporary techniques and a powerful stage presence – powerful enough to force Haglund to go back to see a second performance of the gag-inducing Citizen last fall at City Center just to see Stewart.
La Sylphide with the cast of Nina Ananiashvili, David Hallberg, Carlos Lopez, Marian Butler and Nancy Raffa was sensational. Nina and David were more expressive and in tune with each other than Osipova and Cornejo the night before. The technique was down a notch, but still brilliant. The whole performance seemed more Bournonville-authentic – perhaps because of the tall blond dancing James who could not help but make people remember the tall blond who danced the role in the 1960’s. One oops last night. The wedding ring dropped to the floor when Sylphide tried to grab it away from James. There was a momentary look of uh-oh on James' face, but then he knelt down, picked up the ring and presented it to the Sylphide. Haglund would have preferred to see both of them dive to the floor for it and wrestle a bit, but oh well.
Carlos Lopez was fantastic as Gurn – acting and dancing with great energy and charm. Effortless technique and joyous in his variations. Haglund enjoyed Carlos’ dancing last night in La Sylphide as much as he did a few weeks ago when Carlos’ gave us such spectacular performances as Birbante in Le Corsaire.
Marian Butler more than held her own with the star power on stage last night. Her Effie was very cute and funny, particularly in her dramatic collapses in tears.
Nancy Raffa as Madge, the Witch – give her a Tony for this one. That James was able to maintain his face and composure when Madge looked up and loudly hissed at him was no small bit of magic in itself. The Witch as drawn by Nancy Raffa is worth the price of the ticket - as entertaining as anything you’ll ever encounter on the streets in the East Village.
Haglund awards this little East Village beauty Pump Bump to Madge and company for another great one:
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