in the windowboxes while he reconsidered the five hours of ballet that he
watched Saturday at the Met. The All-American Program in the afternoon featured
Tharp's The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Taylor's Company B, and Robbins' Fancy
Free. The evening program, designated as the All-Ashton Program, included
Birthday Offering, Thais PdD, The Awakening PdD, and The Dream.
story ballets, but he enjoys good mixed repertory programs as well – they just don't
usually leave him happily emotionally devastated or exhilarated at the end of
the evening like a good story ballet does. Judging from the full crowds at Lady
of the Camellias and Don Quixote and the painfully thin crowds at the repertory programs
this week, a lot of New Yorkers seem also to have a preference for the full
length story ballets.
Nothing wrong with that – despite NYTimes critic Alastair Macaulay's
claim that "As soon as American Ballet Theater introduces mixed bills to its
repertory, the whole climate improves" and all of the specious arguments that
followed in his review. He's simply registering his well-known preference for mixed repertory
evenings as opposed to full length ballets. Despite the marginal attendance
and corresponding low revenues, Macaulay called for ABT do more mixed repertory
evenings which would have a further negative financial impact on the company.
He also recently implied the need for enforcing ethnic stereotypes for performers in Don
Quixote so that they look or actually are Hispanic. Haglund hopes that the
NY Times hurries up and starts charging for online access to its content so that
Macaulay's twisted wisdom will essentially disappear from the current readership's
radar. He can't irritate or misguide who he can't reach.
showing of The Brahms-Haydn Variations with Stella Abrera & Alexandre
Hammoudi, Xiomara Reyes & Herman Cornejo, Paloma Herrera & Marcelo
Gomes, Hee Seo & Gennadi Saveliev (replacing Part & Hallberg), and Sarah
Lane & Carlos Lopez. Herrera was clearly in her element, custom-made for
her by Tharp, and she beautifully illuminated the music with her harmonious
lines and articulate feet.
of Company B, Gillian Murphy was lovely and sentimental in "I Can Dream, Can't
I?" and Craig Salstein tore up the stage in "Oh Johnny." Tico Tico was a little
bland and again miscast – Daniil Simkin in the earlier cast and Mikhail Ilyin in
this cast. What made Andrew Asnes so profoundly funny in this role was his
size. He was one of the bigger, burlier PTD dancers and he isolated his tics
in his big joints making them look as though they were completely possessed by some
foreign energy. Putting little bones in the role kind of destroys the effect.
Cornejo or Salstein could probably recapture Asnes' humor in Tico
Tico.
Boylston and Post is looking better – with Lopez and Radetsky understandably
holding the piece together with their experience. Simkin missed a couple of
musical cues – got there a bit earlier than the other two sailors – but his
characterization continues to build. The PdD (Radetsky & Boylston)
continues to improve with Radetsky encouraging Boylston to bring more to her
character. She will eventually.
beautifully led by Stella Abrera and Eric Tamm with the other
principal ballerina roles danced by Renata Pavam, Gemma Bond, Hee Seo, Simone
Messmer, Maria Riccetto, and Christine Shevchenko. During the first group
dance, there was a little timing mess-up among the line of women where four of
the them were on one count while three were on another count, but it all
smoothed out quickly. Abrera was gorgeous in the role originated by Margot
Fonteyn and she handled the complexities and balances of the PdD as smoothly as
Irina Dvorovenko did earlier in the week. Tamm is one darned beautiful dancer
with a soaring jump, crystal clear beats, easy arabesque, and danseur noble all
over his upper body. His partnering of Abrera was on spot. Simone Messmer had the more sensational of the variations
with deep backbends and stabbing footwork – a terrific performance.
exotic and mysterious reading – helped along by dramatic but uncredited
lighting. The audience fell under this Ashton spell as soon as the curtain
opened to reveal Matthews in a burnt orange-ish costume standing spotlit on the
dark stage. The story was already in progress and the audience arrived just in
time for the climax and resolution. The music, Massenet's "Meditation" from
Thais, is perfect for the dramatic lifts and couplings which are sometimes slightly
obscured by the woman's long orange scarf so as to further the mystery of what
is going on under there. The Thais PdD was very warmly received by the
audience.
David Hallberg conveyed his wonder and near disbelief of the beauty of the
Princess (Veronika Part) before him. She twirled and melted into his arms with
just the right combination of grace and shyness, her legs and feet assembling
the most gorgeous passes, attitudes and arabesques. Lovely, but all too brief.
Stearns, Daniil Simkin in the leads. Reyes, one of ABT's finest dance-actresses, always shines in this role which exploits her wide-eyed
wonderment and touch of goofiness. Haglund was pleasantly surprised at Stearns'
strong performance. More than half of his arabesques made it to 90 degrees and
a couple even exceeded 90 in plie. His variations were clean and careful, if a
bit under-energized, and his mime was complete and convincing. But this ballet
is all about Puck, and tonight's Puck – though a work in progress – was mighty
impressive. Simkin tore threw the choreography masterfully taking control of
the evening and wowing the audience with his elfish humor and monster
technique. Hopefully in time he will compact the energy more and make less of his pirouette preparations, but he was – in a word –
fantastic! He was even funny upon realizing that he was not holding the red
flower prop that he needed in order to sprinkle the magic dust on Demetrius. No
matter. Magic dust is magic dust and it came from the end of his fingers
instead.
Stella Abrera, Jared Matthews, Maria Riccetto, and Sascha
Radetsky as Hermia, Demetrius, Helena and Lysander were exceptional as the
confused couples and showed great comedic timing. Sarah Lane (Peaseblossom),
Anne Milewski (Cobweb), Renata Pavam (Moth) and Gemma Bond (Mustardseed) were
especially funny in their reactions when discovering Titiana had fallen in love
with Bottom.
Haglund bestows this Fairy Pump Bump Award on this afternoon's The Dream for bringing its magic to the repertory: