ABT gala with a small g – 5/16

It was probably completely lost on ABT's management that the most enthusiasm and appreciation from the gala audience was awarded to a PdD by a choreographer who ABT seems to be boycotting the rest of season.  Yep, the crowd roared its love for Marcelo Gomes and Diana Vishneva in Kenneth MacMillan's Manon Bedroom PdD – and with good reason.  There's a whole story in 5 minutes and 40 seconds.  It's like taking an emotional journey on The Cyclone at Coney Island – up and down and around and whips you left and right – and at the end, you're breathless but every nerve in your body is tingling.  Gomes and Vishneva had us in the front car of The Cyclone tonight.  Maybe they knew that our all-time favorite Manon was sitting in the audience watching them.  Who can ever forget Alessandra Ferri's final ABT season in which she performed Manon four times in one week – all of them glorious, memorable performances – especially the Wednesday matinee with a magnificent Angel Corella after which among the first to rise to his feet in the audience was Roberto Bolle.  Haglund will never ever forget it.

Also on the receiving end of the crowd's love and appreciation were Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes in Alexei Ratmansky's Nutcracker PdD – we're not seeing it again during the Met Season either.  Part and Gomes are able to realize the beauty of this Tchaikovsky music like few others can.  Tonight they engaged us in their dream and the wildness of their joy with every step.  There probably isn't anything else that we see Veronika dance where she takes such risks and dives into the choreography with such abandon.  Obviously much credit must go to Marcelo for being the miraculous partner of superhuman strength.  What a beauty this PdD is and what a pleasure it was to see these two performing it once again.

Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky performed Jessica Lang's Splendid Isolation III – a Pas de Trois for a man, a woman, and a dress.  It was impressive when we saw it at the gala in 2008, and it was impressive again.  The curtain opened on Irina encircled by the enormous white train of her dress, her back to the audience.  It's a most memorable image, but it seemed that a few people with cameras in the family circle needed to capture it anyway.  The modern choreography that ensued had Irina struggling to reach Max and Max struggling to reach Irina, but the dress seemed to be keeping them apart.  Finally, Irina escaped the train of the dress and reached Max, but the ending had them huddled on the floor as though perhaps life could not go on without being attached to the train of the dress.  Max and Irina have turned this into a signature piece which they have performed around the world.  It's quite fine to see it every few years in a gala setting.  Haglund is looking forward to seeing Max and Irina together in Giselle and Swan Lake. 

Alina Cojocaru performed the Rose Adagio with Jared Matthews, Patrick Ogle (substituting for Sascha Radetsky), Gennadi Saveliev and Isaac Stappas.  It was quite a lovely performance, technically strong and without any mind-blowing balances.  Princess Aurora lacked some rapport with her princes, but technically everything went very smoothly.  Whenever Haglund sees a Royal Ballet artist perform the Rose Adagio, he hopes for the reincarnation of Viviana Durante who will always be the Aurora of his dreams. 

Not much else good can be said about the evening.  No appearances by Corella, Radetsky, Abrera, Lane, or Kajiya.  Hope they were all doing something useful with their time – as opposed to being injured. 

The Tchaikovsky PdD seemed labored.  The exit lift started to fizzle before the dancers got all the way off stage.  The Black Swan PdD, in weirdly truncated form, was phoned in by Odile, and Siegfried's grand jetes never opened past 90 degrees.  It's been a while since Haglund saw Odile's backward chugs in arabesque with such a low and awkwardly extended leg.  The Black Swan PdD is fine for every gala, but it should be given to dancers who are really hungry to dance it.  That's when it is spectacular.  We could have had spectacular this year but ABT let the Black Swan snatch defeat right out of the jaws of victory.  The White Swan PdD paired Paloma Herrera with Alexandre Hammoudi.  With another two weeks of rehearsal together, it probably would have been pretty good.  Tonight it seemed that with some of the lifts, Odette and Siegfried had different ideas about trajectory.

In both the White Swan and Black Swan PdDs, the violinist was terrible. Terrible.  Do we now have to worry about the violin soloist in addition to the horn playing in Swan Lake?  Say it isn't so.

We saw Hammoudi three times tonight.  He opened with a scene from The Bright Stream, danced the White Swan PdD, and closed with a scene from The Bright Stream.  He's on track.  Imagine how good he could become given time with Julio Bocca.  There are Bocca Beans in Jared Matthews, too.  That's where the money should be spent – on expensive coaches, NOT on expensive guest artists. 

The Majisimo "company premiere" was a waste of money.  There were better ways to honor Jose Manuel Carreno than by bringing a bunch of regional ballet company dancers to perform with him.  Cuban or not.  Why not just bring his handsome, talented little brother to dance with him?  The choreography wasn't any better or worse than the ABT student piece Karelia March.  Both were just a bunch of tricks to show dancers doing a bunch of tricks.  Paloma Herrera, the lone Argentine spitfire who danced in Majisimo, seemed to make the Cubans look a little tame.

Lady of the Camellias PdD included beautiful piano from Koji Attwood.  Julie Kent paired with Cory Stearns was kind of artificial looking.  She seemed concerned with some of the lifts, but there were no major problems that Haglund observed.  Stearns was fine in his dancing, but the dramatic weight just wasn't there.  Maybe he could use a stint at Bocca Bootcamp, too. 

The finale of The Bright Stream included great work by Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin.  Haglund reviewed them in Washington DC a few months ago and thinks they make a cute couple.  Daniil really puts some of the big guys to shame with his lift coordination.  Isabella was beaming tonight.  Beaming.   Her Bright Stream dates with Daniil are Friday, June 10th and Wednesday Matinee June 15.

Overall, as galas go, it wasn't so good.  However, just the opportunity to see such a passionate performance of the Manon PdD made the whole evening worthwhile.  So, of course, the gold and silver Giuseppe Zanotti Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Vishneva and Gomes who we can only hope will have the opportunity to deliver the whole ballet to us next season.