American Ballet Theatre put about 200 of its best feet forward this evening at its Opening Night Gala performance. But let’s talk about arms – specifically, Obama vs. Kennedy vs. Vishneva.
Caroline came before a podium in front of the curtain to read her prepared remarks about the importance and quality of the ABT school named after her mother. Clearly she has been working out more than in past years. She looked great – great bare arms, great hair, short speech. She introduced Michelle Obama who came to the podium with awesome bare arms along with some very kind remarks about ABT and the importance of the arts to us all. Not even when Caroline crushed her note cards to flex her biceps did she come close to Mrs. Obama’s steely limbs. The contest was over, however, when Diana Vishneva appeared in the balcony PdD with Marcelo Gomes. Diana claims that she sculpts her arms by swimming. While she may have had the unfair advantage of Brad Field’s overhead lighting this evening, make no mistake, those definitely are not swimmer’s arms.
All in all, it was an unusually glamorous and well attended event . Attendance was certainly enhanced by Mrs. Obama’s appearance. She, in turn, was probably thrilled beyond words to see Ivanka Trump there. Haglund was thrilled that Senator Chuck Schumer addressed the audience about how he argued to use some of the stimulus package money for arts in New York.
The opening piece on the program was an excerpt from Balanchine’s Mozartiana performed by Veronika Part and four little girls from the JKO school. Ms. Part was absolutely and gloriously beautiful and confident. However, Haglund found the opening round-shouldered pose a bit odd. Undoubtedly, that’s how Maria Calegari set it, but it was still not particularly pleasing.
Next came about 50 students from Levels 5, 6 and 7 of the JKO school in Le Defile led by none other than Billy Elliot himself, David Alvarez, who is in Level 6. David got to do a little partnering, a few pirouettes, and was cute as a button. All of the kids were tidy and the young men were especially impressive with their several measures of consecutive entrechat seises. Haglund will allow that there was more reason than usual to show off the JKO kids at this gala, but he hopes that this doesn’t become an annual event. After all, this is the Met. Would the Met Opera march out a bunch of kiddies at its Gala to sing arias? Don’t think so. Would the NY Phil march out a bunch of kiddie violin players to perform at its Gala? Don’t think so.
The third piece on the program was an excerpt from Act II of La Sylphide with Xiomara Reyes, Herman Cornejo and the full corps. The costumes were exquisite! Herman and Xiomara were exquisite! Even though the pas de bourrée couru did not look especially Danish, the sum total of Herman’s electrifying beats and Xiomara’s bright and delicate mischief assures that this new production will be a hit.
Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel gave a dazzling and grown-up rendition of Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Unquestionably a powerful technician, Ms. Murphy was especially delicate in this evening’s interpretation. Mr. Steifel’s elevation continues to be startling even though Haglund has been watching it for twenty years. It was evident from both that they enjoyed the opportunity to dance with each other.
The Sylvia Hunt Scene, performed by Michele Wiles and a superb corps, followed the Tchai PdD. Ms. Wiles was a strong and strong-willed Sylvia and looked like a million dollars in the costume. Haglund cannot wait to see if Roberto Bolle can persuade Ms. Wiles to reveal the heart and beauty under that all-business exterior.
Waltz Masquerade, a piece d’occasion by Alexei Ratmansky for Nina Ananiashvili, to Khachaturian’s music was a bit silly. Beloserkovsky, Corella, Carreno, and Gomes dressed in suits stood at the four corners of the stage holding candelabras while Nina danced about the stage in a red dress doing Nina’s favorite steps. She then pretended to faint. They rushed to her rescue, and then competed for her attention. The piece wasn’t a compliment to anyone – dancers or choreographer.
Following the intermission, Gomes and Vishneva gave us a most passionate balcony PdD from Romeo and Juliet. This is definitely going to be a performance not to miss. Bring a fan.
The next piece was the white swan PdD from Swan Lake with Paloma Herrera and Max Beloserkovsky. It was quite beautiful and kind of refreshing to see these two dance together.
The Le Corsaire PdT followed with David Hallberg, Irina Dvorovenko and Angel Corella. Irina was wearing a less ostentatious blue tutu, but it still clashed badly with Ali’s costume. No doubt, every one of the 4000 people at the Met were comparing the picture of the beautiful PdT tutu on the front of the Playbill with the costumes on stage and were wondering why ABT messed with perfection. Corella danced like a crazy person –.unbelievably incredible! No doubt, he wanted Michelle Obama never to forget him. She won’t. Corella’s bursts of energy this evening were the most intense that Haglund has ever seen from him. Nearly suicidal. Irina, however, was at times dancing like a caricature of herself. It was very distracting to see her flip her tension-filled, claw-like hands around in a very un-medora-like way. Hallberg, as Conrad, retained his sensibilities and gave a mature, traditional performance in spite of the craziness around him. Whew.
Guest artist, Herbie Hancock, took the stage and performed a jazz piano piece d’occasion complete with mood lighting and cameo appearances by Jose Manuel Carreno and Stella Abrera. J.M. only did what looked like a little improv. Stella was strictly decorative and didn’t dance a step. She sat on the floor and then sat on the piano bench looking like a million bucks in her black dress and pedestrian shoes. Haglund powered up his binoculars to examine Stella’s feet for any evidence that she might secretly be wearing a cam walker tonight. He saw no evidence of that. So, how much longer is it going to be before we see her back in action?
The gala evening ended with the finale from Theme and Variations led by Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin. Sarah was gorgeous, if not imperial looking. Daniil was out of his element tonight. He had noticeable difficulty cramming all the movement into the tempo. He is so young looking, and looked as young as David Alvarez this evening. He has the jump-strength of ten people, but he is very slow. McKenzie is going to have to do something to bring this kid up to speed – literally. The T&V corps of men and women were tack sharp and elegant beyond words.
Haglund enjoyed the evening a great deal. It was nice to see such a full house with so many people giving each other air-kisses and bending over backwards to be polite and complimentary. If the arts bring out this kind of behavior from the masses, it’s all the more reason to give it government support. In honor of this evening, Haglund opened up the trap door in the floor of his closet and fished out his criminally expensive Pump Bump Award, the Gucci coke: