ABT opened a week of Swan Lake performances last night with Irina Dvorovenko as Odette/Odile and Max Beloserkovsky as Prince Siegfried. The house was packed, and the crowd was enthusiastic.
Haglund had mixed feelings about the highly stylized, super-punctuated performance that Irina gave. At times it was spectacular – particularly in her Odile sequences. At times it was a little excessive – sometimes overwhelming Max’s performance. Irina’s Odile was better in part because she had Marcelo Gomes’ bigger-than-life Von Rothbart to work off of which balanced any excesses that she employed. Her arabesque balances were incredible last night. Her fouettes were supersonic singles that were as pleasing to watch as anyone else’s triple revolutions.
When partnering Odette, Max’s Siegfried pretty much disappeared. For ages, that’s exactly how it was supposed to be. The partner was invisible and his job was to make the ballerina look like a miracle. But times have changed. We now expect partners to be the passion-equivalent of their ballerinas. As much as this married couple enjoys dancing with one another, each might benefit from experiencing the spontaneity of dancing Swan Lake with other partners.
Max’s variations in the Black Swan PdD were not the best Haglund has ever seem him perform. However, his pirouettes were secure and ended in beautiful fourth positions with opened arms after four neat revolutions. Every good pirouette lead to an even better one. His grand jetes, while perhaps not remarkable when compared to other leading dancers in the company, were respectable.
Max is not an emotional actor and he pretty much stuck to the script during Acts I and II, but he loosened up considerably as he road out each beautiful pirouette in Acts III and IV.
A minor complaint – both Odette and Siegfried had fairly unspectacular suicides off the cliff. Both had to immediately look for the mattress below like there was some chance that they would miss it. Don’t they rehearse this part? Come on guys, go for it!
Marcelo Gomes’ Von Rothbart was brilliant – of course. Decadent and delicious evil. Isaac Stappas as the uglier half was sufficiently hideous, and he got to enjoy yet another excruciating death scene.
Daniil Simkin as Benno appeared as a wiz-kid. However, he’s got some very mature mime skills, and he impressively engaged Beloserkovsky’s Siegfried throughout Act I. His PdT with Isabella Boylston and Sarah Lane was quite good and he employed that tour en l’air from one foot that is pretty remarkable. But Isabella was a bit too tall for him to partner. Sarah Lane performed the PdT as well as ever and Haglund saw her change facial expressions three times. But the happy surprise was Isabella. She was gorgeous. Beautifully articulate feet and legs. Beautiful and very expressive face. She sometimes over-pitched her upper body forward on her grand jetes, but other than that, she was stunning. What a beautiful dancer.
The Cygnettes (Kajiya, Butler, Copeland, Riccetto) could not have been more perfect. Clone-like to the point that it looked like each had cracked her shoe shanks in the exact same place. The audience erupted wildly at the conclusion of their dance. They were perfect.
The Big Swans were Hee Seo and Stella Abrera. Good performances although it looked like Stella was struggling a bit with the grand jetes.
Joe Phillips’ and Craig Salstein ‘s Neapolitan dance was packed full of four revolution pirouettes with Phillips squeaking out a fifth spin on one occasion. They were a good match-up.
The Spanish Dance was performed by Maria Bystrova,& Roman Zhurban and Sarah Smith & Cory Stearns. Zhurban captured the Spanish flair perfectly whereas Stearns conveyed the same character as in La Sylphide, Allegro Brilliante, Theme and Variations, etc., but he got the steps better. Bystrova was a beauty and Smith did quite well considering that she was a last minute replacement for Karen Uphoff.
Finally, the Corps was exquisite. Beautifully breathing as one. While Haglund wishes that certain elements of the Act IV choreography would be restored, what is there is ravishing and the final scene with the swans disappearing beneath the fog is always beautiful no matter how many times one sees it.
A special Pump Bump Award for the Corps de Ballet:
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