Corella Ballet – AC Voltage at Maximum

NY City Center was the bright spot on the planet last night as a near capacity crowd turned out to welcome the Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon on its New York debut.  No doubt about it – Angel Corella is still at peak demand in the dance capital of the world. 

Not quite two years old, the Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon brought a debut program of works mostly unseen in New York, including Corella’s first choreographic effort, String Sextet; three gem gala-quality pieces:  Walpurgis Nacht by Leonid Lavrovsky, Sunny Duet by Vladimir Vasiliev and Natalia Kasatkina, and Solea by Maria Pages; and Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse A Grand Vitesse.  The program choices allowed us to focus on the performances and dancers without engaging in the nitpicking comparisons to other companies’ presentations – as New Yorkers tend to do. 

It would be a mistake to dwell on the merits of the evening’s choreography because the true importance of this company’s visit to New York was to show that Spain is indeed well on its way toward building its first classical ballet company.  Spanish classical dancers no longer need to leave home in search of an outlet for their talent.  Rather, the world’s talent has begun to gravitate toward Spain.

The evening opened with Angel Corella’s String Sextet set to Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir of Florence.  Corella has thrown his dancers a challenge that as time goes on will extend their limits, sharpen their technique, and see them acquire a Corella-stamp, so-to-speak.  Some opening night jitters were evident and one could sense the dancers’ adrenalin nearly pouring over the edge of the stage.  All of sudden, Joe Gatti appeared on stage and electrified the audience with his AC-like voltage, charisma, and “watch this!”  panache that was, well, gotta say it, Corella-imbued. 

The tutus for String Sextet were stylish, if a bit impractical, and tended not to compliment some of the smaller dancers who looked overwhelmed in the high collars and sleeves.  However, stylishness garners points in New York.  The yellow and white tutus in particular were sharply elegant.

The middle section of the evening opened with Lavrovsky’s Walpurgis Nacht to the familiar music of Gounod.  Once again, Joe Gatti “Mr. Watch This!” was brilliant in the technical challenges that included multiple pirouettes brought to a dead stop on releve and some very fierce jumping.  Kazuko Omori, who was one of the dancers in String Sextet for whom the costume did a disservice, soared in a little red tunic that revealed shapely legs and lovely lines.   Kirill Radev completed the trio with his own bursts of brilliance and clearly is a soloist who is destined to make a major impact with this company.

Sunny Duet (Vasiliev & Kasatkina) was performed by Herman Cornejo and Adiarys Almeida in its original 1973 form to Arno Babajanian’s archival recording.  A program insert noted that the specially commissioned score no longer exists.   The warm reds of the backdrop and dancers’ costumes were gorgeous.  The pas de deux – sensual, imaginative – with stunning and sustained lifts.  What a treat to see this revival.  And it is always a treat to see Herman Cornejo on stage – whenever, wherever, in whatever.

The third pas de deux was Maria Pages’ Solea for Carmen and Angel Corella.  You think New York doesn’t miss Carmen Corella?  Think again.  She was gorgeous. 

Pages created the solea to commissioned flamenco music that included some very complex rhythms and vocals.  Angel and Carmen began seated next to one another on chairs in the center of the darkened stage and proceeded to engage in a choreographic competition among brother and sister that melded flamenco with classical ballet.   Wonderfully unique.  Wonderfully personal for these two dancers.  Just delicious for the audience to see them dancing together on the New York stage.

The final offering of the evening was Wheeldon’s DVG:  Danse A Grand Vitesse to Michael Nyman’s score MGV: Musique a Grande Vitesse.  The music was originally commissioned to celebrate the opening of a new line of the TGV – the French high-speed rail service.  Nyman’s minimalist rhythms invoke images of the high-speed train cruising the French countryside.  It surges with energy that unfortunately isn’t represented in the choreography.  But Haglund is not going to p&m about the choreography except to say that it’s one more example that illustrates Wheeldon has lost touch with the vocabulary of his craft and is depending too much on quirky hand and arm movements and cheerleading routines.  Someone should pass him Gail Grant under the table just to remind him that the ballet vocabulary is a lot richer than he currently remembers.

That said, the dancers embraced DVG wholeheartedly and seemed inspired by the challenges of the pretzel pas de deuxing.   However, it’s not a piece that shows off the strengths of  classical dancers.  A contemporary classically-based piece that would have done that is Clark Tippet’s Bruch Violin Concerto which is in the Corella Ballet’s repertory.  In fact, former ABT principal Cynthia Harvey said in a recent interview that the piece has never looked better than as recently performed by this company.  That is a tremendous compliment.  And that is something which we need to see.

But for now, don't miss the Corella Ballet at City Center through Saturday evening.  We will only get to see Angel perform twice this spring with ABT at the Met – a criminal act of negligent scheduling by Kevin McKenzie – so see him now.  He is dancing wonderfully.

Haglund bestows this winged Pump Bump Award on the Corella Ballet which has clearly taken flight.

 

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