A last minute decision to take in most of this evening's performance proved to be a good one. Abi Stafford in Concerto Barocco along with a very sharp corps de ballet made the evening a very happy one. Musically sensitive, musically inspired, musically gifted are all ways that Haglund would describe Ms. Stafford for the loving way in which she colored her movements this evening. So much of her dancing stood out, but in particular, a diagonal of piques backward to fifth en pointe followed by a lunge to fourth position with extensive port de bras was especially beautiful. She pulled and extended the music as though she were the evening's conductor.
The other violin was Megan Johnson. With her rail thin physique, long legs, and defined arms, Ms. Johnson has mastered the steps but still looks very much a student. Her feet are not strongly pointed and she does not use them to punctuate and complete her developpes. The legs are pretty much just thrown as high as they will go with little control.
Tschaikovsky PdD was performed by Ana Sophia Scheller and Jared Angle. Haglund did not find this pairing to be complimentary or even make sense. Each did nothing for the other. Ms Scheller made a good effort to avoid muscling her way through the choreography, but at times could not avoid temptation to do so. She also threw the legs up without employing the feet to punctuate and complete the movement. Lots of extensions but no developpes. Mr. Angle's performance was serviceable in every way, but he did not bring anything particularly unique or special to his variations. To the discredit of both, the fish dives were nothing to write home about.
Delicious performances from Janie Taylor and Amar Ramasar (replacing Philip Neal as Death) in La Valse. Haglund has seen this several times this year and believes that Ms. Taylor has simply run away with her interpretation of her character while continuing to enhance and amplify it.
The evening concluded with The Four Temperaments, but Haglund was unable to stay for that performance.
Here's a pretty Pump Bump Award (Prada) for Abi Stafford and Janie Taylor for their harmonious and luminous performances this evening.
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