American Ballet Theatres City Center Mini-Season
American Ballet Theatre's two-week season at City Center, October 23 to November 4, opened its gala as "A Tribute to the American Spirit," with some rare tidbits and excerpts, such as Ballet Russe star, Frederic Franklin (87 years old and still in command of the stage), Martine van Hamel (former principal ABT ballerina) and Georgina Parkinson (ABT's current ballet mistress) appearing in a trifle, but charming "Reverie," by Robert Hill. Eliot Feld's pas de deux, "Variations On America," to the music of Charles of Ives, was danced with tongue-in-cheek perfection by Erica Cornejo and Angel Corella; an excerpt from Kirk Peterson's "Amazed in Burning Dreams," danced by Herman Cornejo - Erica's brother - who brought a roar of approval from the audience; and the "Prayer" variation from "Coppelia," performed poignantly by Ashley Tuttle, in keeping with the theme of the evening for a city still raw with hurt from the 9/11 horror.
Lar Lubovitch added "My Funny Valentine," for Sandra Brown and Marcelo Gomes (Harid-trained luminous star); Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Belotserkovsky danced Balanchine's "Sylvia Pas de Deux" with hard-edged clarity unsuitable for this 18th century graceful delicacy; Susan Jaffee danced Odette's pas de deux from "Swan Lake," with Carlos Molina, who looked woefully like a teen-ager caught in the wrong part of the forest, but who shows promise; Nacho Duato's pas de deux, "Without Words," was danced by Julie Kent and Vladimir Malakhov (aaaaaah); and Clark Tippet's third movement from his "Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1" was executed by an exuberant group of soloists.
Had enough? Most gala evenings exhaust the cast as well as the audience, who get their gala-priced ticket's worth. But then came the big mistake of the evening, Balanchine's tour de force masterpiece "Symphony in C," danced tentatively, with one fluff after another, principals falling off pointe and dress-rehearsal uncertainty.
The rest of the season settled down to Paul Taylor's "Black Tuesday," out of the black of the Metropolitan stage, where it made its debut and into the lights of City Center; "Esmeralda Pas de Deux," brilliantly danced by Nina Ananiashvili and Jose Manuel Carreno; and a full version of Kirk Peterson's athletic, relentlessly driving, physical nightmare, "Amazed in Burning Dreams," originally created in 1993 for Pacific Northwest Ballet. In that piece was, Kristi Boone, just out of ABT II, the apprentice company, proved herself a full-fledged professional and soloist in no time at all.
The gem of the season was the new production of Antony Tudor's "Dim Luster" (1943) created for Ballet Theatre, a story of two would-be lovers conflicted by memories of other loves. David Richardson's staging clarified the relationships and the psychological depth of a look, a touch or a memento as only Tudor could do without using film, slides, or commentary. All the action takes place in an Edwardian ballroom, slightly overwhelmed by the imposing new set and cumbersome costumes. Julie Kent is perfect in this understated role of The Lady With Him and Ethan Stiefel became her equal interpreter as the passionate Gentleman With Her. ABT keeps its wings - de Mille, Petipa, Tudor, Robbins - in good performance shape true to the choreographer's intent.
Getting back to "Symphonie in C," here we have some puzzling decisions made by Victoria Simon and John Taras, who reconstructed the work. New York City Ballet's production performed at City Center in the past began the First Movement with six dancers and two soloists. The moment the curtain went up with ABT's eight dancers, the New York State Theater's enlarged stage that called for an enlarged cast seemed to be the version chosen. It only led to disaster when the ABT version used a new group for the Fourth Movement, that formerly was danced by the First Movement cast as well, thereby adding more people on stage in the several finales than could be comfortable. By the time the several codas came about, there was no stage room to see patterns much less room to execute Balanchine's style of off-balance risks, crisp movements, clear changes of direction and the execution of a step directly on top of the beat instead a fraction of a second behind it.
Then there was a matter of casting. Obviously, the company wanted to give everyone a chance to dance this masterpiece, suited or not, as they began making it their own. The soloists who found a frame of reference
in Balanchine's classicism fared best: Dvorovenko and Belotserkovsky found the elegance in the First Movement, Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes understood the contrast of mood and romance in the Second Movement, Ashley Tuttle and Angel Corella saw the light touch and ethnic fun the Third Movement, and Sandra Brown and Sascha Radetsky understood that they were soon to bring on the exciting codas, although there was no room onstage for the entire State Theater-sized cast. But the performance of the work did improve as the week's went along, until one could breath a sign of relief at the last attempt.
Other works were presented. "Rodeo" (de Mille's) that should be headed for the last round up by now; "Marimba," created by Robert Hill for ABT II, a dark work using a percussion score with marimba (a primitive xylophone of southern Africa and Central America) that needs more viewing and restaging by this talented choreographer; Stanton Welch's "Clear" (Australia's classically-trained choreographer to watch, who will do a new work for ABT II this season) and "Gong," a new work by Mark Morris, to a Balinese-inspired piece by composer Colin McPhee, that forms the base for this modern-dance choreographer's witty spoof on ballet partnering.
ABT's upcoming spring season at the Met promises to be sensational when Carlos Acosta, Cuba-born charismatic star, will be added as principal dancer for the 2002 Met season. Premieres include Sir Frederick Ashton's "The Dream" and "La Fille Mal Gardee" (1828, by Jean Dauberval, the comic and oldest ballet still performed), and Canadian James Kudelka's "The Firebird," as well as Glen Tetley's "The Rite of Spring." The usual array of classics will return, including "Symphony in C." Next time, they might get it right. •