“Kings of The Dance”
What: An evening of works for male
principal dancers
Where: City Center, New York
When: February 23-26
The title of the evening, "Kings of the Dance," was a heavy-footed attempt to describe a performance season by four male dancers at the pinnacle of their art. Because of their ages, they were more princes than monarchs. Never mind. They needed no introduction or title for an evening of star turns. Presented by producer Sergei Danilian, for Ardani Artists in co-production with the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the thought of seeing these principal dancers together was enough to fill any house, whatever you called the evening.
The idea of four stars in one work is not unprecedented. Anton Dolin created his pas de quatre for men, as did Jules Perrot, who created a pas de quatre for women. The evening opened with an introductory film followed by a group work for the four dancers by Christopher Wheeldon. The program included excerpts from the classical repertoire and commissioned solo works. Performers were Johan Köbborg (Royal Ballet), American Ballet Theatre artists, Ethan Stiefel and Angel Corella (who began his studies with Victor Ullate in Madrid), and Nikolay Tsiskaridze (Bolshoi Ballet). Each has won many medals at international competitions.
The short film, made at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, showed the performers in rehearsal of their classical and new works. It was an introductory look at their different training and styles: Köbborg, with his clean, classical Bournonville; Steifel in his free and easy approach; Corella with his charming, spectacular technical style, and Tsiskaridze with his powerful technique and somewhat sardonic personality. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon (Royal Ballet, resident choreographer New York City Ballet), in his "For 4," the opening work, was danced to the music of Schubert's quartet, "Death and the Maiden." He lived up to the challenge of directing international stars without exploiting their obvious talents. It was an easy-going, musical and visually satisfying work.
Classical variations scheduled for the season included Stiefel in Balanchine's "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux," Köbborg in "Flower Festival in Genzano," Corella in Petipa's "Le Corsaire," while Tsiskaridze danced a variation from Gregorovich's "Nutcracker." Central to the production was the nightly performance of "The Lesson," (Denmark's "Sweeney Todd"), choreographed by Flemming Flindt in 1963, and danced by a different "king" each night. Female victims ranged from a promised Diana Vishneva, who had appearance conflicts, to Alina Cojocaru, who danced the victim in Orange County. Flindt's work was inspired by Eugene Ionesco's play of the same name. Köbborg won, for his interpretation of the work at the Royal Ballet, a 2006 Laurence Olivier Award nomination. He was a conflicted and sinister Teacher. His Pupil was Gudrun Böjesen (Royal Danish Ballet), who was the giddy victim and Diedre Chapman (Royal Ballet), the reproaching pianist.
Act III opened with "Wavemaker," choreographed by The Netherlands' Nils Christe, for Ethan Stiefel to music by John Adams. It was a nervous and fitful work danced by an injured Stiefel. His performances are now physically and understandably bland. The panache of the younger Stiefel is gone, replaced by a pumped-up-looking torso. Köbborg gave a sensitive interpretation of Tim Rushton's "Afternoon of a Faun," as conceived by the Danish Dance Theater's artistic director and choreographer. One of the highlights of the evening was in Tsiskaridze's tongue-in-cheek approach to Roland Petit's "Carmen," one of the choreographer's several versions of "Carmen." Tsiskaridze included Carmen's dance with a fan and stopped just short of doing 32 fouettés. He lifted the interpretation to satire over camp. The audience loved it.
But the best was saved for last. Corella, who, along with Stiefel pushed the evening's inception into fruition, performed in his more ingratiating manner, completed with swift chianés, musicality and charming communication with the audience. It was a work created for him by Stanton Welch as "We Got It Good," to music by Billie Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Corella's ease of manner and innate feeling for jazz closed the evening with enough "bravis" to go around.
These evening's with the stars (there's another big one coming up at the Youth America Grand Prix and one was held in the recent past as "Stars of the 21st Century," are money makers and draw an audience. What was missed was male dancing in a pas de deux with a ballerina. There, the male dancer can show his technique in partnering. Through a pas de deux, he can look protective, tender, and if he has charisma, can almost steal away the focus from the female partner. Did anyone ever look at his partner when Nureyev was dancing a pas de deux? Star evenings are here to stay, despite the ravages of travel on the performer and the stress of learning new works quickly, for as long as physical strength holds out.