Beauty is as Beauty Does: A review of Diana Vishneva “Beauty in Motion” at New York City Center!
Taking a pure cut diamond and placing it in a ten-cent store setting is as much a sacrilege as making a glorious ballerina dance in unworthy choreography. Such was the case of Diana Vishneva in the debut performance of “Beauty in Motion,” a spring attraction at New York City Center. A ballerina with pure movement instincts, limbs Terpsichore would envy and a face cosmetic ads might covet had her own performance series, which included three pieces of new and less than astounding choreography which she gamely carried off - gratefully with no apparent injurious aftereffects. A largely Russian audience, known to tear the place apart after an evening of Boris Eifman, offered less than enthusiastic applause. This must have been a disappointment for a dancer who regularly bows to standing ovations.
Alexei Ratmansky, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet whose name had been tossed around as a replacement for Christopher Wheeldon at New York City Ballet, choreographed “Pierrot Lunaire” set to a poem cycle sung by Mezzo-soprano Elena Sommer and performed by Vishneva and three male dancers, all of them with distinguished ballet careers. The dancing was as it should be - flawless. But the material they were asked to perform meandered about through poem, music, and song – all 21 sequences - enough to provoke yawns and droopy eyes. It seemed like swimming in a calm sea – no surf, no over-the-head gigantic waves, just ripples of repetitive movement and Vishneva frolicking about being pushed, pulled, lifted, exchanged in air from one pair of arms to another – always looking her personal best. Often those uncanny legs would split high over the head of one partner and an arrow would pierce the heart of loyal balletomaines in the audience who wished for a crowd-pleasing pas de deux like “Le Corsaire,” or “White Swan” had been included in the program. Why did she subject herself to dispelling energy on mediocrity when a dancer’s energy is such a precious commodity?
Desmond Richardson and Diana Vishneva
Photo by Nina Alovert
Moses Pendleton’s forte, the images he creates for his company “Momix,” faired better for Vishneva. Her exquisite body was on display melded together with some soothing music to produce both a visual gift for the audience and a respite for her. She had time at the beginning to catch her breath while Pendleton played with neon colored images, arms and legs silhouetted against a black curtain. Then the scene changed, and there she was, body beautiful like Narcissus at the wading pool, stretched out on a mirrored ramp under exotic lighting - Vishneva and her image like twin creatures of perfection languishing, curling up, lengthening out – in an exotic work entitled F.L.O.W., (For the Love of Women”). In the end she donned a silver cone-shaped dress and spun like a whirling dervish as the costume flared out like an umbrella. The piece was visually a delight and turned saved the program from sinking completely.
Saving the worst for last – it was a fervent wish both that “Three Point Turn” the final piece would be mercifully short (it was not) and that one remembered to pack an aspirin or two for the ride home. Dwight Rhoden has come up once again with a suitcase full of movement, non-stop steps somewhat endangering life and limb of Vishneva. Dancing opposite Desmond Richardson for the first time, all we could hope for was that her disability insurance was paid up. Vishneva and Richardson fought valiantly to engage the audience through a difficult score by David Rozenblatt, but it was a difficult effort. The electronic and live percussion score worked against them rather than for them.