ABT wrap up, plus links to media and reviews

Nine American Ballet Theatre performances in two weeks - I'm a bit stunned that I managed to pull it off, though I perhaps shouldn't be surprised based on prior behavior. The last time I did this was when the Royal Ballet rolled into town for a rare tour three years ago and I attended all seven of their performances, and later that same season, I went to eleven of New York City Ballet's thirteen local performances - another rare tour (though to be fair, it was six different programs with cast changes at each).

I'm not sure what exactly drove me to attempt such insanity. I mean, ABT comes around every year, so a visit from them isn't quite the same as a visit from the Royal. In any case, I did it, and I had fun seeing so many different facets of the company.

Things to remember from the run: Sarah Lane's debut as Aurora on Sunday, which was a bright and refreshing performance that hopefully heralds great things to come. Veronika Part's Vision Scene as Aurora on Thursday night gave me goosebumps - thrilling. Marcelo Gomes being his usual magnetic stage presence and making something great out of the Prince role on Thursday night. Despite my reservations about Othello, I was held fascinated throughout by the company's remarkable performance, from the principals through the corps. David Hallberg was virtually unrecognizable in a great way, Blaine Hoven a refined young classicist. Symphonie Concertante was a delightful confection from the gala, and it was always lovely seeing Balanchine dancing.

Regarding the new production of The Sleeping Beauty, I'm apathetic about it. It's not awful, but not great either. On the one hand, I'm disappointed that a great company like American Ballet Theatre can't produce a top-of-the-line production of this ballet. The Royal Ballet's recent production, criticized for being a tad bland, is still miles more interesting, dramatically coherent and compelling than ABT's new version (I saw this last year, at the Kennedy Center). And, geez those cartoon world sets and costumes! It's like Medieval Fun Faire up there. On the other hand, though, it's a good enough Sleeping Beauty. All the basic 'set piece' choreography where it needs to be with not too much outlandish tinkering, and the company needed a full length Sleeping Beauty in the repertoire - the company's women look spectacular in this ballet. The sets are cartoony, yes, but they're attractive enough and the kids love them when the curtain goes up. There's certainly plenty of fun stuff to look at: My favorite part every evening was watching Carbosse arrive and depart via firecracker rocket.

I say it all the time, and I'll say it again: I wish that big ballet wasn't presented in this town for such isolated and concentrated periods of time. There's no real solution to that problem in LA since we don't have a major local ballet company, though the fledgling Los Angeles Ballet is making promising baby steps. I'm happy for the opportunity to see ABT and many other wonderful touring companies, though. Maybe I just need to move to New York. Or London. Or Paris. Or San Francisco.

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As an appendix to my posts over the last week and a half, here is local media coverage of ABT's Southern California stay:

MIXED REP/GALA:
· American Ballet Theatre: exciting but muddled (LA Times, Lewis Segal): "The company presents a versatile, entertaining mixed bill at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. As a statement of artistic vision, though, it's lacking." Link
· American Ballet Theatre wrangles greatness from the West (OC Register, Laura Bleiberg): "A fabulous newer staging of an old favorite, Agnes de Mille's 'Rodeo,' highlights the company's repertory program." Link

OTHELLO:
· American Ballet Theatre's Othello (LA Times, Lewis Segal): "...At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday afternoon, it received full commitment by everyone from company principals to corps dancers displaying their prowess in major roles. But it remains a problematic collaboration, with the music and movement often disastrously out of touch." Link
· ABT packs a powerful Othello (OC Register, Laura Bleiberg): "Lar Lubovitch's three-act ballet, "Othello," was 10 years old in May and this unusual melding of modern dance, classical ballet, Elizabethan tragedy and contemporary symphonic sound, though imperfect, still packs a wallop." Link

SLEEPING BEAUTY PREVIEW ARTICLES:
· Reawakening a classic (Feature, OC Register): "The new production got a largely negative reception from New York dance critics, most of whom found nothing to like in the changes McKenzie and his collaborators made to Petipa's classic. ...McKenzie said he agreed with some of the critiques and noted he has already begun tighening the ballet." Link
· Gelsey Kirkland's new moves in ballet (Feature, LA Times): "Few dancers have been both loved and hated as Kirkland has. In the course of her tumultuous career, she watched her public image go from White Swan to Black Swan, from Time magazine cover girl to pioneer of a new kind of DUI: dancing under the influence. ...'In spite of the amazing lack of rehearsal time for a new production in New York," [Kirkland] says, "we could actually see a ballet on opening night. We felt that was a miracle — even with all the bad reviews. We have a production that needs work, but it's very dependent on all of the technical crew working together — and there's no time available in tech now to fix the problems.'" Link

SLEEPING BEAUTY REVIEWS:
· Pretty but shallow 'Beauty' (Laura Bleiberg, OC Register): "American Ballet Theatre’s 6-week-new "Sleeping Beauty" is such a sincere effort, an attempt to give the company a distinctive production, while also sprucing up the beloved Marius Petipa-Peter Tchaikovsky classic, that to throw cold water on it is an unpleasant task." Link
· American Ballet Theatre makes 'Sleeping Beauty' feel so glum (Chris Pasles, LA Times): "...To heighten dramatic motivation, however, the production adds a busy movement style for the human realm, beefing up the role of the Prince, adding and subtracting characters, inventing and cutting episodes, excising and rearranging — but also adding — sections of the score." Link
· ABT's prince worth waiting for (OC Register, Laura Bleiberg): Review of the Lane/Cornejo debut performance on Sunday afternoon - "... [Cornejo] was as thrilling and generous as expected, despite the drawbacks of this new production, which sucks energy from just about everyone else onstage... Sarah Lane, was living two fairy tales at once – the one in the libretto and one in her own personal dream come true... Lane's debut was in a different category from Cornjeo's but she acquitted herself well." Link