Four final Beauties, Sarah Lane shines in her debut

(Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo, center.)

American Ballet Theatre finished its Orange County run of The Sleeping Beauty with four performances over the weekend: two of them featured the company's senior ballerinas, another had a younger principal, and the last one had a debut from a young, very recently promoted soloist rank dancer. Interestingly, it was the newbie that made the biggest impression.

Sarah Lane is 22 years old, and has only been with ABT for about 3 years. Until only two weeks ago, she was in the company's corps de ballet, but an injury to a principal gave her the opportunity to step up and perform Aurora in this run of Sleeping Beauty. This is arguably her biggest role to date - she made a splash in Balanchine's Theme and Variations two seasons ago, and while that role is quite large, it only lasts 20 minutes. Aurora is huge for any ballerina: it's a big full-length role, and the weight of the ballet sits on her shoulders.

Lane rose to the occasion and gave a very impressive debut on SUNDAY. What impressed me the most about the performance was her stage presence - already at such a young age she isn't afraid of commanding the stage, and does so with a refreshing naturalness. She used her entire body to project the music and the character - her face was expressive, but it was augmented by the body language, the most effective way to project dancing into Tier 3 (my seats!) She simply was Aurora in Act I, coming in as an excited young girl. Of course, she probably was incredibly excited herself so this wasn't much of a stretch, but still it was refreshing to see the character of Aurora on stage as well as the dancer. The Rose Adagio balances were very, very secure - so secure, in fact that in the last set of balances, she held the third one for an extended period of time without grabbing for the next prince. So she got her balance applause early. All of her dancing was very clean, very bright and very attractive. The only somewhat unsure part was the Grand Pas de Deux, which looked labored, but the variation afterwards was lovely. It was nevertheless a very promising debut, and I look forward to seeing her progress in this and other roles!

Herman Cornejo did a great job as the prince. Sunday afternoon was his debut also, in the Prince role (but unlike Lane he has already had several major principal roles). Cornejo is an incredible virtuoso, but is rather short. So he doesn't get to do many prince or cavalier roles, simply because most ballerinas would tower over him. But Lane is a good height for him, and so we have his debut as Prince Desire. And all the marvelous virtuosity was there to see: He sailed through the air in his jumps, and they were particularly high and impressive during the Act III Grand pas de deux variation. What I liked about it, though, was that he maintained his noble, princely elegance throughout, and it never became blatantly showy. The audience gasped, yes, but I appreciated that he found a way to work this into the character.

SATURDAY NIGHT came the company's senior couple: Julie Kent and Jose Manuel Carreno. Kent's dancing brought with it the voice of experience, and the entire thing was done exceptionally gracefully. She's the oldest of ABT's Auroras for sure, but she still knew how to portray a bright sixteen year old in Act 1 by dancing energetically. For me though, couple came alive the most in the Act 3 Grand Pas de Deux: a model of grace and perfection. What I especially loved about it was the way she and Carreno looked at each other and responded to each other. It was such a tender, loving relationship between ballerina and cavalier, and perfectly expressed the love that Aurora and the Prince are supposed to be sharing in that moment. At the end of the Pas de deux, when Aurora bows on the floor before coming up for the final promenade, Kent really bowed to Carreno in respect - and when Carreno extended his hand to her, he seemd to say "no, it's you who I adore".

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, Paloma Herrera's Aurora was a gorgeous one, but understated. If the performance projected anything, it was serenity: her pristine, perfect execution and gorgeous ballet body made her a sea of calm amidst the visual cacophony of the production. Beautiful as it was, there was a little something missing - just like at the Gala in LA last week. Herrera needs to own the stage when she's on it: enter and take her right to the ballerina position, draw attention to herself, and project that into the depths of the auditorium. Her performances right now are far too small and placid. Compared to the gala last week, the quietness did work better for Aurora, which is a calmer role than Kitri. While the performance was lovely to look at, I wish she had done more than look pretty.

Angel Corella was her leaping, energetic prince. One can appreciate his virtuosity (those spins! those jumps! that speed!), but there are many times when he looks like is just ramping it up to grab applause instead of letting it grow out of the role. His "Prince Desire" character drops away, and in comes "virtuoso man". The prince role's added choreography looked might impressive in Corella's hands, but I think I preferred Gomes' calmer and more dramatic, yet similarly impressive, performance of it.

The real story of Friday night was Hee Seo as Princess Florine, in Act 3's Bluebird Pas de Deux. Such easy, free and confident dancing, with a huge smile and varying facial expressions to match appropriate points in the pas de deux. Then there were those legs that went on forever, but were still kept in control. She was the best Princess Florine of the run! Sascha Radetsky was her aerially inclined Bluebird, with impressive jumps and nice, clear beats.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON, I was most excited to see Veronika Part as the Lilac Fairy (see my report from Part's Thursday performance to see why). Lilac is a role that seems more naturally suited to Part than Aurora, with her statuesque womanliness. In fact, Part first came to notice in the United States when she performed Lilac in the Kirov Ballet's "reconstruction production" several years ago. She was quickly snatched up by American Ballet Theatre. Now she's done Aurora, but a very womanly Aurora, and fans have been waiting hopefully for her to reprise her Lilac. And Lilac in the new production does fit her wonderfully: her tallness and grand way of moving gave a natural dramatic weight to the Lilac Fairy - a real counterpoint to Carabosse's wickedness. She doesn't become the greatest Lilac Fairy, though, because she as of yet lacks, however, the stage confidence to truly take control of the proceedings; her mime is soft, and seems scared of things like bumping into the scenery. The Lilac variation was great, though: expansive and strong, but in rather annoying Russian style, off the music to suit her own ideas of phrasing.

Michele Wiles' Aurora was fine, the most notable thing being completely rock-solid balances in the Rose Adagio. It looked like she had somehow suction cupped her pointe into the floor, because her upper body wavered a bit, yet her foot remained firmly bolted down. Like Herrera, Wiles' performance is small though. In my binoculars I could see small smiles and stuff, but none of it read without the binocs. I've always been fairly disappointed at Wiles' performances in story ballets - she tends to use a plastered smile, and rarely responds spontaneously to a dramatic moment. Every bit looks choreographed and performed in "ballet mode", all slow, wavy arms when one might prefer sharper punctuation. This Aurora didn't change my mind, even with perfect execution.

David Hallberg, as her Prince, was back to his noble, princeliness after last week's great Othello. What's interesting here is that Hallberg didn't amp up the virtuoso bits of the choreography at all: the were all executed correctly, but he didn't stir the audience into a clap happy fervor like the other princes. It was a more noble, elegant type of dancing, perhaps more like a classical Petipa prince than a 21st century virtuoso prince. He partnered Wiles sturdily and reliably.

Other LILAC FAIRIES in this run have included Stella Abrera, Maria Ricetto, and Gillian Murphy. I especially liked Ricetto's Lilac - gracious, clear mime, and expansive dancing. Murphy was a good Lilac, too, since her experience as a principal dancer allowed her to be dramatically present and authoritative. I wish she was more natural at mime though - as with her Aurora, she's not a classical Petipa Lilac Fairy. Abrera's Lilac was quieter, though no less gracious than the other two. She gets kudos for improvising some choreography when her boat got stuck in the Panorama on Friday; it started coming on stage, then refused to budge - she got off, then led the Prince away, bouree-ing on pointe as though nothing had happened.

Ricetto and Abrera were similarly impressive in alternate casts as PRINCESS FLORINE in the Bluebird pas de deux. Clean, bright dancing with a gracious stage presences. But Hee Seo wins on sheer charisma.

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It was a lot of fun trooping down to see the company, and see all the great dancers currently in the company. I'll write another post to wrap things up. But my brain is currently all used up, and I am Sleeping Beautied out!