American Ballet Theatre: Balanchine and Tchaikovsky

Wed, May 20 - American Ballet Theatre just started its spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House this week, and this Wednesday matinee was the first opportunity that I had to see the company's season. I'll have miss the next two weeks of the season, sadly, when I'm out of town (the next two weeks include Le Corsaire - which I'm okay missing - but also include a premiere by Alexei Ratmansky, ABT's new artist in residence, whose Concerto DSCH at NYCB I really loved).

This particular performance of the company's Balanchine-Tchaikovsky "Spectacular" (their word, not mine) was an opportunity to see the company's promising, lesser-known dancers step up to the plate in larger principal roles. The programming, not the most exciting way to program an all Balanchine evening, was all Tchaikovsky: plenty of lush, romantic music and ballet skirts to be seen. And the results were were hit and miss. All of the ballets were decently performed, but it nothing was particularly stylish or memorable. It was more simply fascinating to see how these dancers stacked up in these Balanchine tests.

(American Ballet Theatre in Allegro Brillante, choreographed by George Balanchine.
Pictured here are Gillian Murphy and Corey Stearns, though the cast at this performance
featured Xiomara Reyes and Daniil Simkin. Photo by Gene Schiavone.)

Allegro Brillante started the program, with Xiomara Reyes and Daniil Simkin in the main roles. The ballet is a twelve-minute run through Balanchine's ideas about ballet formalism, dressed in flowy pink dresses for the women and formal cavalier tunics for the men. The curtain opens with the dancers already dancing, and the dancing continues in a virtually uninterrupted sequence through ensemble formations, pas de deux and prinicpal solos, the stage pictures seeming to expand and contract with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3. Reyes was the most senior dancer at this afternoon's performance; she was lovely in the part, with expressive elegance and her typical springy, light steps. Simkin did fine, though he tended to over emphasize his moments in the spotlight, trying to make them more bravura than the ballet appropriately calls for. It was out of character for the ballet.

Not incidentally, New York City Ballet is performing Allegro Brillante this week as well - at the Wednesday evening performance, the performances of this ballet occurred at exactly the same time (which seems to me a rather bizarre misallocation of resources - why marshal the forces of the city's two biggest dance companies into the exact same ballets at the exact same time?) Comparisons between the two companies are inevitable: I saw NYCB's Brillante at the evening show on this same day, and overall City Ballet performance's was superior. ABT did it fine, but there was a certain instinctive musicality that NYCB had, which was not present here. I know I should judge ABT on its own merits, yada yada, but seeing the two shows so close together, the better one has inevitably clouded my judgement. (More on NYCB's performance here.)

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux today was most interesting for the debuts of Misty Copeland and Jared Matthews, both soloists in the company. Copeland is a bright stage presence, and has been making herself noticed in small ways with roles here and there over the years (I noticed her, in good ways, with bits in The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle during ABT's recent visits to southern California). Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, though, is a technically exposed, bravura duet - probably the biggest thing I've seen her do.

It was a very good performance, spunky and technically accomplished. She didn't quite get through all of the technical tricks - the fouettes at the end seemed to fail her as she got tired - and she didn't perform it with the Balanchinean ease that might make it really great, but it was okay for a first outing. And it'll be interesting to see her in more big roles like this as time goes on. Matthews was more confident in the male role, having done a few large roles before. The tricks were executed with aplomb, if not the all out flash that other performers put into the role.

Balanchine created Mozartiana in the early 80s, as he was nearing the end of his life. Despite the tuneful music - Tchiakovsky's Suite No. 4 for orchestra, which the composer subtitled "Mozartiana" - the ballet is filled with images of prayer and death, particularly in the décor. The stage is framed by black curtains that droop in at the top and sides of the blue cyc backdrop, giving the stage vaguely funeral parlor setting, and the female costumes are pitch black, with black transparent gauze hanging over white material underneath. The men are costumed in purple tunics and white tights that are accentuated with black ribbons.

In the ballet's opening section, the Preghiera, the ballerina and four young girls perform a elegiac prayer, hands stretched upward towards the heavens. The final theme and variations section is a set of alternating solo dances for the ballerina and the male principal. Its springiness seems to contrast directly with the more somber moments we have seen before. I find the contrast of the very dark décor and the dancing's elegant, bravura elements both fascinating and puzzling.

This performance was a studied and rather dull affair (somewhat unfortunate, as ABT has yielded good casts in this ballet before). Maria Ricetto danced the principal ballerina role, all correctly but without any of the mystique or emotion that the music and steps suggest. Her performance did not extend much past her face, with small smiles and glances that I could see in the orchestra (with a lucky student rush ticket), but which did not radiate through the rest of her body. Blaine Hoven was giving his debut performance in the male role; while it nice to see him in a large role and accomplish the role's tricky quick steps, he too was studied and subdued. Aaron Scott danced in soloist male role in the Gigue section, and it was similarly small scaled and underwhelming.

Sarah Lane and Corey Stearns led Theme and Variations to close the program. Stearns was a last minute replacement for Herman Cornejo, who was originally scheduled to dance but had to step down due to injury (so said the announcement before the curtain went up). For a performance that was the pair's first time together, it went remarkably well. Stearns, however, is much taller than Lane and this made her look like a little girl among adults. Lane is a wide-eyed, accomplished dancer who made the role's famously tricky challenges look very easy, finishing complicated steps with time to spare in the music. Her big brown eyes tend to make her look a bit dazed on stage, and her short stature, accentuated by her difference in height from Corey, really took away some of the role's ballerina glamour. Stearns did well for one of his first runs through this role; he's tall and handsome, with a noble, generous manner that this cavalier role requires. Save for a minor mishap at the very end of the ballet, I thought he did fine. ABT's production puts the two principals in bubble gum pink costumes - the pink tunic doesn't work well on most of the company's men, and it was no different here. I wish they'd change it to a more elegant color for them.

Photos: (1) ABT's banner at the Metropolitan Opera House, photo by me. (2) Credited above. (3) Misty Copeland in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, choreography by George Balanchine. Photo by Rosalie O'Connor. (4) Curtain call at the matinee on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 for Theme and Variations, choreography by George Balanchine. Sarah Lane and Corey Stearns are center. Photo by me.