American Ballet Theatre
On Sunday, Nov 2nd, American Ballet Theatre was performing a diverse program at the David h. Koch theatre. Seeing the company dance in the house of the New York City Ballet was unusual: the Met is a nicer theatre, better matching the talent of the amazing dancers that constitute American Ballet.
As to the program, it was oddly put together. Les Sylphides, A month in the country, and Theme and Variation are not pieces that I would have presented in one show. Les Sylphides was created in 1909, on music by famous composer Frederic Chopin. American dancers are not known for their performance in ballets of the Romantic Era. To the exception of Polina Semionova, the other soloists’ technique did not have the precision required to dance in Les Sylphides. Polina Semionova was beautiful, as always. Her understanding of the ballet, and the precision and finesse of her footwork made it even more difficult for the other soloists to look good. The lightness she showed in the third variation, as well as the emotion throughout the ballet, are difficult to equal. On the contrary, Cory Stearns was heavy, making loud noises on landing, and seemed unsure of what he was doing. I do not understand why ABT keeps casting him in ballets that he cannot dance in. Having him as a soloist only reinforce the impression that American dancers cannot, and therefore should not, perform in Romantic ballets. Let’s leave Romanticism to the Russian and the French. ABT dancers’ have amazing qualities that could be put to use in other types of ballets.
The second ballet , A Month in the Country, was not really exciting, to say the least. As for most of Ashton’s ballets, if the beginning was exciting, I was wishing for the fire alarm to go off halfway through the piece, just so that I could get out of there. Thank god for the beautiful scenery, which entertained me for the first five minutes. Thank god also for the wonderful Julie Kent, an ABT veteran who will always amaze me. She was delicate and subtle, but also sharp and precise when needed. Her dancing was sure, clean, and efficient. What a change from other ABT soloists such as Paloma Herrera, who hides her lack of technique by over using her arms and hands. Talking about her, she was performing in the final piece, Theme and Variation. The ballet, created by legend George Balanchine on music by Piotr Illyitch Tchaikovsky, is always entertaining. The music was perfectly executed by the orchestra, and the corps de ballet achieved the feat of making it sound even better. The talent of the corps really needs to be mentioned, because they are the ones who made the ballet look so powerful. Theme and Variations cannot be performed with a weak corps, and the ballet masters did a great job at staging the ballet and coaching the dancers. James Whiteside was also great, and his sharpness was perfect for the role. On the other hand, Paloma Herrera’s mannerism was once again a distraction. Isabella Boylston or Misty Copeland would have been much better choices.
I have mixed feelings about the overall performance. If they finished on a great note, ABT should not stick to Romantic ballets, or boring ones for that matter. Les Sylphides was badly performed, and A Month in the Country was probably the least entertaining thing I have seen all year. I wish ABT would have performed more American ballets, such as other Balanchine pieces. I also hope that they will manage to get Jiri Kylian to choreograph for them in the near future, a cooperation that would surely be more exciting than what was presented.
