ABT 2014 - Swan Lake

As my ABT season hurtles to a close, I'm trying to take a deep breath and slow it down.  It's not working, of course. I'm starting to feel withdrawal already.  Sigh.  Anyway, Swan Lake wasn't included in my subscription, but since I love the ballet so much, I decided to pick up an extra ticket for last night.  I was especially keen to see Herman Cornejo and Alina Cojocaru dance it, since Alina had to cancel last year.  Well, perhaps I'm a jinx for poor Alina, because she didn't dance last night either, due to an injury.  Darn it.  Instead of throwing Cornejo with a partner he wasn't used to, they replaced them both, so I got to see super dreamy Roberto Bolle dance with the lovely Hee Seo.

I still dream about the sublime perfection of last year's Swan Lake with Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes, so maybe I was bound to be disappointed.  Not disappointed, exactly, because it was a lovely evening, but I wasn't moved or overcome by beauty.  Oh well.

Roberto Bolle was his expected terrific self, with a very shy, pensive interpretation of the prince.  He was an awkward prince, uncomfortable with all the attention and perferred most of the time to be alone, which neatly explained his solos during the first scene.  I noticed something I hadn't seen before - he seemed to have an interest in one of the ladies dancing in the pas de trois.  He got up, watched her, then had discussions with his tutor about her.  It was very interesting.  He danced beautifully, as always, and I enjoyed his performance.

photo credit: Gene Schiavone

Hee Seo is a gorgeous dancer, with lovely long limbs and incredible stretch.  She doesn't seem to get engaged in the music or the drama, though.  I don't feel her, or get the sense that she's telling a story.  I don't know.  I'd like to see her really sink into the music and share something.  Maybe that will come with more experience.  But last night, I didn't really engage with her, though I did appreciate her technically gorgeous dancing.  Well, except for one bobble at the end of the Black Swan pas de deux.  That was unfortunate.



photo credit: Gene Schiavone

With some emptiness around the lead performances (I don't think Bolle could really be as wonderful as possible if he couldn't really connect with his partner), I did notice some other performances I might not normally have enjoyed.  Oh, well, I'm sure I would've noticed Jared Matthews as Benno, the best friend.  I always enjoy Jared's dancing, and he was terrific in the pas de trois. But for once, I was especially taken with the Hungarian dance, led by Alexei Agoudine and Luciana Voltolini.  They were strong and charismatic and made me take notice of a dance I'd never really overly enjoyed before.  And the Neopolitan dance was really fantastic since it featured the ever-more-terrific Joseph Gorak and the still-new-to-me Zhiyao Zhang.  Good on all the dancers in that ballroom scene for giving things their all - sometimes those dances are just fillers until Odile and von Rothbart came in.  Speaking of von Rothbart, Alexandre Hammoudi smoldered wonderfully and seduced us all.  His balances at the end of his solo were a little wobbly, but it didn't lessen any effects.  The MVPs, as always, were the corps de ballet swans and cygnettes, they were all terrific.

All in all, it was a perfectly pleasant night at the ballet, but it didn't live up to my memories of last year, unfortunately. But that's why there's always next year...