Wednesday, June 17, 2015

ABT 2015 - Romeo and Juliet

Because my very-favorite ballerina is retiring this season, I exchanged my Tuesday ticket to this Saturday night, when I will cry all the way through Romeo and Juliet and Julie Kent's final performance with ABT.  But I entered a little lottery to win tickets to last night's performance since the highly-publicized dancer Misty Copeland would be making her debut as Juliet - surprisingly, I won!  I generally don't win things.  I took a gorgeous co-worker who is also a ballet fan and we had a grand time.

Well, we had a grand time because it was fun to go out together.  Unfortunately, we didn't find this particular incarnation of Romeo and Juliet to be all that.  As I (meanly, I know) said to my date, it was as if we watched the 'B' team perform.  They were good, everything was done well, but there was no spark, no pizazz, no oomph.  And you know how I love me some oomph.  I really wanted the evening to be a "I saw a star being born tonight!!"  I'm sorry it didn't happen that way for me...

I've seen MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet a number of times, it may have even been the first live ballet I ever saw (I can't remember; I can't remember what I had for lunch today, so...you get the picture).  I see it at ABT frequently, though I did miss seeing it last year.  But the performances I saw in 2013 were sublime (you can see that review HERE).  Last night...was not.  It seemed as if our leads were nervous, so there was no connection, no sweeping love story, no passion, and frankly, not much of anything.  Again, it was nicely danced, but not much else.

I asked my gorgeous date if he thought the music sounded too slow and he agreed, saying it definitely could've been 'brighter.'  Actually, that's a good comment about the whole ballet.  I know it's tragic, but it could've been danced with more air, more lightness, more buoyancy, more of what makes ballet great.  It was very earthbound and rather leaden at times.  I'm generally a sucker for the sad story ballets, but I was completely unmoved last night.  Which made me sad.  Ironically.

The crowd was more diverse than usual, which is fantastic, and there were lots of hoots and hollers for our Juliet, though, surprisingly, there was still only one curtain call.  I don't think anyone was transported the way they should be at the end of a great Romeo and Juliet.  I'm all for more publicity for ballet and for diversifying the audience, but I'd like some great ballet to happen, too.  That doesn't seem like too much to ask.

photo credit: Rosalie O'Connor
Maybe it's because it was Juliet's first time performing the role.  Maybe it's because Romeo hadn't danced with this particular Juliet before.  But there wasn't any chemistry or heat, just well-done steps.  There wasn't really any storytelling either.  Just choreography.  Which is too bad.  The lifts were especially awkward throughout.  Though there were some bright spots in the evening - Joseph Gorak, who I love, was a terrific Benvolio and I wish I could see his Romeo; at one point during the ballroom scene, I thought, 'hey, is one of Juliet's friends danced by Skylar Brandt?  Because one of those girls is sparkling and Skylar always sparkles!'  I was gratified to be right.  Oh, and my ABT MVP, Roman Zhurbin, as Juliet's father, provided me with the one moment that moved me all night, when he was trying to comprehend that his daughter was dead (not really, but he thought so).  He was very touching and his acting stood out (I mean, it always does, but it REALLY did last night since he was one of the few people to establish a character on stage). 

I guess I shouldn't complain about a performance I got to see for free.  I was happy to be there, I'm always happy to be there.  But I also want the performance to equal the hype and I didn't think it did, unfortunately.  I did catch a few new nuances in the music, which was fun, and I also enjoyed a dancer who was new to me - Grant DeLong as Paris - but on the whole, I was just ready to either go home and watch videos of past performances of the ballet, or to hop in a time machine to be transported one more time by the magic of Julie Kent.  Thankfully, I only have to wait a few more days before I can revel in that performance.  Oh, and apparently I need to have a tutorial on how to use my co-worker's camera - it worked fine last week, but last night, I couldn't get it to focus at all.  Annoying, especially since our seats were pretty close.  Oh well.  Just added to the non-perfection of the evening, I guess...


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