ABT 2017 - Tchaikovsky Spectacular Spectacular

You're thinking of Moulin Rouge now, aren't you?  Hee hee.  If you aren't, sorry.  I had the good fortune to see ABT's final program of the summer twice this week, so I thought I'd just add another 'Spectacular' for fun.  And fun is what I had, both nights!  Sorry, this will be a bit of a long post - it takes me a long time to talk about eight ballets!

Monday night, I dragged my sorry self off the long-holiday-weekend-couch to see program one of Tchaikovsky Spectacular.  Included that night were four short ballets, all with music by Tchaikovsky (of course) - Mozartiana, Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and AfterEffect.  It was interesting to see two classic pieces alongside two contemporary pieces, and all with music by Tchaikovsky, perhaps the quintessential ballet composer.

photo credit: Rosalie O'Connor

Mozartiana was one of the last ballets choreographed by the great George Balanchine and it is certainly lovely.  Tchaikovsky's music was composed as an homage to Mozart, so the piece as a whole feels like an homage to music and dance.  The curtain opens to a ballerina, surrounded by four young girls, and they proceed to do a very solemn, soulful opening bit.  The lead ballerina Monday was Veronika Part, who I find to be lovely in every way.  There's a little bit of offstage drama here - it was announced over the weekend that Part's contract wasn't renewed, so she's sort of being forced to retire.  Monday was her first performance since that news came out (and Saturday will be her final performance, again in this ballet; I will miss her). I think there were some uber-fans in the audience, because they continually screamed BRAVA for her, whenever she finished a variation. People also threw flowers at her at the end of the ballet, and she was quite visibly moved.

Going back to the ballet, after that first lovely variation, then there was a sprightly solo for Daniil Simkin, who has such lightness and quickness, he charmed everyone, though he did seem a little more serious than usual.  Perhaps he thought that humor wasn't appropriate in a Balanchine piece, because he normally has great joie de vivre when he dances.  After his solo, there was a variation done very nicely by four soloists, then Blaine Hoven came out to dance a final pas de deux with Part.  It was also quite nice, though he seems lacking in personality, but, again, maybe they feel like they need to tamper down their personalities in this ballet.  Hm. Part doesn't tamper anything down, I don't think, she just oozes grace and beauty with each step - she just flows in and out of the movement, which was gorgeous to see.  I was remembering her performance fondly when I saw the ballet again on Wednesday (more on that later).  I think this was the first time I've seen Mozartiana, though I could be wrong, I frequently am, and I enjoyed it very much.  You all know I love pure dance, and it was bittersweet to see one of my favorites for the last time.

(from the internet, not the cast I saw)

After a lengthy intermission, they performed a new-to-ABT ballet by Alexei Ratmansky, Souvenir d'un lieu cher, choreographed for the Dutch National Ballet in 2012. This was an interesting piece, though a little too 'schticky' for my tastes.  Two couples, Stella Abrera & Marcelo Gomes and Sarah Lane & Alban Lendorf, do simultaneous pas de deux, though on occasion it seems as if they're trying to switch partners, but can't.  The steps are gorgeous and the dancing was even more so, but the miming was distracting to me.  I would've preferred just dance, and no vague acting out of a story that wasn't very clear to begin with, but maybe that's me.  There was some gorgeous movement and they moved through space beautifully - there was one step where the gentlemen were supporting the ladies' pirouettes from behind that was breathtaking; I don't even know how that was possible! But all four dancers were gorgeous and I enjoyed seeing the piece, though I don't think it will become one of my favorites.

After a brief pause, then came Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.  This is a very famous eight-minute piece, choreographed by Balanchine in the 60s.  The music was originally written for Swan Lake, but was lost for many years until Balanchine discovered it.  I've seen it before a few times and it's always fun.  It moves quickly and has a lot of abandon and air in it.  I was glad to see two of my newer favorites, Isabella Boylston and Joseph Gorak would be dancing it. They were fine, better in their solos than in their duets, but their final fishdives were very tentative and lacking any oomph (or abandon), and the last lift, though not disastrous like I've seen previously, was very brief and ended before the curtain came down.  Maybe the partnering is what's keeping Gorak from becoming a principal.  He does seem to struggle with the lifts (and he had an issue on Wednesday night as well, which I'll mention later). But I enjoyed seeing them tackle the piece and hope for more verve from them in future performances.

photo credit: Andrea Mohin

The final piece of the evening was AfterEffect, choreographed by Marcelo Gomes, who I think could have a nice career as a choreographer once his dancing days are over in another twenty years or so (I can't bear to think of him not dancing, he is so sublime).  I have to say I didn't love some of the 'steps,' per se, but I did love the movement, the stage patterns, and the shapes the dancers made on stage.  That huge stage was used beautifully and I think Gomes used the dancers very well, too.  There was also a wonderful theatricality and energy about the whole thing, which I appreciated. The piece seems to be an allegory, with a Man (danced by James Whiteside) who loses his woman (danced by Misty Copeland), but finds hope with another man (Zhiyao Zhang). The storytelling was pretty clear, if a little simplistic, and all of the dancers were totally committed to their roles. I was especially happy to see my ABT MVP, Roman Zhurbin, dance a non-charactery role and he was wonderful.  Strong, powerful, and always interesting.  I'm very intrigued to see what kind of dance Gomes develops next.

I bought a ticket for an additional Tchaikovsky Spectacular because I so wanted to see David Hallberg dance again.  You may remember some of my reviews of past ABT performances starring David - I just think he is a spectacularly beautiful dancer.  I was lucky enough to meet him once, thanks to a wonderful friend, and David was as generous backstage as he is onstage.  He's been injured and he thought perhaps he'd never dance again.  Thankfully, after three years, he's back on stage.  I was thrilled to catch him in a performance.

The program was two of the same pieces as Monday, and two different pieces.  That made for a pleasant evening of compare/contrast and enjoyment.  First up was another Mozartiana, with Christine Shevchenko and David Hallberg as the main couple and Daniil Simkin again as the soloist.  Christine was lovely in the ballet, though I didn't feel the same connection from one step to the next, as I did when Veronika Part danced the role Monday. Christine's steps, to me, didn't flow throughout, but I'm sure that will come when she does the role more frequently.  David was glorious in his solos, not bland at all.  His legs and feet are so elegant, they're just beautiful.  I will admit that it seemed as if he got a little confused with his step sequence in one tiny section, because he seemed to be doing something no one else was doing, but it was quickly fixed and not a huge issue.  I haven't seen any mention of it in any online postings about the performance, so maybe I saw something that wasn't there, but it did look like a bobble to me.  I'm glad to have seen Mozartiana twice in one week and I hope to see it many more times, it's just lovely and pure and transporting, no matter who dances it.  And I'm so thankful David Hallberg is back where he belongs.

photo credit: Jack Vartoogian

After an intermission, there was another performance of Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, only this time with Gillian Murphy and James Whiteside.  Now, these two went for the gusto! There was bold dancing that maybe wasn't as technically 'pretty' as the other pair from Monday, but it was exciting and strong.  I enjoyed them very much.

Next was a pas de deux from Ratmansky's The Nutcracker, with Hee Seo and Marcelo Gomes.  This was exquisitely beautiful, though maybe some of the quirky touches didn't work as well out of context of the whole ballet (for example, the part where Hee Seo dances offstage, then peeks at the audience from behind the curtain seemed silly without seeing the scene that happens before the pas de deux).  And I think I saw Seo fall out of a pirouette and Marcelo had to reeeeeeeach over to get her, but it was quick and didn't really mar the beautiful mood they created.  As always, Marcelo was divine and princely and the perfect partner.  The audience went nuts for this piece, which was great to see.

Then, after a very long intermission, we saw Aurora's Wedding from Ratmansky's Sleeping Beauty.  I've enjoyed seeing this new Sleeping Beauty, but I'm not sure that seeing this last scene without the build-up of what comes before in the ballet, is entirely successful. I liked each of the little pieces for the storybook characters, but there didn't seem to be much of a build or celebratory quality, since we didn't see what comes before.  I guess this is where my "I like the stories" bias comes in.  But I did enjoy watching the various partners dance their pieces.  Ratmansky has added two bits, one originally choreographed by Nijinska and one by De Valois, which were fun to see, but they both used music that's now used in The Nutcracker, so that took me out of things a bit.  But it was again delightful to see Roman Zhurbin do some dancing and not just wear a crazy costume and do some terrific miming. 

photo credit: Michelle V Agins

Herman Cornejo was supposed to dance the prince, but he is injured, so he was replaced by Joseph Gorak.  He is just a beautiful Prince Desire, but he did almost drop Cassandra Trenery in one of the fishdives at the end of the pas de deux.  Thankfully, he didn't drop all the way to the ground on his knee, but it seemed precarious for a moment.  It was a sad bobble on his part, because the rest of their pas de deux was lovely.  Luciana Paris was a terrific Diamond Fairy and Sarah Lane & Gabe Stone Shayer were terrific in the Bluebird pas de deux.

All in all, I enjoyed myself a great deal, both times, at the Tchaikovsky Spectacular.  I got to see a lot of dancers do a lot of dancing, so that's always a good thing.  I'm already in my post-ballet-withdrawal, though, so I guess it's time to start thinking about making visits to Lincoln Center for the fall season.  I'm also terribly excited to see Matthew Bourne's new ballet at City Center this fall, so there's some great dancing to come, I just have to be patient, which is never one of my strong suits...