Where Were You Sitting?

Piffle Pieces: Camargo in D.C.,"Giselle" in Phoenix, and dance criticism in America

The National Gallery has moved Camargo again. They are renovating the 18th century French rooms, and Nicolas Lancret's beautiful little painting, La Camargo Dancing, has been moved down to the back corner of the farthest room on the ground floor. I take my students there to see her every autumn, when we study early 18th century French ballet history, and it took us some time to find her. Pre-Revolutionary French painters such as Lancret and Fragonard are out of fashion now (too pretty, too pastel), but, out of fashion or not, La Camargo is still there, dancing at a party, the beautiful ankles daringly exposed, the feet, in their heeled shoes, twinkling. Walking through the Gallery, I couldn't help but notice how many paintings there might be considered unfashionable if one considered only their subject matter: paintings of minor Greek or Roman myths, of dukes and knights and dragons, of pampered women and children and their little dogs. Not what one would see at the mall or on TV, but there they are, masterpieces of the past, looking the viewer square in the eye, as if they were important. Not once did the students (aged 16 to 18) grouse that they were having to look at old paintings, or ask where was something new and now that spoke to Them. Not once did they even seem momentarily bored. Instead, they were genuinely interested — beguiled, as millions of people have been before them, to see the humanity shining from those 500-year-old eyes, or how a particular painter was fascinated with light, and bent it to his will.

Mixed Messages

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
"Mozartiana," “Divertimento Brillante ," “Scene d’amour” from Bejart’s “Romeo et Juliet,” and "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
June 8, 2007

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright © 2007 by Alexandra Tomalonis

Suzanne Farrell is taking the slow, careful road to building a ballet company. Rather than bringing in stars and have them dance whatever they dance, she’s training dancers to support her vision for the troupe, and it’s beginning to pay off. Every year, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet looks more like a company. This year, in “Scotch Symphony,” the corps was much stronger than it’s been on previous outings, and danced cohesively. It's beginning to develop an identity, a School. Couple this with Farrell’s gifts as a stager, her ability to show the outline of a ballet clearly from its first outing (and fill in the details later, if necessary), and an evening at the Suzanne Farrell Ballet is a wonderful way to enjoy sophisticated choreography. The downside is that, until these dancers develop into principals, or Farrell can, or will, use established dancers as part of her ensemble, those details are sometimes marred by underpowered dancing, and that was, unfortunately, often the case this week.

Cheers!

Susan Shields Ballet Cocktail
American Repertory Ballet, Boston Ballet II, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Richmond Ballet, Washington Ballet
Center for the Arts
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
April 28, 2007

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2007 by Alexandra Tomalonis

George Mason University has an excellent dance series. This season, it included performances by Mark Morris Dance Group, Moscow Festival Ballet, Momix, Shen Wei Dance Arts, several folk and international ensembles, and D.C.–based choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess. The Center for the Arts offers free parking, good sight lines, and reasonable prices (tickets for Susan Shields’ show ranged from $22 to $44, and the 12–event series starts at $195 and tops at $390). Every time I’ve attended a dance event at GMU, the house is full or nearly full; the Center is Exhibit A in the case that there IS an appetite for dance today. Make the tickets affordable, and they will come.

Still the Gold Standard

“Don Quixote ”
The Bolshoi Ballet
Opera House
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC, USA
February 24 evening and February 25 matinee, 2007

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright ©2007, Alexandra Tomalonis

If one looks at the Kennedy Center’s ballet programs for the past decade, one might conclude that “Romeo and Juliet” (any version) and Petipa/Gorsky's “Don Quixote” were the great ballets of the age, they’ve been danced so frequently. The Bolshoi’s superb production has played the Center three times in the last few years (not forgetting their recent performance of the ballet at Wolf Trap). Even if one is curious to see other works in the company’s repertory (why didn’t we get “Bright Stream”????), the production is so fine its return was welcome. The Bolshoi owns “Don Q.” Petipa choreographed the ballet on the Bolshoi nearly 140 years ago and it’s been through as many hands as it has steps since, yet the company obviously still relishes dancing it. At present, under the leadership of director Alexei Ratmansky, the Bolshoi has ample stars and able soloists, and the “Don Qs” on view here were not only well–danced, the story clearly told, it was alive.

Washington Ballet's ¡Noche Latina!

“Piazolla Caldera,” “Na Floresta,” “Juanita y Alicia”
The Washington Ballet
Eisenhower Theater
Kennedy Center Opera House
February 1, 2007

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2007, Alexandra Tomalonis

The Washington Ballet’s midwinter program, ¡Noche Latina!, was intended as a celebration of Latino culture and succeeded; the evening was as cheerful and energetic as a lively party, with nearly as much music (from Mexico, Bolivia and Cuba) as dancing. A Mariachi band played out front before the show and during the first intermission, and there was more music — much more music — played with infectious zest by Celso Duarte / Jarocho Fusion during the “pause” between the second and third works on the program. The dancers looked terrific and were extremely well–rehearsed. It hardly seemed to matter that two of the works were insubstantial, and the one first–rate piece — Paul Taylor’s “Piazzolla Caldera” — fell short of the mark.

Gentle Love in post-Soviet Verona

"Romeo and Juliet "
The Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 16, 19, 2007

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2007, Alexandra Tomalonis

Today, there are nearly as many ballets called “Romeo and Juliet” as there are “The Nutcracker,” but Leonid Lavrovsky’s grand, splendid and poetic version, choreographed for the Kirov Ballet in 1940, was the first. The Bolshoi Ballet — and its prima ballerina, the great Galina Ulanova, also borrowed from the Kirov — conquered the West with the ballet in the 1950s and a movie was made of her performance. The ballet was a casualty of the Cold War; it hasn't often been abroad since, although imitations abound. The Bolshoi brought its version — much darker and more dramatic — here several years ago, but this is the first time the Kirov has danced the ballet in D.C., and while the production looked a bit thin and down at heel on opening night, the two young dancers in the title roles were so gorgeous it almost didn’t matter.

ABT's Triple Bill

American Ballet Theatre at the Kennedy Center
Opening Triple Bill

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2007 by Alexandra Tomalonis

One of the few constants in American Ballet Theatre’s performances over the past few decades, and one of the most beautiful things about the company, is the respect with which the dancers perform Antony Tudor’s ballets. This was evident again at the company’s opening performance Tuesday night, when dancers too young to have met Tudor danced his “Dark Elegies” with a depth of emotion that made the work seem new.

Billie Who?

"Blueprint of a Lady: The Once and Future Life of Billie Holiday"
Nnenna Freelon and Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE
Eisenhower Theater
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
December 7, 2006

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2006 by Alexandra Tomalonis

It sounded like a good idea: a collaborative peformance between a singer (Nnenna Freelon) and a choreographer (Ronald K. Brown) to celebrate the world of Billie Holiday, using Holiday's music as the unifying device. At least this promised lots of good music. Many of Holiday's signature songs were included: "God Bless the Child," "What is a Lady?", "Now Baby or Never," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and about a half-dozen others. Freelon moved throughout the piece (approximately one hour, plus intermission), interacting with the dancers, sometimes seeming to be a part of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, sometimes commenting on what the the dancers were doing, sometimes making the dancers seem imaginary, dancing out Holiday's struggles and dreams. It really was a nice idea.

Breaking News!

The Royal Opera announced Friday that Sir Elton John will be named Resident Composer immediately, if not sooner. Spokesman Reginald Foggybrane broke the news, which stunned the opera world and caused other Rocker Knights to spit nails.

"When the Ballet appointed Wayne McGregor as Resident Choreographer, well, that was a real wake up call for us," Foggybrane explained. "We could not be left behind. We don't want to lose out on the youth movement that's desperate to see the lyric arts, if only they could relate to them.”

Pleasures and Questions

“La Valse," "Enigma Variations," "Tanglewood," "Gloria"
The Royal Ballet
Opera House, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC, USA
June 20 and 21, 2006

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright ©2006, Alexandra Tomalonis

This year, Britain’s Royal Ballet celebrates its 75th anniversary. During much of those 75 years, the company set the standard for classical ballet in the West, preserving the 19th century Petipa ballets as well as classics from the Diaghilev era and presenting brilliant new ballets by its own choreographers that have since become classics. Ballet companies’ fortunes are as variable as those of corporations or football teams, and the Royal has had a rough go of it for some time now. Changes at the School and an influx of foreign-trained dancers that eroded the company’s style and identity, several seasons without its home stage when Covent Garden was under renovation, an unfortunate change in directorship — all took their toll. If the company isn’t quite back to its full former glory, its brief appearance in Washington this past week showed that the current director, Monica Mason, a former RB ballerina, is steering the ship with a sure hand.