Cool Valentine
Stars of the 21st Century - International Ballet Gala
New York State Theater at Lincoln Center
New York, NY, USA
February 13, 2006
by George Jackson
copyright ©2006 by George Jackson
A gala for Valentine's eve. Love, NY style. Non-natives paired on a bare stage functionally lit. Galas elsewhere are done with more ostentation and restraint. Think of Paris and the Defile, a display of the entire Opera Ballet filing past in such order that stepping seems like dancing. Here, male-female couples (plus a single) showed off. They, the performers, were the focus. That's as it is supposed to be, yet this gala also made an odd choreographic point. The formal, classical pas de deux was represented by the 20th Century, not the 19th, by Victor Gsovsky, George Balanchine, Pierre Lacotte and even Roland Petit. Choreographer names such as Bournonville, Petipa or Ivanov did not appear on the program. The international stars did their darnest to hide clues that these duos were made in the era of modernism. Gsovsky's art deco linearity, Balanchine's dancing-through and Lacotte's circumspect placement weren't as apparent as they might have been.
Who were the brightest stars? To my eyes it was Mathilde Froustey, Lucia Lacarra and Desmond Richardson who shone while the others shed softer lights. Richardson, the unpaired performer and sole USA native, opened the program with a hot Broadway solo that showed off his stretch, strength and stylish syncopation. "Showman's Groove" fit him admirably whereas his other Dwight Rhoden number, "Solo", featured a red loincloth that suited his body but turned him into a Tarzan straight from the funnies.
Froustey, looking very young, very innocent, danced the dead and risen Giselle with life's pulse coursing through her limbs like a gentle refrain. Alighting or ascending, a hint of plastique suffused her shifting torso and these moments were sublime. Gsovsky's "Grand Pas Classique" (music by Daniel Auber) requires a stamina that should be hers soon. For now, this Paris Opera danseuse executes it cleanly, as a sincere promise. Froustey's Albrecht and "Grand Pas" partner Emmanuel Thibault, a Paris Opera premier danseur, has strength and, in the Gsovsky coda, brandished a brilliant batterie. Unfortunately his dancing nearly disappeared in "Giselle" because he wore black, the very color of the background curtains. As a body, Thibault could use longer legs. (The printed program's choreographic credit for the Act 2 pas de deux from "Giselle" probably should have read "after Marius Petipa" rather than the ancestral "Coralli and Perrot".)
Lacarra and her reliable Cyril Pierre, currently with the Munich Ballet, danced the one piece that required a bit of scenery, the "Balcony" duet from the John Cranko / Prokofiev "Romeo and Juliet". They also presented the pas by Petit, which turned out to be a surprise. The French master's "Thais" duo (music by Massenet) is unusually traditional for someone who often prefers to carve against the grain. I'm curious about this choreography's date and relationship to other "Thais" adagios, particularly Frederick Ashton's. Lacarra was a delicately articulated, gentle Juliet and a Thais of airily dainty legwork as she floated aloft with Pierre's support.
Sofiane Sylve, currently with New York City Ballet, was paired with the Kirov's Andrian Fadeyev in the "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux" by Balanchine. On her own she presented a brief passage from Jerome Robbins' "Dances at a Gathering" (Cameron Grant was at the piano for the Chopin). With her professionalism and efficiency, Sylve seemed invulnerable. She is easier to admire than like. The gentler Fadeyev seemed a little sleepy on this occasion.
Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko, Kiev dancers currently with American Ballet Theatre, chose an oddity as their first number. It is an acrobatic duet that has little to do with its title character, "Carmen", or its Bizet/Schedrin music. The choreographer was listed as A. Beliy. The couple danced it smoothly, but left one feeling "so what?". Twyla Tharp's "Junk" duet from "Known by Heart" (music by Donald Knaack) provided fun and its solos particularly allowed Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky to display polish and personality.
The Bolshoi's Svetlana Lunkina is a romantic reed of a dancer, better suited to wafting about as the muse in Vladimir Vasiliev's "Paganini" duo than to balancing majestically in Lacotte's "Pharaoh's Daughter". Vasiliev tried to tell too much of the satanic violinist's story in one, fairly brief duet and the result looked rather inflated, quite Soviet. Too bad Fokine's full "Paganini" ballet (also to Rachmaninoff music) hasn't survived; I remember it as being haunting. The big problem with Lacotte's full ballet of "Pharaoh's Daughter" were characters that weren't even cardboard. Only the monkey in Act 1 had personality. That doesn't matter in the extracted pas de deux which is a clever construct of grandeur and elegant understatement. Opposite Lunkina, supporting her, as well as on his own, Sergei Filin, from the Bolshoi too, was busy but didn't set the stage on fire.
The roster's non-ballet couple, Pilar Alvarez and Claudio Hoffmann, danced their own Argentine tango numbers. Particularly potent was the cool first duet, "Oblivion" with bandoneon soloist Daniel Bielli playing an Astor Piazzolla lament.
The event, produced by Solomon Tencer and directed by Nadia Veselova Tencer, sold well, despite gala ticket prices and the previous day's record snowfall. There's an audience for seeing dancers from around the globe compete. Part of that audience appears to be Russian or ex-Soviet.
Photo: Mathilde Froustey.
Volume 4, No. 7
February 20, 2006
copyright
©2006 George Jackson
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