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MCB Program I


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I just returned from the Saturday evening performance and wanted to report a couple of cast changes.

(1) Patricia Delgado took over the lead female role in Piazzolla Caldera, and it made a real difference. This role involves a womans brusque rejection by each of the men on stage, a long solo expressing her feelings about this, and some rather stunning developments later on. A beautiful performance.

(2) Kleber Rebello took over the Blue Boy role in Patineurs. Rebello is much lighter and less muscular than Penteado, and this is reflected in jumps that are slightly less forceful and turns that are just a bit slower.. Despite that, Rebellos final series of pirouettes were as fast and controlled as Penteado's the night before. Rebello's body actually became a blur, which was exciting to experience.

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We attended Friday evenings opening night performance in West Palm Beach. Not being one who knows the company well, for me, the performance was well danced, yet not performed well. The dancers are without a doubt, well trained and the production values are wonderful. Overall, we found the performance to be lackluster and tiresome. The company is dancing well mechanically, with much less Balanchine "style" in the non-Balanchine works. This is a very positive thing, for this audience member.

Ms Lopez spoke beautifully before the performance, My only wish, in her bio if only she could give the late, great Martha Mahr, the credit she deserves. South Florida/Miami has produced some of the most recognized names in American ballet for quite a few generations and the teachers and schools go unrecognized. While schools such as SAB, JKO and SFB, etc. may finish the students, fine early years of training are a must.

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vrsfanatic, I wish I had known that you were going to be there so we could share a hello.. I did see lots of beautiful young dancers in the audience, but did not know Harid was among them.

I understand your distinction between 'dancing well' and 'performing well.' II felt that the Friday Apollo was not 'performed' at all as well as the individual dancers were capable of dancing it. I wish you had been able to see the way Reyneris Reyes, Mary Carmen Catoya, Nathalia Arja and Sara Esty performed the ballet at the two matinees. I was impressed and moved to the point of tears at being able to see this work danced in such a stunning and pure fashion.

In the future, if you have a choice of performances, you might want to switch to Saturday nights or one of the matinees. Friday's audience is a rather unresponsive group on the whole. The auditorium somehow seems dead that night, at least when the curtain rises. The audiences at all other performances are livelier, and this seems to stimulate the dancers to do an especially strong job.

For those not familiar with the work of Martha Mahr, here is an obituary from 2009:

http://www.examiner....n-monday-june-8

I especially liked the following:

Miss Mahr was a firm believer that if one does something, it should be done all the way, with all of one’s soul.

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No wonder Margot Fonteyn felt upstaged by the Boy in Blue.

The Boy in Blue looks like the most important character of Les Patineurs. He keeps reapearing all along the story, and whereas everybody else is engaged in grouping dancing, he's mostly interested in showing his skills without any competition at his side. The stage is always all for himself when he's there, and as per the way he's presented during the ballet finale, well...it is obvious that he's the star of the night.

I'd say Reyes has the potential to be a major Apollo. Beautifully proportioned, with innate classical line, a wonderful partner:

Reyes would have been a wonderful Apollo I believe, bart. He must be pushing 40 by now I would say-(probably just as Panteado...?), but one definitely feels a sense of maturity in their dancing among the rest of mostly youngsters. And I agree about his proportions. He's got the look for the part.

Okay, Cristian. Here comes my defense of Piazzolla Caldera...

The prosecution rests the case.happy.png

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Cristian, with all respect, I have to note that you dismiss the Taylor, which you were predisposed to dislike before seeing it, without telling us why. Can you at least tell us what you thought about the dancers?

On another point -- and in the interest of fairness -- I have to mention that I spoke this morning with a former high-level dancer who has an incredible eye and memory, and who has seen many NYCB Apollos over the years. He LOVED the same Friday night performance that disappointed me. This was especially true about the women, whom he compared favorably to the Muses he saw at NYCB earlier in the year.

We agreed to stay off the topic of the Apollos themselves, since he felt Cedeiro was making interesting choices in his interpretation, but had not seen Reyes.

We each had lots of reasons for our opinions. I had to agree, for example, that there was an uncanny and beautiful stylistic unity among Patricia Delgado, Jeanette Delgado, and Tricia Albertson (seting aside their quite different solos) and that they, at least, clearly understood who they were on stage.

Vive la difference!

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Cristian, with all respect, I have to note that you dismiss the Taylor, which you were predisposed to dislike before seeing it, without telling us why. Can you at least tell us what you thought about the dancers?

Oh, I can't...since I never got to see it. The reason I dismissed it is basically because my interest in dancing has/had always to do basically with tutus and pointes. I have rarely enjoyed anything from any other dancing artform, including flamenco-(which bores me to death), tap, jazz, ballroom, all that riverdancing thing and right on the very bottom, barefoot contemporary stuff. That said, I have also had past experiences with Taylor's works, and they have had nothing to offer me. I know it is my limitation, but that's how it is, so why should I keep trying...? The dancers could be wonderful, and enjoyable to me in other areas, but certainly not in Taylor.

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