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Program III 2013


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I attended Miami City Ballet's Program 3 at the Kravis Center last night.

Three Balanchine ballets: La Valse, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux

And Ratmansky's Symphonic Dances

I have only seen La Valse once before and like it much more the second time around. To me it captures the feel of society breaking down and changing. For me the woman in white's death is like the death of things we previously held dear and we are in a vortex caught up in changes that are attractive yet dangerous. It is fascinating that Balanchine was able to create such a beautiful ballet that has an "ugly" aspect.

Tricia Albertson was a lovely woman in white. Zoe Zien, Nathalia Arja, and Jeanette Delgado were all wonderful as the 3 main women apart from the Woman in White.

Kleber Rebello and Jennifer Lauren were so cute in The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Mary Carmen Catoya and Renato Penteado were fabulous in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. To me they were back in immaculate form after last program's slightly off form DQ PDD. They proved to me that they are normally excellent.

I like Ratmansky's Symphonic Dances. It is modern yet has plenty of nods to good old fashioned Russian ballet (a big plus, in my personal opinion). There seems to be a theme running throughout of outsiders being accepted or rejected from a group and different dancers breaking out of the group to form alliances. I think It is a ballet that keeps you wondering, plotless yet still stories going on. I saw the world premiere last year in Miami and enjoyed it then. The two stand outs are Jeanette Delgado and the very energetic Nathalia Arja. Near the end Arja is on the floor like a cat ready to pounce, and pounce she does. To me this dancer has an energy and charisma not unlike Osipova.

I don't mean to leave out all the other great dancers but have to run. Parents are taking me to Christopher's Kitchen which is a restaurant not to be missed if you find yourself in Palm Beach Gardens! All raw vegetarian but even the most hardcore meat eater would not miss meat at this restaurant! I am trying to think of a restaurant I like better in the entire world, and I cannot!!!

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...

Mary Carmen Catoya and Renato Penteado ... are normally excellent.

...

Those two words sum up those two dancers pretty well. Excellence is their norm, in my experience.

I hope you enjoyed dinner, and when you return, could you tell us about Reyneris Reyes, "Death" in La Valse? I'm curious what his quality of movement might have brought to this unusual character, having seen a few other portrayals over the years.

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Tchai. PDD is one of those "Peti-tuesques" by Balanchine that I always enjoy big time.(Well, they are actually Odile and Sigfried, aren't they...?). Many times I have wondered how wonderful could it be if someone could introduce this right in the ballroom scene of a full length staging, given proper licensure and everything. happy.png

Anyway...here's a PDD that's not short of pyrotechnics...(very few people do proper credit to those final daring fish dives). There used to be a video on Youtube, now removed, with Xiomara Reyes and Corella on it, and they were FANTASTIC. She threw herself with such force and he caught her the two times with her face almost touching the floor. Very few times I've seen this sequence danced with such energy.

Catoya and Panteado should do good. Looking forward to it.

Thanks for the report, BB!

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Even though death is a pivotal figure in La Valse it doesn't seem like a big dance. He is a large man and supported Tricia Albertson well in the sort of enticement yet "let me go" dancing. So my eyes were more on her dancing than his. Please enlighten me on what I should look for in Death's dancing next time!

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Well, the first one I saw I knew had been with Balanchine some time, though, new on the scene, I hadn't seen him much, and in the part he moved like a stiff old man, and naive spectator that I was, I thought, How decent of Balanchine to keep this loyal dancer on, so far past his prime! That dancer had retired by the time La Valse was revived again, and a younger dancer, active in many roles, appeared in the part - and he moved like a stiff old man! It was one of those Aha! moments.

Anyway, yes, it isn't a big dance, but a nice pantomime part, and admits some amplification, IMO, to show by quality of movement, not costuming, long white beard, all that corny stuff, that "Death" is old; eternal, even.

If we see that, doesn't that make the ending even more chilling? Death has been doing this a long time, so he seduces the Girl in White efficiently, in cold blood, and disappears.

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It could well be that the "stiff old man" aspect didn't get into the performance this time. I've seen lots of details of Balanchine's repertory disappear over the years, sometimes specific moves or gestures, sometimes the way the moves are done. For me, the way the dancers do it is about as much a part of the dance as the what they do.

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Casting is up for Broward: http://www.miamicity.../NewsPDF462.pdf

Two La Valse casts (Albertson/Guerra, Manning/Trividic), three Tchai Pas casts (Catoya/Penteado, Albertson/Reyes, J. Delgado/Rebello) and four Steadfast casts (Lauren/Rebello, S. Esty/Breeden, Lubin/Cerdeiro, Catoya/Penteado). Nice to see Lourdes getting lots of casts out there.

Will be interesting to see veterans Albertson and Reyes in TPDD. Rebello and Delgado also...wow. Jeanette is a solid, muscular girl. I wonder how will Rebello handle those fish dives! I think it would had been better to pair Catoya with Rebello and Panteado with Delgado, body type wise. Let's see...

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I went to see this last night. Mixed feelings about the whole program.

La Valse

Having seen La Valse from third raw orchestra center was a good choice. There's a lot to see in the dancers faces while dancing this ballet. It really tells you much more about that sort of "impeding doom" that floats around the stage all along. When the couples dance, they are not sad, nor happy, but apprehensive. It looks as if these elegant party couples know what's about to happen-(maybe it has happened before..? Well, of course it has happened before, as the ballet has been around for quite a while!). This is not a merry ballroom, and the members are certainly "initiated". There have been other "chosen" ones before, and the Angel of Death has visited them many times. Tricia Albertson was terrific as the girl in white, and the fact that she looks fairy older than the rest of the company creates an interesting picture. This woman has been around, she has more experience...she has probably been a waltzing witness to other girls in white at different times, and now is her moment. And I think she knows it since the very moment she joins the ballroom. I felt as if the only one who's really innocent of all this is his partner, Carlos Miguel Guerra, who unknowingly tries to purse a woman who will never be his. When the Angel of Death shows up the routine starts...once more he goes after his prey, and little by little starts investing her with all his deadly regalia...the black stones choker, the black gloves that fits her perfectly, for which they were made specifically for her, as well as the black tulle cape. From that moment on, the girl in white is already "on the other side". Now she is the "girl in black". Still after wearing the choker-(which interestingly she wraps herself around her neck, for which this ought to be a willing process)-she still refuses to fully acknowledge what's happening to her 100 %. She doesn not want to see herself in the mirror at first, only to do so after the pressure of the Angel of Death-("Here...look at yourself...you're mine now!).There is a brief moment of probably sudden rebellion in the girl, which happens when she's given the last deadly accesory...the black flowers bouquet. Suddenly she snaps out of it...she refuses to let go...she tries to fight once more against it and trows it out of the stage with anger and force...away from her life. But it's too late...the Angel of Death has full powers now, and that's when they engage in a violent dance. Reyneris Reyes was WONDERFUL in this character. It is also a plus that he looks older here, and his angular face and black full hair made for a sleek, even scary portray. He did not proceeded blandly with this suddenly rebellious prey. He applies force on her, he makes her and everyone around-(and probably future girls in white)- know that he's in control and will always be. Reyes threw Albertson all around with no mercy...he shows the world that he's the master and there's no purpose in an kind of fighting. After he's done with it, he flies away. A very interesting moment during the final sequence happens when the couples make a circle around the lifeless body of the girl as she is being help up. They dance with their torsos, necks and heads bended to the side and taken by their hands, mimicking the exact same sequence of the Willis in Giselle with Hilarion-(an homage to another fatal dancing moment around a human being being caught in deadly circumstances...?).

I really enjoyed La Valse last night. The other plus on watching it up close is how one can really appreciate the beautiful costumes. This is a full blown Christian Dior "New Look" post war collection tribute. The three women that open the ballet actually look like models from a mid century fashion magazine. I thought..."Grace Kelly...Rear window..!" happy.png

4974529447_2f52e71bb7_z.jpg

rear-window-grace-kelly-1954-everett.jpg

Coming up next...TPDD.

Link to comment

I went to see this last night. Mixed feelings about the whole program.

La Valse

Having seen La Valse from third raw orchestra center was a good choice. There's a lot to see in the dancers faces while dancing this ballet. It really tells you much more about that sort of "impeding doom" that floats around the stage all along. When the couples dance, they are not sad, nor happy, but apprehensive. It looks as if these elegant party couples know what's about to happen-(maybe it has happened before..? Well, of course it has happened before, as the ballet has been around for quite a while!). This is not a merry ballroom, and the members are certainly "initiated". There have been other "chosen" ones before, and the Angel of Death has visited them many times. Tricia Albertson was terrific as the girl in white, and the fact that she looks fairy older than the rest of the company creates an interesting picture. This woman has been around, she has more experience...she has probably been a waltzing witness to other girls in white at different times, and now is her moment. And I think she knows it since the very moment she joins the ballroom. I felt as if the only one who's really innocent of all this is his partner, Carlos Miguel Guerra, who unknowingly tries to purse a woman who will never be his. When the Angel of Death shows up the routine starts...once more he goes after his prey, and little by little starts investing her with all his deadly regalia...the black stones choker, the black gloves that fits her perfectly, for which they were made specifically for her, as well as the black tulle cape. From that moment on, the girl in white is already "on the other side". Now she is the "girl in black". Still after wearing the choker-(which interestingly she wraps herself around her neck, for which this ought to be a willing process)-she still refuses to fully acknowledge what's happening to her 100 %. She doesn not want to see herself in the mirror at first, only to do so after the pressure of the Angel of Death-("Here...look at yourself...you're mine now!).There is a brief moment of probably sudden rebellion in the girl, which happens when she's given the last deadly accesory...the black flowers bouquet. Suddenly she snaps out of it...she refuses to let go...she tries to fight once more against it and trows it out of the stage with anger and force...away from her life. But it's too late...the Angel of Death has full powers now, and that's when they engage in a violent dance. Reyneris Reyes was WONDERFUL in this character. It is also a plus that he looks older here, and his angular face and black full hair made for a sleek, even scary portray. He did not proceeded blandly with this suddenly rebellious prey. He applies force on her, he makes her and everyone around-(and probably future girls in white)- know that he's in control and will always be. Reyes threw Albertson all around with no mercy...he shows the world that he's the master and there's no purpose in an kind of fighting. After he's done with it, he flies away. A very interesting moment during the final sequence happens when the couples make a circle around the lifeless body of the girl as she is being help up. They dance with their torsos, necks and heads bended to the side and taken by their hands, mimicking the exact same sequence of the Willis in Giselle with Hilarion-(an homage to another fatal dancing moment around a human being being caught in deadly circumstances...?).

I really enjoyed La Valse last night. The other plus on watching it up close is how one can really appreciate the beautiful costumes. This is a full blown Christian Dior "New Look" post war collection tribute. The three women that open the ballet actually look like models from a mid century fashion magazine. I thought..."Grace Kelly...Rear window..!" happy.png

4974529447_2f52e71bb7_z.jpg

rear-window-grace-kelly-1954-everett.jpg

Coming up next...TPDD.

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux was the big winner of the night. Cast couldn't have been better, Jeanette Delgado and Kleber Rebello. The two were beautiful, and their chemistry onstage was almost tangible. Again, being so close to the stage, I could really appreciate every single glance, smile, every hand taken and everything was PERFECT. No bubbling, no shaken ankles, no nothing. Jeanette is such a confident dancer, and something really nice I notice...she's growing into putting a high sense of effort into the ACCENTS. Yes...this is a quality I so miss in many dancers and that I always praise in the memories I have of Lorna Feijoo. Well, Jeanette is taken care of it, and very beautifully. Every single step has a defined pathos that is being reinforced with a precise accent from her eyes, neck and arms. Everything is fluid but mathematically precise at the same time. There is a moment in her variation where the ballerina throws three grand battements on pointe consecutively before engaging in a single gargouillade followed by a series of passes. Delgado paid a particular attention to the very last battement, placing her eyes on her pointe as it starts going down with a slow, sensual motion, before jumping and speeding into the next series of steps-(gargouillade/passes). That's how Feijoo used to dance it, and Delgado did it too. Wonderful. Rebello was just as great. His dancing has become so crystal clear..very feline, soft, with high emphasis in legato and ballon. His landings are completely noiseless, and there's no strain at all during turns. Actually he always seems to pay special attention to his audience. He keeps going back to glance after a given series of steps, but in no way he tries to milk applauses. He just like to flirt with us, and it looks just right, for which his deliverance is a highly polished product. To define his dancing, I would say his movements remind me of those of a cat. The only little detail I would had love to be different happened during the coda's iconic two fish dives. I always expect the sort of jumps where the dancer really places himself away from the ballerina so she can run across the stage and jump in his arms, face almost touching the floor-(the now defunct video of Corella and Reyes was the perfect example). Here Rebello and Delgado took a more careful approach. The fish dives occurred, but the lowering was just not deep enough(but again...the same situation happens many times during that fish dive sequence in the DQ adagio, where some dancers really lower the ballerina who does that sweeping movement with her arms almost on the floor while others just take her midway with lots of space down below).

Anyway...it was a wonderful display. I was very happy at having watched this, and the audience cheered them loudly.

Up next...the rest of the program.

Link to comment

I went to see this last night. Mixed feelings about the whole program.

La Valse

Having seen La Valse from third raw orchestra center was a good choice. There's a lot to see in the dancers faces while dancing this ballet. It really tells you much more about that sort of "impeding doom" that floats around the stage all along. When the couples dance, they are not sad, nor happy, but apprehensive. It looks as if these elegant party couples know what's about to happen-(maybe it has happened before..? Well, of course it has happened before, as the ballet has been around for quite a while!). This is not a merry ballroom, and the members are certainly "initiated". There have been other "chosen" ones before, and the Angel of Death has visited them many times. Tricia Albertson was terrific as the girl in white, and the fact that she looks fairy older than the rest of the company creates an interesting picture. This woman has been around, she has more experience...she has probably been a waltzing witness to other girls in white at different times, and now is her moment. And I think she knows it since the very moment she joins the ballroom. I felt as if the only one who's really innocent of all this is his partner, Carlos Miguel Guerra, who unknowingly tries to purse a woman who will never be his. When the Angel of Death shows up the routine starts...once more he goes after his prey, and little by little starts investing her with all his deadly regalia...the black stones choker, the black gloves that fits her perfectly, for which they were made specifically for her, as well as the black tulle cape. From that moment on, the girl in white is already "on the other side". Now she is the "girl in black". Still after wearing the choker-(which interestingly she wraps herself around her neck, for which this ought to be a willing process)-she still refuses to fully acknowledge what's happening to her 100 %. She doesn not want to see herself in the mirror at first, only to do so after the pressure of the Angel of Death-("Here...look at yourself...you're mine now!).There is a brief moment of probably sudden rebellion in the girl, which happens when she's given the last deadly accesory...the black flowers bouquet. Suddenly she snaps out of it...she refuses to let go...she tries to fight once more against it and trows it out of the stage with anger and force...away from her life. But it's too late...the Angel of Death has full powers now, and that's when they engage in a violent dance. Reyneris Reyes was WONDERFUL in this character. It is also a plus that he looks older here, and his angular face and black full hair made for a sleek, even scary portray. He did not proceeded blandly with this suddenly rebellious prey. He applies force on her, he makes her and everyone around-(and probably future girls in white)- know that he's in control and will always be. Reyes threw Albertson all around with no mercy...he shows the world that he's the master and there's no purpose in an kind of fighting. After he's done with it, he flies away. A very interesting moment during the final sequence happens when the couples make a circle around the lifeless body of the girl as she is being help up. They dance with their torsos, necks and heads bended to the side and taken by their hands, mimicking the exact same sequence of the Willis in Giselle with Hilarion-(an homage to another fatal dancing moment around a human being being caught in deadly circumstances...?).

I really enjoyed La Valse last night. The other plus on watching it up close is how one can really appreciate the beautiful costumes. This is a full blown Christian Dior "New Look" post war collection tribute. The three women that open the ballet actually look like models from a mid century fashion magazine. I thought..."Grace Kelly...Rear window..!" happy.png

4974529447_2f52e71bb7_z.jpg

rear-window-grace-kelly-1954-everett.jpg

Coming up next...TPDD.

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux was the big winner of the night. Cast couldn't have been better, Jeanette Delgado and Kleber Rebello. The two were beautiful, and their chemistry onstage was almost tangible. Again, being so close to the stage, I could really appreciate every single glance, smile, every hand taken and everything was PERFECT. No bubbling, no shaken ankles, no nothing. Jeanette is such a confident dancer, and something really nice I notice...she's growing into putting a high sense of effort into the ACCENTS. Yes...this is a quality I so miss in many dancers and that I always praise in the memories I have of Lorna Feijoo. Well, Jeanette is taken care of it, and very beautifully. Every single step has a defined pathos that is being reinforced with a precise accent from her eyes, neck and arms. Everything is fluid but mathematically precise at the same time. There is a moment in her variation where the ballerina throws three grand battements on pointe consecutively before engaging in a single gargouillade followed by a series of passes. Delgado paid a particular attention to the very last battement, placing her eyes on her pointe as it starts going down with a slow, sensual motion, before jumping and speeding into the next series of steps-(gargouillade/passes). That's how Feijoo used to dance it, and Delgado did it too. Wonderful. Rebello was just as great. His dancing has become so crystal clear..very feline, soft, with high emphasis in legato and ballon. His landings are completely noiseless, and there's no strain at all during turns. Actually he always seems to pay special attention to his audience. He keeps going back to glance after a given series of steps, but in no way he tries to milk applauses. He just like to flirt with us, and it looks just right, for which his deliverance is a highly polished product. To define his dancing, I would say his movements remind me of those of a cat. The only little detail I would had love to be different happened during the coda's iconic two fish dives. I always expect the sort of jumps where the dancer really places himself away from the ballerina so she can run across the stage and jump in his arms, face almost touching the floor-(the now defunct video of Corella and Reyes was the perfect example). Here Rebello and Delgado took a more careful approach. The fish dives occurred, but the lowering was just not deep enough(but again...the same situation happens many times during that fish dive sequence in the DQ adagio, where some dancers really lower the ballerina who does that sweeping movement with her arms almost on the floor while others just take her midway with lots of space down below).

Anyway...it was a wonderful display. I was very happy at having watched this, and the audience cheered them loudly.

Up next...the rest of the program.

The Steadfast Tin Soldier was not a good choice here. It's just too weightless, and does not really add to the night. Mary Carmen Catoya and Renato Panteado danced on it, but really...there's not too much of a dancing going on. To me it looks as a piece for a ballet school, not for the big house. It was obviously placed as a filler, and a super filler it was.

For Ratmansy's "Symphonic Dances", I will just say that one of my companions fall asleep. Boring to death in all its running, running and more running. I predict this was the swan song of this ballet.

I will use a quote of Alexandra Danilova, with the liberty of omiting the work and choreographer she was assessing, that always come to my mind when watching this type of stuff...

"(.....), for instance-people tell me how inventive (...) is, but i don't see it. What did (...) invent?... to me it is chaos. There is no design. One person does one thing, another person does another, a third person does a third...Apparently, there are people who find all this activity going on at once exhilarating, but i am not excited by it. It makes me mad. I watch it and think to myself. Is it worth to do battements tendus and perspire every day in order to be able to do this? "

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One interesting detail I saw from this program was that the company finally has adopted the much more needed old tradition of opening the curtains partially for the leading dancers to take solo bows. Miami needs this. There such an awful tradition of full stampedes of patrons running to the parking lots to beat traffic right after the last note of the orchestra that it feels embarrassing at moments. During La Valse curtain calls the applause had completely stopped and people were running as usual when suddenly the spot light illuminated the curtain to signal the showing of Albertson, Guerra and Reyes. Some people turned around and looked in surprise. Some stopped mid way to applaud, and some others stayed in their seats until the couple of bows were given. I had never seen this here. Before, during Villella's tenure, all the curtain calls were given for the whole company, and a solo recognition was never produced. If this was Lopez' idea, kuddos to her! flowers.gifflowers.gifflowers.gif .

Are we becoming international...? happy.png

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