Boston Ballet in New York

[vipa]

Went to Sun. mat with my husband and had a delightful time. This was my first viewing of BB so first off the dancers - beautiful bodies, technically strong, teeming with energy and joy.

I liked The Second Detail (Forsythe) but know he isn't everyone's cup of tea. I think he is an excellent craftsman. He can move groups well and have a lot happening on onstage while still directing your eye, so it never feels like random chaos. I really enjoy the combination of attack and fluidity in the work. In the piece I also felt as if the dancers were creating a community onstage, a community of individuals. It was like the ballet was a world of its own. I just want to add the the piece shows the dancers off very well.

I didn't like Resonance (Martinez), but the dancers again looked great. I just didn't find the piece very musical or interesting. There were elements that I guess were supposed to be meaningful such as having a wall that was moved, sometime casting large shadows of the dancers, and 2 pianos. One was upstage and one at the lip of the stage. Anyway I lost interest in the piece, took out my opera glasses and started watching individual dancers!

Cacti was delightful. I was surprised to read that the choreographer, Alexander Ekman is just 30 years old. The piece is funny, charming, self referential, inventive and well constructed. I smiled and laughed the whole way through. The dancers on squares beating out rhythms, the voice over coming in with pretentious nonsense, the dancers carrying cacti in stage, the couple dancing to the voice over saying their thoughts. I was totally delighted and charmed. There were a lot of children in the audience who obvious loved this. It is a piece that is funny on so many different levels that I can see how it would appeal to a child as well as an experienced theater goer.

I look forward to seeing more of these dancers. I have a relative in Boston who I'll be making well timed visits to see.

[mimsyb]

Although not a Balanchine expert, i thought the S in 3 movements was well danced particularly by Lia and Lasha in the PDD and by the high-jumping pair of Jeffrey Cirio and Misa Kurunaga.I loved Bella Figura inspite of the strange ending. We were seated in the back of the orchestra that one can't really see the nudity( unless one has better vision than me).

The BB dancers are very impressive.They should come back to NY again with ,at least, one classical ballet. Nikko better be careful, KMc might be shopping for dancers.

Or perhaps more ABT dancers wishing to go and dance with BB! At today's matinee, the orchestra was filled with ABT dancers on their day off. I can't help but wonder what they thought of all the actual dancing the BB dancers do. And to see a few ex ABT dancers (Cornejo, A. Ellis, Bo Busby, Roddy Doble) all looking exceptional here must give a few pause.

[Golden Idol]

For the most part enjoyed Program II but Bella Figura was absolutely wretched. Pointless silent warmup prologue and epilogue, noisy slapping of body parts, idiotic comings and goings of curtains, that stupid fire at the end. So there were a few brilliant red chamises twirling about? This is impressive? Very, very hard for me to believe such a piece is taken seriously, as it looked like sophomoric posturing on an undergraduate choreographer's level. On the plus side, I must say, however, that despite what others have remarked above about the company possibly being exhausted after a long season, the corps looked extremely well rehearsed in the Balanchine. I won't presume to compare them to NYCB, but ABT's corps should look that neatly in synch all the time.

[abatt]

I too, hated Bella Figura. The rest of the program was enjoyable, though..