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MCB Program III


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The company has already performed this program in Miami and one night in Naples. Was anybody there? Any comments?

I will be going to the Fort Lauderdale "premiere" this coming Saturday. I have been wanting to see Year of the Rabbit for a while. I am a big Sufjan Stevens fan, and have heard good thing about Peck's ballet.

Bourree Fantasque should be lovely as well. I have not heard of Sunset before.

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Yes, please report. I usually attend the West Palm Kravis shows because my parents live there, but they occur during the Mariinsky's DC tour, so I am not going to Program 3. I really wanted to see Bourree Fantasque. Lourdes Lopez has sometimes repeated ballets the following year since she's taken over. Maybe Bourree Fantasque will be repeated next season. However, I suspect that if the new production of Midsummer Night's Dream is a success that is the Balanchine ballet that might get a repeat next season.

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The first Balanchine ballet I saw was "La Sonnambula," which I didn't like at all then. The second was "Bouree Fantasque," which I loved, loved, loved. Martine van Hamel was injured in the first ballet and Harriet Clark danced the LeClerq movement in her place in "Bouree Fantasque" and was superb. It started my love affair with Balanchine's works.

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Here we go!

I was a bit bummed and surprised at first when I saw none of the Delgados, especially Patricia, were set to dance in any ballet last night.

I LOVED Year of the Rabbit. I am a Sufjan Stevens fan to start with, and this ballet was just incredible. I already want to see it again because I feel like I missed a lot of things. There is a lot to look at, all the time, and I thought the choreography was very clever and beautiful. I actually found myself looking at the shapes and patterns the Corps was making more often than I was watching the soloist. It was very visually appealing and interesting, and the lighting looked great. It was also a much faster ballet than I anticipated. In the end, it was really well received; many were on their feet clapping for a while.

I saw a principal cast composed of Tricia Albertson, Nathalia Arja, Zoe Zien, Shimon Ito, Renan Cerdeiro and Jovani Furlan, all making their debuts. All three ladies were quite lovely, and the men did great as well (I wouldn't expect anything less from Cerdeiro and Furlan). I thought Arja was phenomenal, she really danced with abandon and energy, and the lifts with her short pas de deux with Furlan were amazing. These two worked well together.

I also have to say the slow pas de deux during "Year of our Lord" between Furlan and Zien almost brought me to tears. The music, the lighting, the dancing, the emotion... It was fantastic. I didn't expect to get such a reaction from these two.

This was my first J. Peck ballet, and I get the hype around him now. This was fantastic, and I really appreciated all the shapes and "out of the box" moves like making the ballerinas glide across the stage that he came up with. The simple costumes, strings-only score, lighting and the absence of any set or background really highlighted the raw beauty of dance and movement. Very interesting to watch, and like I said, I already wanted to see it again 5 minutes after it ended.

Sunset was... eh okay, I guess. I am not a fan of pointe-less ballets to start with, but that is just my personal liking. The score was great, but overall I didn't really feel moved by this ballet, and I didn't find it memorable. In the program they have a quote that says "I'm always startled to meet people who aren't moved to tears by it" in the NY Observer. Well, call me cold-hearted I guess?

There is a part where one of the girls walks on the men's shoulders, and later sort of rolls around on their backs while they are kneeling, or even walks on them, and all of these just looked clumsy and awkward to me. You could tell she didn't really look comfortable doing most of these moves, and really was trying to not faceplant. And if I can see that from my high up mezzanine seat, that's not good.

The section where the orchestra goes quiet and the dancers use nocturnal sounds is pretty interesting, but it kinda got lost on me. Maybe I was still on such a high from YOTR that I didn't appreciate this ballet as much as I could? I don't know, but in the end, I didn't really care for it.

Finally, I also loved Bourree Fantasque. The costumes were fantastic, and I thought overall it was a very precise, clean and clever ballet. It was very colorful, joyful and full of elegance. Like YOTR, it was very well received, with again many people standing up at the end.

On the casting printout, the first movement was scheduled to be Simone Messmer and Kleber Rebello (which I was super excited about following my Delgado disappointment), but they announced before the show started that these two would be replaced by Shimon Ito and Jordan Elizabeth Long. Sadness again. I am not sure how last minute that replacement was, but it showed. I say that with an untrained eye, and I could tell there were some obvious mishaps and missed counts, and overall they didn't exude as much confidence on the stage that I would have liked to see. They just looked a little unsure of themselves during the entire movement. Besides, I am not sure they are good partners for each other to start with. Ito is quite short, while Long is much taller and slender. When she would go on pointe, the height difference really showed and was startling to me. With that said, they did some pretty good acting and got a few laughs out of the audience.

Second movement was Albertson and Rainer Krenstetter, and both were fantastic. I always love watching Albertson dance, and am never disappointed. Krenstetter was a great partner for her as well; both are tall and long, and matched very well.

Third movement was Nathalia Arja and Renato Penteado, and once again, I thought Arja looked fantastic. She had great energy, confidence in her steps, and like in YOTR, danced with abandon and complete trust in her partner.

The ending was excellent, and it really is beautiful to see all 42 dancers on stage, with all these beautiful costumes, and the genius of Balanchine really shines through here. The entire ballet simply is Balanchine. The big ending with everyone on stage was probably my favorite part, and it was very clean and precise, which is probably difficult to achieve with so many people. Walking out of the theater, I could hear people thrilled about it, commenting how beautiful it was. I do hope MCB dances it more often.

Overall, I had a great night, and I hope MCB decides to keep YOTR and Bourree in their regular repertoire. Seeing the audience's reaction, it's highly likely. The highlight for me was Nathalia Arja, who made me forget my Delgado/Messmer disappointments. Maybe I am a little biased, she was dancing the Sugarplum during the Nutcracker a few years ago, which is the very first MCB ballet I saw, so I guess I'm sentimentally attached to her in some way. However, she truly was shining last night, and I thought she had the most energy and confidence out on the stage out of everyone.

Now I really wish I could watch YOTR again... somebody make a movie?

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Sohalia, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. It sounds like a great program. One thing I was going to point out is that 'Bourree Fantasque' first movement is often cast with a taller woman and shorter man, to emphasize certain comedic moments, i.e. when she kicks him in the head, or when he comes in to hug her. Do you think some of the mishaps were choreographic? If it was that and it didn't come across to you, it's still problematic, just thought I would share that little tidbit of information. I for one, can't wait until they're performing 'Bourree' in NYC!

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Sohalia, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. It sounds like a great program. One thing I was going to point out is that 'Bourree Fantasque' first movement is often cast with a taller woman and shorter man, to emphasize certain comedic moments, i.e. when she kicks him in the head, or when he comes in to hug her. Do you think some of the mishaps were choreographic? If it was that and it didn't come across to you, it's still problematic, just thought I would share that little tidbit of information. I for one, can't wait until they're performing 'Bourree' in NYC!

Thank you, I did not know that and it is a very important casting detail indeed. Then the partnering makes complete sense.

However, yes there were still a few mistakes here and there. I remember a near fall out of a pirouette from Ito, and just overall an impression that they were a bit too timid and not as secure in their steps as they should have been. It may be because they weren't initially set to dance and got thrown in there on short notice? The printout casting I got at the theater did not even have their names listed to dance that movement at all.

But yes, Bourree was really fun to watch, and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did when they perform it in NYC!

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Adding to the discussion of MCB's Bourree Fantasque - I saw the Sunday matinee - Jordan-Elizabeth Long and Shimon Ito danced the 1st Movement and they were hilarious. Jordan must be close to 6' on pointe and Shimon might be (guessing here) 5'6'? It's fast with lots of turns and tricky partnering and that is what makes it so funny- the shorter guy with much taller ballerina in full out black tutu, gloves and headpiece to partner. They went for it and I thought they were the standout performance. btw, it was Darci Kistler's role at NYCB.

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Adding to the discussion of MCB's Bourree Fantasque - I saw the Sunday matinee - Jordan-Elizabeth Long and Shimon Ito danced the 1st Movement and they were hilarious. Jordan must be close to 6' on pointe and Shimon might be (guessing here) 5'6'? It's fast with lots of turns and tricky partnering and that is what makes it so funny- the shorter guy with much taller ballerina in full out black tutu, gloves and headpiece to partner. They went for it and I thought they were the standout performance. btw, it was Darci Kistler's role at NYCB.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205896452396063&set=a.3671727317399.2130647.1401360055&type=3&theater

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