Pictures at an Exhibition: June 2-3, 8-11

[sandik]

43 minutes ago, Helene said:

Jerome Tisserand danced in "Pictures at an Exhibition," and his solo tonight was high-octane bad-ass. 

 

Oh excellent -- he seems a bit low-key during the first weekend, while Steven Loch was terrifying.

[sandik]

I've been meaning to post some extra thoughts after the first weekend -- better late than never.

 

La Source:

 

I think it may be the Delibes score, but this reminded me of Coppelia – a happy ballet full of tricky dancing.  As always, Imler’s timing is really impressive – her ability to suspend a balance and then move quickly to the next thing is just lovely.

 

Griffiths’ timing during the Saturday matinee was very square – the sharp was sharp, but it was all on the beat, which gets frustrating  Biasucci is making more choices about timing here, which may be why it looked like Griffiths was not.  But they have a good rapport, and the touch and go lift and carry towards the beginning of the second duet was truly special. Generosa accelerates during a series of emboites, which gives them a lovely sense of excitement.  She seems to take delight in her own skills (“look at my fun feet” “and now I’m going to snap my hands”)  The part has some really killer moments, including a big manege full of turning jumps, like the guys usually do.

 

Saturday night Pantastico had a very developed character coming from the technique – it was interesting to see her act the part while Imler had danced it the previous night.   She puts big accents on some of the moments – her arms going from 2^nd to 4^th at the end of a couple of sequences are very sharp and etched.  As her partner, Kyle Davis had some wonderful moments – his series of sissone/cabriole zig zagging through the space reminded me of his Bluebird. 

 

Opus 19:

 

Like La Source, we got three different casts opening weekend – Moore has a character filled out with this role.  He’s dancing really well, his lines are open and his footwork is clean.  I know he worked really hard to come back from injury, and it made some changes in his outline, especially his arabesque, which we can see here.  Wald is taller, and his limbs get attenuated towards the distal ends, so his general lines are more extended, but he still had a nice rhythmic motor going on most of the time – it wasn’t just a tableau.  Griffiths has the same intensity as Moore, but his phrases are a tiny bit shorter.  Or it could just look that way because Rachel Foster was just fierce as his partner – she jumped into every sequence she had. Pantastico danced with Moore opening night, and again seems to be creating a character from whole cloth.  Sarah Ricard Orza was Wald’s partner – she has a lovely, womanly quality, even during the more snappish parts of the role.

 

Pictures:

 

Ratmansky makes several references in here to other ballets – the school picture line up at the top of the work reminds me of the goons in Prodigal Son, and a couple of moments in Nijinska’s Les Noces, the matching line of men and women toward the end of the final section looks like all kinds of productions of Firebird, during the happy ending section.  And the female quartet for Bydio makes me think of Ashton’s choreography for the quartet of chickens in Fille Mal Gardee, though I doubt that’s what Ratmansky was thinking about.  This ballet is so packed with material, and wonderful performances, that I really need another go at it – I’m hoping it comes back to the repertory really soon.  Like many people in the audience, I followed Imler and Bold around whenever they were on stage, but alongside their work, I was thrilled to see Porretta (and his Mutt and Jeff moments with Josh Grant), and amazed at the work that Steven Loch did in With the Dead In a Dead Language – he was the personification of a demon. 

 

These three works are very different in style and tone – the comments during the Q/A sessions after all of the performances in the first weekend mentioned how distinctive they are.  It seemed to me that there was a subtle value judgment going on with some of the comments about Pictures, implying that it’s a better ballet because it’s less traditional.  I was a big disconcerted by that – Peter Boal continued to point out how difficult La Source is, especially for the principal couple, but it felt a bit like the vegetables that are good for you, rather than the dessert you want to eat now.

Edited June 11, 2017 by sandik

[seattle_dancer]

11 hours ago, sandik said:

I've been meaning to post some extra thoughts after the first weekend -- better late than never.

 

There's still one more show today, so I figure we're not late.

 

Last weekend was the first time I had seen La Source, so I have not seen the big guns ballerinas dance it back in the day, but I loved Leta Biasucci and Ben Griffiths in it.  Their partnering seems the most natural out of the three casts and one example is that enormous fish dive toward the end of the show (when they must be tired) downstage right.  Leta really hurls herself out horizontally (vs up and out), and she's not that tall, so she's not that high off the ground, but obviously she has full trust in Ben to catch her.  Noone has more sparkle power than Angelica Generosa and I loved how she interpreted the second ballerina role, and pulled it off like it was easy.  Towards the end, again, when she must be tired, she did a huge manege with amazing couple jetes, so big for such a small person.

 

As others have mentioned, Rachel Foster really impressed last week in Opus 19, she was as fierce as ever.  When Pictures started, I forgot she was in it that night and her role there was completely opposite - charming and playful.  I was really impressed she could switch so quickly and pull off the demanding choreography so well.  The Pictures pas with Kyle Davis is lightening quick.  I also thought it was interesting she had that role.  As she rose to principal status, I knew her as one who excelled in contemporary works, and would not have thought of her for Tiler Peck's Pictures role but she was super cute and blasted through the steps.  So hopefully she is now 100% recovered and better than ever.  Or so it appears.

 

In Pictures, as sandik said, Steven Loch was terrifying in his solo.  It seemed edgy and dangerous and went with the music really well.  He and Elle Macy are exciting in their pdd, she also has the ability to dance edgy and fierce, as demonstrated in her Empire Noir solo.  This past Nutcracker run I saw them as Sugarplum and Cavalier, so it was really fun to see them dance in Pictures together, in such different roles.

[Helene]

On 6/11/2017 at 0:26 AM, sandik said:

 

Oh excellent -- he seems a bit low-key during the first weekend, while Steven Loch was terrifying.

I thought that was meant to contrast with the way he interacted with the female trio.  Last night, he was revealed before that scene.

[choriamb]

I attended on Saturday night (6/10), too, intending to catch Imler live one last time.

 

Pictures at an Exhibition was an unexpected delight. (I'd avoided it in NYC because even the Ratmansko-philic reviews made it sound like a total grab bag...which it is, but a wonderful one.) La Source didn't totally gel for me, partly because it isn't my favorite Balanchine choreography.  That said, it was interesting to watch the leads stretching themselves in unexpected ways (Biasucci trading attack for a lovely serene port de bras, Griffiths pushing the tempo in one section). I'll also now be keeping an eye on Nicole Rizzitano in the corps.

 

But the main question:  why is James Moore not better-known?!!  I can't imagine how his Opus 19/The Dreamer performance could have been better:  more articulate and theatrically nuanced than any I've seen at NYCB (and I've seen some very good ones). I've never watched Moore in a 19th-century classic, but on the back of the repertory I have watched, he's absolutely world-class.

Edited June 12, 2017 by choriamb

[Helene]

9 hours ago, choriamb said:

But the main question:  why is James Moore not better-known?!!  I can't imagine how his Opus 19/The Dreamer performance could have been better:  more articulate and theatrically nuanced than any I've seen at NYCB (and I've seen some very good ones). I've never watched Moore in a 19th-century classic, but on the back of the repertory I have watched, he's absolutely world-class.

Word.

[jsmu]

11 hours ago, choriamb said:

I attended on Saturday night (6/10), too, intending to catch Imler live one last time.

 

Pictures at an Exhibition was an unexpected delight. (I'd avoided it in NYC because even the Ratmansko-philic reviews made it sound like a total grab bag...which it is, but a wonderful one.) La Source didn't totally gel for me, partly because it isn't my favorite Balanchine choreography.  That said, it was interesting to watch the leads stretching themselves in unexpected ways (Biasucci trading attack for a lovely serene port de bras, Griffiths pushing the tempo in one section). I'll also now be keeping an eye on Nicole Rizzitano in the corps.

 

But the main question:  why is James Moore not better-known?!!  I can't imagine how his Opus 19/The Dreamer performance could have been better:  more articulate and theatrically nuanced than any I've seen at NYCB (and I've seen some very good ones). I've never watched Moore in a 19th-century classic, but on the back of the repertory I have watched, he's absolutely world-class.

He has been one of my favorite dancers anywhere since I first saw him years ago. Incredible in 'Mopey,' debonair and slightly bad in 'Nine Sinatra Songs,'

and unforgettably heedless, vulnerable, and ultimately completely destroyed in 'Prodigal Son.' Like Carrie Imler, he's a dancer worth traveling any distance to see.

[sandik]

11 hours ago, choriamb said:

But the main question:  why is James Moore not better-known?!!  I can't imagine how his Opus 19/The Dreamer performance could have been better:  more articulate and theatrically nuanced than any I've seen at NYCB (and I've seen some very good ones). I've never watched Moore in a 19th-century classic, but on the back of the repertory I have watched, he's absolutely world-class.

 

He hasn't done too many of the standard princes, but he does an excellent job in the ancillary roles -- his Bluebird is very sharp.  And his Hillarion, in PNB's reconstructed version of the ballet, is stellar.  The role is constructed in such a way that you can feel real sorrow and confusion when Giselle rejects him -- it makes his desire to punish Alberecht much more viable.

 

He does dance Frantz in the Balanchine/Danilova Coppelia, and shines in the technical material, but there's not as much character to work with as there is in the Robbins -- he gave a fascinating performance during the first week of the run.

[Helene]

Marina Harss interview Wendy Whelan about her experience staging "Pictures at an Exhibition," and it is very clear why every dancer who spoke in the Q&As described how moved they were by her and the experience:

 

http://dancetabs.com/2017/06/interview-wendy-whelan-on-staging-her-first-ballet-for-pacific-northwest-ballet/