Dansuer85 Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 ABT was in Kansas City on April 15th and 16th. Over all the performances were good! I will post more later when I have time to write out a review, but thought I would post this to see if anyone saw the performances! Please post if you did and share your impressions! Link to comment
bart Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Looking forward to your review, Danseur86. Dancers bring a special perspective to writing about dance performance, and I often wish that I could see things through a dancer's eyes. Link to comment
Dansuer85 Posted April 29, 2005 Author Share Posted April 29, 2005 (edited) Ok, I know i've taken a while to get my perspective of the show written, but i've been busy! Sorry! But at last here it is.... I saw both shows, Friday night and Saturday night. The program for both nights was "Theme and Variations", "Tchaikovsky Pas de Duex", "workwithinwork" and "Sinfonietta". Friday's performance: Theme was performed by Paloma Herrera and Marcelo Gomes. This was the first time I had seen this ballet live and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't all I had expected. Paloma and Marcelo where not very exciting. Paloma has great feet and legs but no presentation or grace at all. I felt her quick foot work was not very clean. Her arms were rather wild and not soft. Something that bugged me a lot was when she did the quick pas de chats(i believe there was a soutenu after) she was just so jerky! She was really pretty in the section where she is held up by the girls, because it's all about the legs and feet and the Pas de deux was rather pretty, but still very boring. The corps was decent, the stage was rather small for theme, but they were pretty good, lines and timing were a little off, but not badly so. Marcelo was decent in his variations, but I found him to have no personality! So, from that I do not believe either of them were suitable to Theme! Tchaikovsky Pas was performed by Xiomara Reyes and Herman Cornejo. I also had never seen this live so it was very exciting to see 2 balanchine ballets in one night i'd only seen parts of on video! I've never seen Xiomara before and she was BEAUTIFUL! She is so lyrical and soft and her presence is just so sweet! Herman is an utter power house amazing performer freak of nature! His double cabrioles were just amazing, I could have jumped through each beat! Over all I think they were both amazing. They work well together and flow really well. Xiomara tripped at one point when running towards him, but was able to keep her composure(after the audience gasped in unison!) and kept going! The only thing I would say, is the dives weren't very explosive, she was right next to him. But over all I loved this and them! workwithinwork by William Forsythe, I had not see this ever. I LOVED IT! I thought it was an amazing piece of work, a tad too long, but amazing! The choreography was just amazing, flowing, exciting and static(in a good way). People who stood out in this to me where; Misty Copeland, Michele Wiles, Eric Underwood(wow what extension and great movement quality) and Marcelo Gomes. Marcelo really impressed me in this. I've never really liked him in the classical pieces i've seen him in, but in this he just blew me away and his movement quality was AMAZING! Misty moves very well in work like this and her legs and feet really seem to lend themselves well to this type of choreography(more so than classical in my opinion which i'll get to). Michelle Wiles really does contemporary better than I thought she would. This piece is amazing and over all was done extremely well! Sinfonietta(didn't see it friday so will talk about it on saturdays) Saturday night- Theme with Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo. This was Sarah Lane's(20 year old Corp member) debut in the Ballerina Role! She is so tiny!! She was beautiful! Her presence is just so elegant! She has very good/clean foot work! She danced the variations so well! Hit almost every turn. Her upper body was elegant and soft yet precise when need be, no jerkiness though! Herman was as usual amazing! His variation's had so much movement and flow. The partnering was a little shaky, i'm not sure why, because he partnered very well the night before in Tchia Pas, i'm assuming it has to do with being their first time together. My only pet peeve about Sarah was her arabesque line. While it was nice and straight and clean her foot tended to point downward. I wish someone would tell her to wing her foot a bit, to give her a better line. The corps on this night was....not as good. By not as good I mean line wise! The dancing was good, but I felt the lines were really just not there.(Now this also could be due to a different perspective as I was in the orchestra before and on this night in the Balcony). Misty Copeland stood out to me, but not in a good way. I felt after seeing her the night before in workwithinwork she would be really good and strong in Theme, but she wasn't. She looked as if she were never fully over her shoes, she was sloppy and very boring. I also just don't like how she looks in a tutu! Over all though, this performance was much more enjoyable than the previous cast. While the corp was a little more sloppy, they were more vibrant! Tchia Pas was with Paloma Herrera and Angel Corella. Ok, It was good, but eh. Angel was amazing. So full of energy and alive and just amazing! He changed the variation, where as Herman did the original, but it was obviously still amazing. Paloma, while having more energy than the night before, looked dead next to Angel. She to me is more suited to this than Theme, but she was still not graceful enough, she hit the turns and the big sissones onto pointe very well, but again over all I just couldn't enjoy her. I was hoping that since they've danced Don Q. so much together that the dives would just be ravishing and full of life and power, but alas no. She almost tripped both times before jumping and she was like 2 ft away from him. Ok this is getting long but shortly on workwithinwork- it was basically the same cast and again I was amazed by it, though long, amazing. Misty Copeland again amazed me, which after seeing her in Theme surprised me(even though she was amazing the night before) Her feet just look gorgeous in this and she used them! So at least at these shows she was showing more of an affinity to contemporary work than classical. Sinfonietta by Jiri Kylian. Ok I was very excited to see my first Kylian work. Well, it was good, but it was just a bunch of saute de chats. Like at first I was enjoying the music and the background, but then it just kept going and going and going and being Saute de chat after saute de chat after saute de chat after saute de chat!! It was a tad annoying. I'd say this was my least favorite piece by far, because it didn't show much substance to me! Over all I most enjoyed seeing them dance! It's always nice as a dancer to see shows to keep ya going! Also to see people I know up on stage! Well, plus I love ABT! Bravo Edited April 29, 2005 by Dansuer85 Link to comment
bart Posted April 29, 2005 Share Posted April 29, 2005 Danseur85, thanks for the great review. I always get a lot out of hearing dancers talk about performances they've seen. I bet a lot of readers will be very interested in your comments about Sarah Lane's role debut. Link to comment
nysusan Posted April 29, 2005 Share Posted April 29, 2005 Yes, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, we really appreciate it. I understand how you felt about Paloma, I feel that way about her too most of the time! Link to comment
Alexandra17 Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 Oh I'm so happy to hear that Sarah Lane performed beautifully!! After watching her and Herman's rehearsal ( I am a student in the JKO School at ABT) I was anxious to hear how the performances would go. She is so beautiful to watch in rehearsal, on stage, and in class. I hope to see her more in soloist and principle roles here in NY! Link to comment
carbro Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 Welcome to BalletTalk, Alexandra17! I hope you'll be a regular commentator here. And thanks for your heads-up on Sarah Lane. I saw her when she was in the Studio Company and was very impressed by her dancing and her aplomb. As a student, you may be interested in joining our sister site, BalletTalk for Dancers. It has forums for students of all ages (above 13)and all levels. You'll have to register there separately, and we recommend that you use the same screen name in both places, just so we know you're the same person. Link to comment
drb Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 ABT.org now lists Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo in Theme and Variations June 1 matinee and June 2. I guess they passed the test in KC! Link to comment
sz Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 Oh I'm so happy to hear that Sarah Lane performed beautifully!! After watching her and Herman's rehearsal ( I am a student in the JKO School at ABT) I was anxious to hear how the performances would go. She is so beautiful to watch in rehearsal, on stage, and in class. I hope to see her more in soloist and principle roles here in NY! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm overjoyed to see that Sarah is cast again to dance Theme and Variations with Cornejo while ABT's at the NYC Met. A big mover, she'll be thrilled to do Theme again and on the Met's stage which is much larger than the one in KC... KC's small and narrow stage might have been the reason the corps and demis looked a bit ragged at times. I was there both nights, and caught several moments when dancers had unintentionally (I hope) kicked and tripped each other especially in the 26-dancers-on-stage sections of Theme. Link to comment
cargill Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 That is so great that they are going to do it in NY! I was so jealous of Kansas City. I first saw Sarah Lane in the Studio Company and was tremendously impressed with her. An absolutely beautiful classical dancer. Link to comment
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