When I spied the Flight Attendant Ballet on the program for ABT Studio Company Thursday night (Kaye Playhouse)--I thought-- oh no PAMTGGing to Mozart. But it was clever and well-crafted, and it did remind one of Jerome Robbins. No lucite suitcases here.
The eight dancers are passengers on a long flight. They begin with the men on one knee, the ladies seated on the other knee, tilted backward and along comes the attendant (totally groomed, totally efficient, totally authoritative) who flicks each ballerina on the head to bring them up into take-off position. The passengers alternate between boredom and cutting up. They smoke in the back of the plane, canoodle in the bathroom, always to be reined in by the attendant, whose clipped manner lets them know there is no fun allowed (except when she decides it's time to flirt).
Sometimes things got muddled and I didn't get "it", but in the end it was light, airy fun.
These young company members were very well rehearsed and that alone made the entire evening a pleasure to watch.
Leigh, there were two performances, Wed. & Thurs. It was listed in the calendar section of last Friday's Post. (Symphony #23/chor.
Tobin Eason/music Mozart; Toccare/chor. Robert Hill/music Magnussen; Pulcinella/chor. William Tuckett/music Stravinsky)