Caesariatus

It amazes me how many times I can review a post to an Internet forum and not catch an error like the one in this thread's title until after I post it.

Yesterday I drove up to Saratoga to see City Ballet dance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. This is a theater in a park with a proscenium stage and a house open on the sides to the elements. I was in the balcony, which is still pretty good seats. The balcony was about 3/4 full; the lower floor more so. There were four dances. Year of the Rabbit Music: Sufjan Stevens Choreography: Justin Peck This was my favorite piece of the program. I had seen Peck's Paz de la Jolla not too long ago and really liked it, which is one of the reasons I came to this. This didn't disappoint. I don't have a lot of experience with modern choreographers, but from what I have seen Peck is definitely my favorite. He does a great job of capturing the grace and expressiveness of classical ballet in an interestingly new way. He's especially good an handling the corps, which acts more as another character in the interplay onstage than an enhancement of the soloists characters. The leading dancers were Ashley Boulder, Teresa Reichlen, Janie Taylor, Joaquin De Luz, Robert Fairchild, and Tyler Angle. Reichlen especially stood out for me, showing that long and muscular legs can still be graceful and expressive. Also worthy of special note was a pas de deux between Janie Taylor and Tyler Angle, titled Year of Our Lord, which was a counterpoint to most of the piece in that there were no other dancers on stage and it was slow and very sensual. Many times after leaving a ballet I'm still entranced by the beauty of a specific dance, usually a pas de deux, and for that day this was it. The Garland Dance (from The Sleeping Beauty) Music: Tschaikovsky Choreography: Balanchine The was a big ensemble dance, with colorful costumes, garlands of flowers, and little girls dancing with the corps. It was very lovely, and I'm generally a fan of loveliness, but I think placing it after Year of the Rabbit was a mistake, because the complexity of the earlier piece made it seem kind of light weight. Barber Violin Concerto Music: Barber Choreography: Martins Violin: Arturo Delmoni This is a piece with two couples, one dancing classically and the other modernly to the same music. The classical couple was Jared Angle and Sara Mearns and the modern one Jonathan Stafford and Megan Fairchild. After a while of that the modern man and the classical woman dance, with the former modernizing the latter's style. Then the modern woman and the classical man dance, again with the former modernizing the latter's style. I think it was supposed to be representative of the injection of modern passion into classical rigidity. (Means literally let her hair down.) Unfortunately, for me the classical dancing was not only more elegant but more engaging. Partly, I think, that was because Mearns was so striking in the role. For her, at least, dancing in the classical style seemed a perfect fit of dancer and dance. Stravinsky Violin Concerto Music: Stravinsky Choreography: Balanchine Violin: Kurt Nikkanen This was modern dancing at its blandest. The lead dancers, Rebecca Krohn, Amar Ramasar, Janie Taylor and Ask la Cour were fine, but the choreography left me cold. Of course, I'm a guy for whom Rubies is my least favorite Jewel, so take that as you may. So, the mixed program was a mixed bag, but on the whole I was very pleased I went. I'll probably go back again next year. [edit: typo fix]

I hadn't thought of it like that, but that's certainly true; the role of Sylvia demands a wide range of expression.

I think I saw you in the balcony.

I saw Sylvia last night, with Cornejo/Reyes. Here are a few thoughts. Xiomara Reyes (Sylvia) gives the impression that she has a lot of pent up energy, and her dancing is controlled release of that energy (as opposed to energy being something she has to summon). That works well for parts of this ballet. I don't want to sound critical - she was fine throughout - but I did find myself wishing I had seen what Osipova would have done in the role. Herman Cornejo (Aminta) is one of those dancers who gives the impression that he could effortlessly do whatever he wants to with his body. Ivan Vasiliev (Orion), I thought, was well cast. He did a very good job of communicating the essense of a man who thinks that his strength and wealth entitles him to whatever he wants. Daniil Simkin (Eros) has very light feet, if that makes sense. He seemed to float. The choreography didn't particularly impress me. It wasn't bad, but it didn't particularly impress me. My favorite part was probably the interaction between Sylvia and Orion in the cave. Both dancers did a very good job of conveying the tensions between a man who both is willing to take what he wants by force and expects not to have to, with a tiny woman who's having none of it, and is both defiant but aware of the danger she's in. I think it worked so well because it played to both dancers' strengths. For a love story there wasn't very much in the way of romantic dancing. Take the meeting of the lovers, separated since the first act, in front of Diana's Temple. First Eros dances a mostly solo dance. Then Sylvia dances a solo. Then Aminta dances a solo. Then those weird animal characters dance a pas de deux. Then, finally, the main characters dance a pas de deux, and it's not particularly passionate. The corps could have been more in sync. I liked the sets. Sitting in row C of the balcony, though, the vision of Diana and that shepherd was partially cut of from my sightline. This is a minor point, but it bothered me nonetheless. Why did Eros have his Greek name when all of the other gods had their Roman names? [edit: typo fixes]

Oh yes...and let me know if you get to see the divine Lorna Feijoo, one of my all time muse... I saw her dance Titania in MSND. To be honest, though, the dancer who really impressed me that night was Erica Conejo, who danced Hermia.

As far as I can remember, I've seen three ballets there, Cinderella (with Larissa Ponomarenko), a Ballet Russe program, and Midsummer Night's Dream. I attended a few ballets when I was a teenager or a young man (in the 1970s) and enjoyed them, but didn't become a real fan then. Years later I found myself following a comic strip, 9 Chickwood Lane (which I don't even read anymore) which had a character who's a ballet dancer. That led me to remember the ballets I'd seen when I was younger and think, "I should go to the ballet again". So I did. And then I did again. And one thing led to another, and now I'm on an Internet ballet forum. I don't remember too many details about those early 1970s ballets. One was Midsummer Night's Dream, but I'm not sure which company (although it was almost certainly in New York). There is one sequence in some other performace which I can remember being very impressed by, even though I can't remember what the ballet was. In it a woman was dancing a series of steps which included some slow spins, and another woman upstage right of her was repeating the steps a beat later. I don't know why, but that's always stayed with me.

I've only seen La Bayadere on DVD (Paris Opera Ballet), but I'm definitely in the camp of those who love the entrance of the shades. It's mesmerizing. And I mean that in the best way. La Bayadere is IMHO a ballet which gets better as it goes along. I don't know if this will be considered sacreligious by some, but I've been known to pop the DVD into the player and only watch Act III.

Hi, I'm Caesariatus. I started to become a balletomane about six years ago. Even so, I'm not nearly as much of one as some. I go to two or three ballets a year, not counting Ballet in Cinema or the various ballet DVDs I've bought. I live in Connecticut and usually go to either City Ballet, ABT, or Boston Ballet. I'll do Boston as a day trip. For New York, I'm fortunate that my parents live in Manhattan within walking distance of Lincoln Center. Nowadays my big Christmas and birthday present from my wife is a ballet ticket. Several years for Christmas she's given me a ticket to NYCB and I've given her a ticket to the Met Opera for the same evening, and we've gone down to my parents, walked to Lincoln Center together, and then split up on the plaza, reuniting in the evening to compare notes.

I know how you feel. Every year my wife gives me a ballet ticket for my birthday. Usually I give her a list of choices for May or June in New York or Boston and let her pick, but this year I said, "I want to see Osipova in Sylvia!", and that's what I got. Or not, as it turns out. But it should be a good experience anyway. I'll see on Saturday.