Manhattnik

I got a standing-room ticket, and bailed after Act III; I was still worn out from all those endless Bayaderes. I will probably see Nioradze tonight, too, if they have strong enough coffee at Starbuck's. I found Zakharova less objectionable than before, and found myself enjoying the amplitude of her dancing, and the way she uses it to be voluptuous spatially and musically (one can do a LOT of rubato in the course of one of those endless developpes!), rather than physiologically (of which she's anything but, unless one considers the curve of a ribcage voluptuous). Perhaps Michael is referring to Odette's repeated diagonals with the two sisonnes en avante, then the steps into a battement to the front that swings through passe and back in to her signature winged-arm arabesque. Zakharova did it prettily indeed, but I missed any sense of tragedy, love, fear, pain, or nobility from her; in short, all the things which make Odette a heroine. At ABT, we saw Julie Kent performing the second movement of Symphony in C as if it were the second act of Swan Lake, here we have Zakharova doing the reverse. (I still remember Lopatkina's gorgeous second movement from 1999 -- where is she, anyway?) I actually liked Zakharova better as Odile, as at least she showed some good, old-fashioned manipulative sexuality and nastiness. All those balances in those extreme attitudes gave her the look of some sort of dangerous but alluring weapon, all shiny barbs and serrated edges, and particularly beautiful in those killer slow attitude turns in her solo, rock-solid all the way through, and stopping on a dime, with no wobbles or adjustments anywhere. There were moments when her extreme positions were a bit disquieting, though. In those sky-high developpes a la seconde to which Michael refers, it's bizarre that her foot ends up higher than (and brushing a bit) her upraised hand, but the displacement of her hips and back required to acheive this contortion is particularly alarming. As her working hip swings higher and higher with her leg, the standing hip pivots in towards her center of gravity, pulling away, in a sense, from the standing leg, and giving a dimpled effect which is especially Not Pretty in a tutu. Those extreme attitudes of hers made it look as if she were using her working leg to encircle Siegfried and hold him captive when he was supporting her from behind -- another one of Swan Lake's many metaphors of captivity and freedom, but one which I'm sure Petipa and Ivanov never imagined. And when she'd go into a penchee in attitude, her working leg seemed to curl around Korsuntev's upper arm. Very strange, and very Agonish, for a moment. I miss those trumphand backward hops in arabesque at the end of the coda, but the rest was well-danced, I though. Zakharova's very Russian fouettes weren't embelleshed, but were solid and musical, her leg swinging to the side precisely with each beat of the music. I wasn't as wild about Korsuntev -- he had a nice line and was rather elegant, but colorless and occasionally heavy footed. It was nice to see a first act which didn't wish to present a psychodrama or plumb the depths of Siegfried's soul, as in McKenzie's excerable first act, which notably manages to be both homophobic and misogynist. (I remember when the elegant but rather fey Belotserkovsky took the hand of McKenzie's Flirty Noblewoman, I couldn't help but translate the shocked and delighted reaction of EVERYONE onstage to be "The prince isn't gay! There will be an heir! The kingdom is saved!") Sergeyev simply has Siegfried as a bookworm, more interested in perusing the pages of a suspiciously itty-bitty book with his dotty tutor than in perusing the local talent. Or the book something racey from Gay Paree? Although I usually despise the Jester with a vengeance, I found the interplay between Dmitri Zavalishin's Jester and Petr Stasyunas' Tutor to be gentle and charming. I liked that it seemed the Jester had been playing the same tricks on the Tutor for ages, and I also liked the way the Jester covered up for Siegfried's inability to choose a Princess in Act III by catching the bouquet Siegfried drops and turning it into a joke. Zavalishin was delightfully if somewhat relentlessly spunky, and looks as if he aspires to be Daniel Ulbricht when he grows up. He can certainly spin like a top, and has quite a repertory of tricks, which sometimes even include pointing his feet. Of the other dancers, the ones whose faces I can associate with names, anyway, I'm getting rather fond of Elvira Tarasova, who danced the three Gamzattis I've seen so far, as well as the first-act Pas de Trois last night. She's not a Rubber Woman like Zakharova or Vishneva, and she's not a drama queen, but she is clean, refined and delivers the goods with great professionalism and clarity. I was about to write that she seems to be one of those "always-the-bridesmaid-but-never-the bride" dancers, but then I remembered that Gamzatti IS the bride. Oh well. I also liked Irina Golub quite a bit -- one could hardly ask for bigger, clearer echappes in her solo (the first one) in the pas de trois. It's interesting that Sergeyev has other dancer interacting with the girls in the pas de trois as they do their solos -- it's as if he were saying "In the Socialist Worker's Paradise we do not do dance for dance's sake!" Astonishingly, Anton Korsakov looks even more baby-faced than he did three years ago, and just as high-strung. He'd be a great complement for Yvonne Borree; maybe Peter Martins should hire him. I've really enjoyed the Kirov's orchestra. They make Minkus sound like a real composer, and make Tchaikovsky sound like a god (which he is, of course). My strongest praise of all has to go to the Kirov's corps de ballet. In 1999 they were uneven and unpredictable, perhaps exhausted from those marathon performances of Sleeping Beauty. Slightly rusty on opening night, the corps has gotten better and better each night. Wednesday night's Shades was transporting, and last night the corps was just sensational. There is really nothing in the art world like an organic and homogenous corps like the Kirov's (or the Bolshoi's, which similarly impressed me two years ago). It's both a joy and a privilege to watch. I've found the Kirov's penchant for curtain calls after every act to be a bit much, but it's hard to quibble with how they've had them for the corps after Shades and Act II of Swan Lake. Last night Zakharova and Korsuntev took bows in front of the curtain, which then opened to reveal the corps in perfect ranks, as each principal modestly retreated to a wing, then turned to bow to the corps, as the audience cheered wildly. Can you imagine that at ABT or City Ballet? No, I can't either. Oh, a great Odette/Odile? Martine van Hamel. Soft, melting and soulful in white, and an avalanche of sexuality in black. She didn't just show you Odette/Odile as good girl/bad girl, but two sides of the same feminine coin. I was going to say nobody else has come close, but then I remembered Monica Mason. Now I'm feeling old...

Wow. What a great performance Wednesday night! I don't know much about Gumerova, but she's wonderful. Bigger and taller, it seems , than Zakharova or Vishneva, and dances with that "big-girl" amplitude I love. Kolb was even better than opening night, and the corps was finally the Kirov corps I'd come hoping to see. No wobbly ecartes tonight! Just heavenly dancing.

I dunno. I thought Vishneva was the cat's pajamas last night. She certainly had a much better time of it in those tricky pirouettes "supported" by the scarf in the Shades scene than Zakharova did. I wasn't disappointed last night at all. Quite the opposite. I will agree that the supers look like they were pulled in off the street at the last minute. I don't have a problem with the kids in the garland dance; I thought they were sweet. And if they looked local instead of Vaganova-ized, well, so what? Loved the elephant, and thought the tiger was endearingly absurd. Interesting that Fadeyev didn't deliberately step on, and over, the tiger as Kolb did. Also interesting that Fadeyev did the double assembles that Kolb omitted. So what DID Chabukiani do? In Act IV, there was a loooong, disquieting pause before Kolb's big variation -- I imagine it took them a long time to find the bow he held through most of it. Funny that last night there was a similarly long silence before Fadeyev did the solo (doesn't "Solor's solo" flow trippingly off the tongue?), but apparently the bow couldn't be found this time. Who knows? I loved the corps, both in Shades and the silly dances in Act II and IV. It's so rare to see a corps de ballet that dances like a single organism, as the Kirov is doing here, that I just want to see it again and again, while I have the opportunity. "Stars" are a dime a dozen, but a real, organic corps de ballet is a very special and rare creature indeed.

I noticed that in Vinogradov's staging, as presented by the Universal Ballet last summer, the gal in that interminable dance with the bucket on her head appeared to have it affixed in place in some manner. At least I remember she had to give it a good, solid yank before it finally came off (rather ruined the illusion!). Last night with the Kirov the bucket (urn, vase?) was only held in place by gravity. What do they do at home, Jeannie? While in general I rather like mime, if I'd seen one more person in Act I mime "Go get (or here comes) the temple dancer!" I might've thrown something at the stage myself! I liked the tom-tom dance last night very much, but nothing can surpass the Universal Ballet dancer who hurled herself into the fray in what appeared to be a short feathered skirt and fishnet stockings.

Gamzatti was Elvira Tarasova. I liked her quite a bit. I have a hard time with Zakharova. When I started watching Wendy Whelan, I had difficulty getting past her sometimes-alarming physique, and, in some ways, it's much the same with Zakharova. She just looks freakish to me, like she's the culmination of some last-gasp Soviet genetics project. "Comrades, Gorbachev says there is no money to continue with the super-soldier project. No matter -- we shall instead create the Ultimate Ballerina, and end for all time the Extension Gap created by those arrogant French and their Sylvie Guillem! Let the ballet world cower before the might of Soviet science!" OK, maybe that's not how it happened, but dear God! All those curves. Hyperextended eyelids. An entire French Curve's worth of arcs, just from her ankle down. And skinny? Yikes. As Calliope mentioned, you could count her ribs in the first couple of acts with no trouble at all. In fact, the entire corps is reed-thin, even more so than I recall from 1999. But none more so than Zakharova. And I really do have a problem with all those sky-high extensions. Except in rare instances, I really don't like seeing a competition between a dancers's hands and foot to see which can reach higher in an a la seconde pose. And even simple steps like a renverse take on an entirely different character when the working leg sweeps up so high it almost smacks into a dancer's upraised arm. Not to mention the tremendous distortion in her hips and lower back when she stretches her foot up so high. Flexible she certainly is. I spent most of the first act trying to figure out what on earth was going on with her placement: pelvis tilted back, those aforementioned ribs thrust out forward, and an astonishing assemblage of curves and cantilevers in her lower back somehow connecting the two. Even though it was a bit painful to watch, I couldn't take my eyes off of it -- even her back is made of Turkish Taffy, I guess. I half-expected at some point to see a fakir come out with a bigger version of the wicker basket which held the dancing cobra from Act III (ah, yes, this is a very colorful ballet!), and announce "And now, for her next trick, Ms. Zakharova will entirely fold herself in half until she fits entirely in this itty-bitty basket!" (As was noted quite a bit during the Kirov's last visit, it seems a bit incongruous to "recreate" a century-old Petipa production, but dance it with the kind of modern hyper-extensions which certainly would've given Petipa a stroke had he seen them anyplace other than a circus. And I couldn't get the point of NOT having the Golden Idol's solo [so why trot him out for two seconds in the second act?] because it wasn't "original," but keeping the Chabukiani solos for Solor? And am I to understand from Kolb's manege of double saute de basques that Chabukiana didn't do the [in]famous double assemble turns? As a stage character from a slightly different part of Asia would've said, "it's a puzzlement." But I digress.) I am sure there's at least one BA regular who wouldn't mind if Zakharova did indeed bend and fold herself into a basket and never came out. I sometimes have felt that way, but one thing I've learned from watching dance is that it's often very easy to become so involved and invested with noticing the things a dancer isn't doing that you can miss what she is doing, and Zakharova isn't without her strengths and charms. Someday I may write about them in a spare moment. It's funny how this reconstituted Bayadere has so many reminders of predecessors: Solor (I really liked Kolb -- what a jump!) sinks to one knee in Act III, waiting for the ghost of the girl he jilted to materialize next to him. Where have we seen that before? And in Act IV, where have we seen a man's wedding constantly interrupted by the flittings in and out of his semi-corporeal beloved? Anyway, the production is gorgeous, and, aside from a bad case of the wobbles in the Dreaded Ecarte, the Kirov corps was magnificent in Kingom of the Shades. I thought the veils, attached to the wrists and to the back of the wigs the Shades wore (Almost everyone wore wigs -- it made for quite a uniform look. Even the kids in the cute garland dance in Act IV wore wigs!) looked gorgeous, particularly how they'd drape over the dancers' shoulders and frame their faces when they held their arms low in front. Well, they're paying me to work, so I'd better get back to it....

One of the (few) delights of ABT's closing week of Swan Lakes was seeing Nina Ananiashvili do the second-act mime. When it's done right, it's as much dancing as anything else onstage. When she mimed a crown over her head, then the swan-arms, to tell Bocca she was a princess who'd been turned into a swan, you could see the understanding in his eyes, and his immediate lunge into a courtly bow. It was a real conversation. I think we've discussed this before, but I seem to recall that in the mid-Seventies, when I started watching things, nobody did the mime. Then I saw Nureyev dance it with Cynthia Gregory at ABT, and, lo and behold, the mime was back in, at Nureyev's insistence, I'm sure. After that, the mime became more and more common, until now just about everyone does it. Whew. It's funny how things like this come and go, almost like a fashion. Does anyone remember what Albrecht used to do in the second act before everyone copied Baryshnikov's brise voles?

Two "Americana" ballets I wouldn't mind seeing again: DeMille's Texas Fourth (Rebecca Wright's big role at ABT), and, dare I say it, Arpino's Drums, Dreams and Banjos. At the time I thought the idea of a ballet to the wildly sentimental and somewhat hokey Stephen Foster was beyond silly. And silly it may have been, but I've grown fond of Foster, and I'd like to see the ballet again with somewhat more grown-up eyes.

Two "Americana" ballets I wouldn't mind seeing again: DeMille's Texas Fourth (Rebecca Wright's big role at ABT), and, dare I say it, Arpino's Drums, Dreams and Banjos. At the time I thought the idea of a ballet to the wildly sentimental and somewhat hokey Stephen Foster was beyond silly. And silly it may have been, but I've grown fond of Foster, and I'd like to see the ballet again with somewhat more grown-up eyes.

I don't have my copy of Repertory in Review here, but when Who Cares? had its premiere, wasn't it rather panned by most critics, who thought Balanchine totally missed the point of the Gerswhin music, and his jazzy chorines and majorettes existed more in his own Russian fantasies than in any "real" America? I think time has shown who knew better. So Balanchine wasn't born here. So what? America's culture has always been built on assimilating "foreign" influences -- or at least it has been in some places. It wasn't for nothing that Balanchine's company is the New York City Ballet, which is not quite the same as the American National Ballet, is it?

I don't have my copy of Repertory in Review here, but when Who Cares? had its premiere, wasn't it rather panned by most critics, who thought Balanchine totally missed the point of the Gerswhin music, and his jazzy chorines and majorettes existed more in his own Russian fantasies than in any "real" America? I think time has shown who knew better. So Balanchine wasn't born here. So what? America's culture has always been built on assimilating "foreign" influences -- or at least it has been in some places. It wasn't for nothing that Balanchine's company is the New York City Ballet, which is not quite the same as the American National Ballet, is it?

Yes, Mary, that first-act ending of McKenzie's is particularly incomprehensible. Siegfried slinks off so we barely notice he's gone, then Benno comes charging back to fetch his crossbow, because Siegfried didn't have enough sense to bring it with him in the first place? And I still don't get the point of the flirty girl... It was awhile before I actually realized what Brian Reeder looks like. He's always wearing that Creature from the Green Lagoon bodysuit, or a bushy moustache as Prince Gremin, or the like. I wonder if we took up a collection, could we bribe McKenzie to bring back the David Blair version? I feel a "Swan Lake from Hell" thread coming on. Except after my experience with jokingly imagining an Eifman ballet about Balanchine, I am afraid -- if we name a demon, we may end up summoning it!

Although it would be too cruel to say it was all downhill after Calcium Light Night, there is a kind of happy freedom to Martins' exploration of the pairing of Watts and Duell which is rare in the rest of his sizeable body of work. While Balanchine exposes much about his psyche in his ballets, Martins seems to do the opposite -- hiding himself behind a dry formalism or even drier humor. Only rarely does any sort of passion or feeling surface in Martins' work, or even much of a sense of the man himself, other than that, like Macavity, he's not really there. I do like Fearful, because Martins seems to be fully engaged, for once, in creating and exploring the kind of energetic movement we see in many of his ballets, but without the often dreary thematic overtones, and without the numbing sense of obligation or cuteness. It's about the only ballet in which I have a sense of Martins as himself, rather than as he perhaps thinks he should be, or needs to be. I used to say I'd like to see Martins hit himself in the thumb with a hammer and then choreograph while it was still smarting. It might break him free of the heavy varnish of calculation which fogs and ensnares whatever he might really be trying to say. Not that it'd ever happen (for awhile, until someone explained to me the programmatic nature of the music, I thought he'd hit himself in the head before he did Harmonielehre [or however it's spelled!]. I do love Martins' Sleeping Beauty. I love it even more when the Fairy variations aren't so dreadfully un-coached or rehearsed.

While watching Kevin McKenzie's, um, interesting Swan Lake at ABT last night (Yes, Nina A was wonderful, more elsewhere), I was reminded of how both NYCB and ABT recently presented us with new, "rethought" productions of Swan Lake. Whenever I see one of these productions -- McKenzie's or Peter Martins' -- I often find myself re-evaluating the two, trying to decide which I like better (or least). If BA had been blessed with a poll-making feature back then, I'm sure we'd have seen this poll already, as we spent quite a bit of time hashing and rehashing this very question. However, I've never been one to avoid beating a dead horse, so here it is again.

I've caught every Dream so far. I'm taking a break and going to Giselle tonight. We've had three wonderful Titanias: Kistler, Nichols and Kowroski. Kistler's has been pretty much well-described here. I know Nichols isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I thought she was sublime Wednesday night -- so much subtleness and delicacy I've never seen from any other dancer. The revelation was Kowroski; I saw her Titania last year and it was adequate, but she's gotten much more secure technically, and I think she's finding herself as a comic actress; her duet with Bottom was a marvel of timing and joyful silliness. (Nichols plays this very, very straight, also to powerful effect.) Kowroski seems to be finding herself both as an actress and dancer lately, and it's a joy to behold. Damian was wonderful as Oberon Wednesday, as he can be when he's onstage with his mind as well as body, and Andrea Quinn's conducting last night allowed Boal to shine, as he should, in the Scherzo. I am more and more touched by Boal's acting, even in the Scherzo. With other dancers it's usually a collection of very, very hard, bravura steps. With Boal, I see Oberon cavorting with the butterflies, and blown about by the wind (I just love that little bent-over, backward-skipping diagonal). Of the Hippolytas, Somogyi deserves all the praise she's been given (oh, but how I miss Meunier here!), but Pascal van Kipnes was also sensational, I thought. Last night Aesha Ash was strong (nice solid fouettes), but not quite as magical as her predecessors. Ringer was magical in the Divertissment Wednesday night, although as far as I'm concerned, Whelan owns this role (I used to say the only problem with having Whelan dance Titania is that she wouldn't then be dancing the divertissment).

How much would anyone care to bet that Kowroski finally gets to BE Suzanne Farrell? And think, for just a moment, of the men who might be cast as Mr. B: Jock Soto? Tom Gold? Nilas Martins? Sebastien Marcovici? Philip Neal? Nikolaj Hubbe? James Fayette? Hmm. I feel a poll coming on....

It wasn't long ago that we were kicking around the idea of an Eifman ballet on Balanchine as a rather sick joke, and now there's some indications it might come true! What a scary thought. I think it's time we blew the dust off of the libretto for "Balanchine -- the Prodigal Son" and polished off some of the rough edges. I was going to say that Balanchine and Eifman are on completely opposite ends of the "drama vs. pure dance" spectrum, except that Balanchine could be quite over-the-top and dramatic when he chose; witness the scene in Davidsbundertanze where the Shumann figure confronts those menacing critics with the enormous goose-quill pens. Of course, with Eifman they'd probably be levitating or doing something unspeakable with those pens... I have contemplated casting such an extravaganza, only to feel the room spinning around me.

I had been looking forward so much to Midsummer, particularly Boal's Oberon, and was disappointed that Cleve's lickety-split conducting marred the first act so badly. It wasn't an awful performance -- far from it, but not as magical or as perfect as it should have been. I will just keep my fingers crossed for Thursday night. So, Boal's acting was, as usual, comic and solid, although the Scherzo was a bit off (I don't blame him!). Kistler was lovely, but not at her very best, I think. Somogyi was, indeed sensational, as was Whelan. I think that second-act Divertissment pas de deux is one of the finest things Balanchine ever made, and it's also one of Whelan's finest roles. I remember the first time I saw her dance it, she completely took my breath away, and at that beautiful little teeter-totter balance at the very end, well, it just seemed like time stopped for an instant. And she was that good, again, last night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Nichols tonight....

It's a guilty pleasure, but the last time a group of us got together and watched the Turning Point, we all chanted along with Leslie Browne's fouettes, "one, two, three, FOUR!" Hmph. And people tease me because I like to count fouttes. At least I pick dancers who are more of a challenge! I liked a lot of Billy Elliot. It certainly had its flaws, oversimplifications, and mawkish sentimentality. But I can certainly identify with a character who repeatedly falls over while practicing pirouettes!

It's a guilty pleasure, but the last time a group of us got together and watched the Turning Point, we all chanted along with Leslie Browne's fouettes, "one, two, three, FOUR!" Hmph. And people tease me because I like to count fouttes. At least I pick dancers who are more of a challenge! I liked a lot of Billy Elliot. It certainly had its flaws, oversimplifications, and mawkish sentimentality. But I can certainly identify with a character who repeatedly falls over while practicing pirouettes!

OK, The "My One and Only" gal can do champagne. "Stairway" is too hard-bitten, and "Fascinatin'" wants to cut loose with something a bit naughtier.

So I was thinking, what would be the poison of each of these gals? "The Man I Love" and "Fascinatin' Rhythm" gal (Originally Patricia McBride, most recently Jenifer Ringer): Black Russian. "Stairway to Paradise" and "Who Cares?" gal (originally Karin von Aroldingen, most recently Janie Taylor): Scotch and soda, light on the soda. "My One and Only" and "Embraceable You" gal (Originally Marnee Morris, most recently Alexandra Ansanelli): Cosmopolitan or Tequila Sunrise. "Liza" guy (Originally Jacques d'Amboise, most recently Nikolaj Hubbe): aquavit -- just kidding! Very dry martini. Gin, not vodka. Shaken, not stirred.

I'm beginning to think it's never a good idea to see Ringer's debuts, particularly in tricky roles. I remember her first Cortege Hongrois was quite shaky (Woetzal was clearly prompting her throughout the adagio), but she got considerably better the next time I saw her -- much grander and more authoritative. (But she wasn't Meunier -- sigh.) I liked Ringer's performance yesterday afternoon, although I wouldn't have minded a bit more sharpness in her attack in the allegro. Woetzal was, well, Woetzal. What more needs to be said? And perhaps someone at NYCB reads Ballet Alert; the tempi were anything but slow, especially in the polonaise! I don't know if anyone at NYCB can make up for Weese's absence, but I would like seeing Somogyi do this ballet. In a year or two I think Ashley Bouder would be just sensational.

Sigh. I'd better go get my tickets from the boxoffice. I'm afraid to think of what I'll be seeing now. I guess I won't know for sure until the curtain goes up.

Corsaire, 6/19/02 Well, ABT certainly knows how to put on a show. I'll have to rate this as a Guilty Pleasure, for sure. Lotsa tricks, lotsa oompah music. But I'm on the verge of overdosing. I won't be able to listen to a waltz for another week and I'm glad I can go to Dream as an antidote. If I see another double revoltade to the knee I think I might throw myself off a balcony somewhere. All ABT needs is dancing bears, popcorn vendors and a high-wire act (although, come to think of it, the death-defying Bocca comes pretty close). Anyway, about the dancing: The corps: A pleasant surprise, the corps has looked much tighter and more together than in recent memory. Although is it really important to be tight and together when you're being a dancing flower or a pirate playing pattycake with cutlasses? I suppose so, actually. Ananiashvili (Medora): Although I think Ananiashvili is one of the greatest dance artists onstage today, she seemed to have a teeny bit of an off night (for her!). In general, her acting was clear and strong, and she danced magnificently (she really does have the fastest pique turns in the West [or East, for that matter, I'm sure -- would our Euro/Russian contingent care to venture an opinion?]), for the most part. In the Pas de Deux a Trois (hereinafter referred to as the pddat), she tried some sort of tricky pirouette into arabesque into soutenu combination that didn't look quite right, but her fouettes were dead on, fast, solid, and marching deliberately down the stage. There were moments, however, where her she seemed a bit strained, as in her big, clear jumps in the Jardin Animee, where she seemed to be pushing for the last bit of elevation; I'm not used to seeing Ananiashvili looking like she's straining for anything. As I'd just seen her dance a heavenly Fille, I'm just chalking this up to a great artist having a very slightly off night. Not that I was disappointed, but it wasn't quite the best I've seen from her. Conrad (Bocca): Once again, there were moments when I was convinced that Bocca was making up his solos as he went along! Bocca was never a very polished dancer, and he's becoming less so as time goes by, but I admire his spunk and fearlessness, and he's clearly made his solos harder and flashier than I remember from years past -- he had to, as I'll explain below. It seems it's become de rigeur in Corsaire to finish every double tour, not just to the knee, but to the knee with a dramatic back-bend, as in the man's solo from Diana and Acteon. Bocca's a very athletic, rough-and-ready dancer (I'd hate to see him dance Theme). But the audience loved it when he'd back way, way up into a corner (the setup), hurl himself down the diagonal with some ever-faster jete coupes (the windup), putting the audience into a momentary thrill of anticipation (what WILL he do now -- half the time I don't think he knew until his feet left the ground), and then the, well, the double whatever landing in some outre pose just inches from the orchestra pit (the pitch-- strikeout!). OK, I'll confess, I loved it, too. Now if only he'd occasionally remember that it's just as important to straighten the trailing leg as the leading one... He partnered Ananiashvili with his usual nonchalant strength, although there was one lift (I forget where) where it seemed like he almost lost it. Gulnare (Riccetto): What a revelation Riccetto was! She's got typical raven-haired Italian good looks, and thin to the point of seeming frail, but she's anything but! She made easy work of all the technical challenges in the pas d'esclave with Saveliev (more on him below!), especially the diagonal with the pique turns going into fouettes. What struck me more than her strength though (Gillian Murphy eats fouettes for breakfast, and leaves me utterly cold) was her great sense of her role. Gulnare is weaker than Medora, a real scaredy cat in the pas d'Esclave, with all her attempts to "escape" offstage carefully blocked by Saveliev. Part of the fun of the first act is the contrast between Gulare's fearfulness and submission, and Medora's spunkiness and authority, even as a slave (which Ananiashvili communicated perfectly -- her Medora was in charge of things from the minute she set foot onstage). I loved the clarity of the moment when Ethan Brown's Pasha mimed to Saveliev "Take off her veil, I want to see her face!" and you could see Riccetto's reaction, dancing the rest of the pas with those fearful, hand-over-face gestures. Yes, the steps were all there with other Gulnares, but it's never seemed so clear to me before (Gillian Murphy doesn't do weak and fearful very well. Must be the magic force-field in her Gaynor Mindens.). Riccetto has a beautiful clarity and tremendous musicality in her phrasing, or as much musicality as one can show when dancing to beer-garden music. What a wonderful Giselle she could be! Lankendam (Saveliev): OK, I was disappointed not to be seeing Malakhov. I agree wholehearedly with the praise heaped on Malakhov elsewhere on this board recently. He's one of the finest men at ABT if not the world, and he's under-used (but I can't see him as a trickster in Corsaire). I liked Saveliev's broad, arrogant acting; he's even more full of himself than Malakhov's Lankendam. When Saveliev did those assembles into grand plie, bouncing up into a soutenu, I thought "Nice, but Malakhov's much cleaner and has more turnout." Which is certainly true, but then Saveliev let loose in a solo which seemed to incorporate every trick in the book, particularly those corkscrewing jumps with legs flashing in all directions, kind of like Pele making an upside-down kick while spinning around a few times in the air, finishing, of course, in a dramatic pose on one knee. So he brought the house down, and, as this was the first male solo of the evening, set a pretty high technical bar for the other men to aim for (and quite deliberately, I'm sure). In general, if Saveliev could embellish a jump or turn with some little flashy fillip, he did. I had never thought of him as such a flashy dancer (and he isn't as clean a flashy dancer as say, Carreno, who manages to be flashy without being flashy, if you get what I mean), but I'll know better in the future. Ali (Carreno): The more I see Carreno, the more I like him, and he's certainly made Ali his own! I used to think of him as a hunk who looked great without a shirt (which he is), but not much more. I know better now. I like the way he throws in some tricks of his own in the pddat (the multiple pirouttes with the changing leg positions and speeds, swinging in a big battement/jump into a balance at the end, or his infamous ever-slower-piroutte to a sousous pose), but never at the expense of his grace, line and overall classical deportment. I remember the same when I saw him dance Lankendam in Washington this spring. Birbanto (Cornejo): I've always liked Herman Cornejo. He's one of the best Bluebirds I've ever seen, with his bouyant jump, soft landing, and overall bravura technique. He was all that and more as Birbanto, and managed to bring down the house a few times himself with some spectacular turning combinations. I liked the way he threw himself into the character, but never lost his own beautiful classical purity, even in the most circusy of tricks. It's easy to make Birbanto a bit vulgar (heck, it's easy to make ALL of the roles in Corsaire vulgar), and perhaps he even should be (that's the fate of second-banana-gone-bad guys in ballet, after all), but I loved Cornejo's purity. He's the most enjoyabel Birbanto I've seen. Odalisques (Reyes, Abrera, Wiles): I liked all three here -- Reyes in the spunky solo with lots of cute releve/passes, Abrera in the grander second solo with the beautiful poses in attitude, and Wiles in the tricky final solo with the diagonal with all the pirouttes. She "only" did triples, except for a final one that was more of a "triple-and-a-half" than a quadruple (but who's counting?), but I liked Wiles strength and expansiveness. I suppose one could rail against ABT's presentation of male dancing as little more than circus tricks, but what would be the point? You don't go to Corsaire expecting to see Monotones. The fact is people love it, and the Met was pretty nearly full Wednesday night. Anything that gets people to the ballet is just fine with me, and I'd rather people see lots of bravura dancing than some Godawful modern crossover thing.

Is it my imagination, or has Meunier danced nothing since ABT announced she'd be joining? I was hoping to catch her last NYCB performance, perhaps as Hippolyta. Oh well....