LincolnCenterFan

I also went to the Kent-Stiefel-Radetsky last night. Stiefel was fantastic. Really transporting and wonderful. I can't say enough great things about him, and he and Kent had absolutely seamless partnering. The little skimming hops that Kent does while lifted in the air by Stiefel was absolutely beautiful. Stiefel was everything I go to the ballet for - expressive, powerful, technically flawless, and so very charismatic. I love Radetsky's dancing and mime. He tends not to be as much of a show-offy showman as Stiefel, so he doesn't get the recognition applause when he enters (which I think he ought to), but his dancing is so clean, so precise, and his acting is right on. He's one of the better mime actors at the ABT, where you can actually 'hear' the words he's miming. I thought it was a shame that the Hilarion dance to the death was not better lit. I know it's happening at night in a graveyard in a forest, but come on! You've got a fantastic dancer performing on stage - we in the Dress Circle should be able to see all of him clearly and not be forced to squint for a better look. Julie Kent has lovely, lovely port de bras. I don't know how she does it. Her partnering with Stiefel was divine. The thing is, I was a little disappointed with her acting in the first act. I have seen Alessandra Ferri and Diana Vishneva in this part, and they both went more heartbreakingly and convincingly insane, and they also had much better articulated heart problems. Sad to say, I felt Kent's Giselle didn't go mad so much as just feel very sad, and when Kent's Giselle died she very prettily melted to the floor and it wasn't clear that she was actually DEAD until everyone started to react. I sat next to a family with two little girls, and both girls asked their mother if Giselle was actually dead, and they read the synopsis again because they weren't sure if she was dead yet! The corps de ballet Willies were very fine, except for one blooper. The last willie on the left back row must have had something go wrong with the veil-pull off and so she was quite late getting to the stage and had to join her row late. I felt so grateful and restored and happy at the end of last night's performance, and it went a long ways to erase the disappointment I felt at Bayadere and Merry Widow.

I went to see the performance yesterday (July 2), with Dvorovenko and Kajiya. I think it really was Kajiya's night - she was lovely when she got to dance (too rarely), and she delivered a witty interpretation of her character with great charm. Other than that though, the night was a bit of a disappointment. I echo the others' sentiments - the ballet was very lavishly produced, but didn't really have a lot of dancing. The art-deco last set at 'Maxims' got its own applause when it was revealed and that seemed apt. Unfortunately, an awkwardly placed column in the first act seemed to make all the dancers very cautious and self conscious. I kept worrying that someone would smack into it by accident. The costumes were also very lavish, but maybe a tiny bit ridiculous (esp. the coat Dvorovenko wore at the end, which looked like she had killed and skinned a polar bear) and was pulled off only because Dvorovenko has such flair. Also, the decision to do those big bias cut flouncy skirts was a bit frustrating, because you can't really see the dancing. You just get big swirls of fabric swishing through the air. Very pretty, but not ballet, exactly, and sort of a waste of all these awesome ballet dancers. This is developing into a pet peeve for me now - this performance had two moments featuring loudly-dropped props. I was so hoping that everything would go smoothly given my bad night watching all the prop (and veils and balance) issues at La Bayadere last week, but when the corps came on with the big mirrored fans I started to feel nervous, and guess what? One of the last two dance-holding corps members to leave the stage in a big lift CLACK! dropped her fan! Kajiya saved the day admirably, by smoothly miming her character 'discovering' the dropped fan and 'delightedly' picking it up and leaving with it. In the last act, Beloserkovsky or Dvorovekno dropped one of the two glasses they were drinking toasts to each other from, but actually I blame that more on the awkward choreography. If you're going to put in lifts-to-the-shoulder you shouldn't ask that dancers also keep track of wine glasses at the same time.

I don't know if this was her debut, but maybe that means she'll have improved by the time she repeats the role on Saturday evening. I've seen Diana Vishneva in this part last year, and she was sublime. Murphy seemed rather uncomfortable with the choreography - she had a rather awkward time negotiating the big piece of cloth that Nikiya and Solor hold between the two of them during their pas de deux. Her dance in honor of the Nikiya and Gamzatti wedding was disappointing. She didn't seem sad or heartbroken - just a very beautiful ballerina doing steps a little bit tentatively. I've seen Murphy really "own" the part in everything else I've ever seen her do, so I chalked it up to the really terrible night that the company as a whole seemed to be having. I've never seen her wobble quite as much during her balances as I did on the 24th.

I'm torn about giving the ABT any more of my money for this production because the performance I went to was so bad. But all these really detailed positive reviews is swaying me to give it another go. Thanks for the tip about the Gomes & Saturday!

Did anyone on this forum go see La Bayadere on June 24? I went with a friend of mine that I've been talking up David Hallberg to. I saw his Don Q, and also his performance in the Rabbit and Rogue and thought he's been having a really lovely season. The thing is, La Bayadere yesterday had some really surprising (shocking?) problems in the corp de ballet, both male and female, and the principals seemed either rattled by that or very tentative for some other reason. The principals were Hallberg as Solor, Murphy as Nikiya and Wiles as Gamzatti. In the Dance of the Shades the second girl from the left in the front row totally lost her balance in arabesque and actually never really recovered it, which undermined the whole effect. In the candle dance, three of the girls didn't have both candles lit and that seemed like a weird problem, and then two of them collided with each other. There was a loud clang, and then one of them dropped her lamp, which fell with a thud and it rolled to the back left of the stage (from audience point of view) and the unfortunate dancer standing there almost tripped on it while she tried to dance. As they were exiting, one of the corps members broke rank and choreography to scoop up the dropped lamp. I've looked up the reviews for the recent La Bayadere and mostly they are glowing, especially about the corps de ballet. Did I just catch them all on an exceptionally off night? Is it worth going back to see the same cast on Saturday?