Thursday 2/17 -- Final Jewels of the Season

[Michael]

Some high points before the Season ends.

Rubies:

Miranda Weese had one of her best evenings Thursday night in the principal role in Rubies -- The sort of performance which she seems to give once or twice a year now, the last in memory being T’schai Piano Concerto a year ago. More than any other dancer in the company, male or female, Weese’s dancing comes from the center of her body – chest, hips, shoulders – and the word which sticks with me after viewing this performance is “Physical.” Ben Millepied was her partner -- She ate him alive. Overpowered as he was, he seemed in the end quite irrelevant and one felt that Weese was satisfied, in whatever it was that had happened on stage between them, not by anything he had done but by merely consuming him.

Millepied danced (as usual) in a narcissistic dream (the only time he appeared really comfortable and “dans son assiette” was when he had the chance to leap or turn about the stage on his own, whenever one of those passages arrived you could almost see him thinking “Oh Boy”). He seemed to be unaware of anything or anybody on the stage except for himself. Which is rather inconvenient when one has to partner, but Millepied doesn’t have the muscle to partner Weese anyway, it was frightening to watch the way she overpowered him physically. She’s way too much woman for him. And you have to feel that a night with Miranda would just about blow Ben Millepied’s mind.

This performance being raw, sensuous, animalistic and at the same time sophisticated (which latter point Leigh has pointed out re Miranda) … Watching these qualities in Miranda last night, and also seeing her in Shambards last Spring (where she is the “Female Sacrifice” at the Wedding and seems to love it) – it is nearly impossible to remember how earlier in her career she was sometimes criticized for being a distant and inaccessible dancer with great line but who didn’t project.

Teresa Reichlen, for her part, has just been getting better and better with each of her performances in the other central role in Rubies. The girl seems to be able to dance pretty much anything. If there was a partner big enough, she could do Diamonds, as well, and do it supremely well. Despite her size, she can dance allegro as well as adagio. With rather small feet, she turns extremely well, indeed she’s a very perfect dancer in form. Wonderful turn out. Wonderful extension. Huge jump. The enchainement which leads forward on the stage at the commencement of Rubies, to the pulsing orchestra, devoured space with each step. Deep in her pliees. At once sensual, even sexual in a predatory way, she was at the same time nonchalant and disdainful with the four boys last night. We will not soon see here equal in this.

I could not also help noticing, among the girls of the corps de ballet in Rubies, Ana Sophia Scheller: She has something of that quality, which one recognized in Ashley Bouder in her initial seasons, which makes your eyes slide to her and recognize her on stage whenever she’s there and whatever she is doing. Scheller looks great in this costume.

Emeralds:

These four performances in Emeralds have been in my eyes the high point of Rachel Rutherford’s career, her most public moment in a principal role and the performances most marked by her musicality, lyricism and the finished qualities of her dancing. The adagios between her and Stephen Hannah, particularly the first one, were nearly perfect. And though her solos at an allegro tempo taxed her, she retained so clearly the idea of the role, that her triumph was to let us see the choreography so clearly that the choreography itself shone through her performance and carried her with it.

Sophiane Sylve, who had the other Ballerina role partnered by Jonathan Stafford, has an idea of this role but is clearly still feeling her way in the part. Which is as it should be, considering that it’s probably about the third or at most the fourth time Sylve has ever danced it and also considering that the demands of this very lyrical and perfumed role are so distant from her natural facility. And that the role is so distant from her natural type.

In so lyrical and romantic a piece, the line of Sylve’s shoulders and upper body (very muscular and developed) may be a little distracting. Also she tended to struggle with some of the steps, such as the quick terre a terre glissades into wide second positions with a pliee, where the dancer shows, during an enchainement, the feet full on the floor and the thighs bent. Very French romantic, a similar sequence occurs during the Pas de Six in La Vivandiere. It was particularly instructive to see these after watching Jenny Ringer perform the same role more cleanly and in a more balanced and complete fashion earlier last week.

La Sylve’s has glorious feet which are at once soft and strong on point. She uses them gently but firmly, seeming to feel the floor, and she has a strong and flexible high demi pointe. She is also an instinctively sensitive and musical adagio and semi adagio dancer, flowing through poses and possessing a lovely and rich extension, and it was the adagios above all which carried her through Emeralds last night in a most beautiful fashion. One of the posters has raved about her Symphony in C, 2d Movement out west last year and I can very well believe it. Everything we saw of Sylve last night makes me think that would be true.

I thus admire Sophiane Sylve but am not yet ready to anoint her with the Holy Oil. She danced a great Theme. She’s a most promising dancer but new to the repertory, feeling her way in it and sometimes struggling. My objection is not to her, but to the premature movement which would declare her a finished object at this time.

If Sylve’s performance in Emeralds was something of a triumph of matter over spirit, Rutherford’s was the exact opposite – a triumph of the spirit over matter, for Rachel will never have Sophiane’s physical facility but nonetheless rendered the details and lyricism of the Ballet so beautifully.

Diamonds:

The adagio by Maria Kowroski and Philip Neal towards the beginning of Diamonds was sublime. I do not use the word lightly. The most heart stopping six to seven minutes of pure dance in the theater this fall and Winter. Who would “a thunk” it? For eight minutes or so, Maria was amongst the Gods in that legato twilight, every thing she did, each little motion was perfect and just right, flowing to just the right point, each pose so perfectly held, the breathing of the dancers even seeming to synchronize and you feeling them breath, as it were ... and Philip Neal was the perfect Cavalier.

The performance then progressively became more and more difficult for them precisely to the degree that the tempo picked up. And the tempo does pick up for them in Diamonds, at first to a rather dramatic allegro, then to a final Polonaise, the former especially a tempo and a style which is difficult if not impossible for Maria’s body to handle, with her long, large, high arched feet, her slightly set back pelvis, and all the mass of the tall woman that she is.

The costume is flattering to her. Her native lines and proportions appear quite beautiful in it. The Russian School suits her in so far as she is able to handle it physically and that means the adagio.

Neal, as I said, was a wonderful partner for her. In the Shy but flamboyant Boy from St. Paul’s Prep, this smart and funny Ingenue from Grand Rapids seems to have found her match. It’s a partnership with great potential. His size, strength and the point of physical support where he tends to balance her are just right for Maria. Their personalities, stage intelligence and what they need in their respective partners are well matched.

I’ve seen Neal paired with Jennifer Ringer a good deal and he always appears a little hesitant and insecure with her. Ringer, with Neal, tends to lead him a little and he tends to look for it. Not so with Maria. The balance of power between her and Philip seems about just right and their mood, eye contact and rapport was very good last night. In the great adagio they really seem to dance “together” and altogether Neal had one of his better nights. In fact, given his greater ability than her to handle the up tempo allegro passages, it was probably a more consistent performance for him than for her. But Diamonds is about the Ballerina and in the Adagio, it was all about Maria. Seven minutes of sheer poetry and magic from her, as I said. The rest I have already forgotten.

Diamonds is a very unforgiving Ballet. Some Ballets can survive an uneven or mediocre performance by the corps de ballet and soloists better than others. Diamonds is not one of them.

The girl’s Corps de Ballet was ragged. As a group they were just not up to the piece. Rather than resembling a Regal Court, the appearance and atmosphere were that of High School Prom Cum Costume Party. Nor did the four soloists either work together, attack their role, or hold the stage visually as they needed to do.

The quartet for the soloist girls with the Hungarian melodic “tag” fell flat in particular . Saskia Beskow above all looked frightened throughout the evening. And behind the music. Watching the soloists, and then the beginning of the Polonaise, it was impossible not to notice that right there in front of you, in Carla Korbes, or Gwynneth Muller, or Megan Lecrone (good to see her back on stage again these past two weeks) were any number of girls who could have replaced some of the soloists tonight and given more visual mass and presence to the Ballet.

Why was Melissa Barak not cast in this, particularly given the Gypsy Air? If she was striking enough to dance the second principal role in Cortege – all Czardas and ribbons flying and By Gosh she was striking in that – how can she not have been right for one of these roles?

[GeorgeB fan]

Michael let me be the first to say: WOW!!!! After reading that review I couldn't think of everything else to say.

[Leigh Witchel]

Thank you Michael!

It sounds like Rubies was like "The Lady or the Tiger" for Millepied - except every door contained a lady AND a tiger.

[Thalictum]

One might also add that Millepied scales down every aeriel step so that he could be a 50-year-old prima donna dancing her last Giselle. A dreadful performance.

[oberon]

Hmm...

[Leigh Witchel]

I have no opinion on Millepied's dancing that night. I wasn't there. But I know good writing and interesting observation (whether I would agree or not) when I see it. When did this become a game of King of the Mountain?

[edited to add for clarity - the remarks that prompted this post have since been edited out of previous posts]