Wednesday, February 2

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A review of San Francisco Ballet by Rachel Howard in The San Francisco Chronicle.

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“Mrs. Robinson” has a brilliant set design by Patrick Kinmonth and a clever original score by Terry Davies. But arguably the most ingenious element, devised by Marston and dramaturg Edward Kemp, is the ballet’s ensemble of a dozen women in ’60s dresses and aprons who prance through, dusting invisible furniture and baking invisible cakes. They represent the stultifying expectations of female life that drive Mrs. Robinson’s pathological behaviors. (As Marston has noted to interviewers, 1963 marked the release of both “The Graduate” and Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique.”) 

 

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A review of the Royal Ballet by Jann Parry for DanceTabs.

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Sambé’s Romeo is overwhelmed by her eager response in the balcony pas de deux. She pulls his hand onto her breast, swoons into his arms and skitters around him. O’Sullivan executes MacMillan’s choreography too explicitly for a girl being overtaken by her feelings. She spells out the steps and makes beautiful shapes as Sambé lifts her. Only when they come to the kiss does she seem unexpectedly moved. In the Act III bedroom scene after their night together, her distress that he must leave is extravagant, backbends calculated to the nth degree, arms flung up for the best effect. Returning to the role after several years’ gap, O’Sullivan seemed too well prepared for her Friday performance. By the recorded performance, the choreography should seem the inevitable expression of Juliet’s emotions.
 

 

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A review of New York City Ballet by Marina Harss for DanceTabs.

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The three ballets were led by veterans. Sterling Hyltin and Anthony Huxley were the lead couple in Mozartiana, with Daniel Ulbricht as the soloist in the stylish gigue. In the Minuet were four of the seven dancers recently promoted to soloist: Ashley Hod, Isabella LaFreniere, Miriam Miller, and Mira Nadon. But even these four, beaming with new confidence, could not bring life to this tiresome minuet, which contains some of Balanchine’s least inspired choreography.
 

 

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Art director Ezio Frigerio has died at age 91.

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Thanks to Roland Petit and his friendship with Rudolf Nureyev, he made his debut in the world of ballet, first in France and then also at La Scala with Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. During his career he worked at more than 300 productions and has been awarded with many prizes including the Molière, the French Critics Prize twice, the English Critics Prize, the Premio Abbiati twice and, for cinema, the César, the European Community Award, and an Oscar nomination.

 

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A review of New York City Ballet in "Partita" by Leigh Witchel in dancelog.nyc.

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“Partita” was an interesting journey, but a circular one. Did we arrive at a new destination or back where we started? It was dense and the movement was the swirly-whooshy phrasing Peck does when he isn’t using academic ballet vocabulary. He was most likely improvising, but his movement material suggested that he’s naturally a jerky mover. His found vocabulary was exuberant and athletic, but not yet eloquent. He used unison a lot, in ways both powerful and predictable. The phrases went on and on but felt less like a signature and more like a run-on sentence.