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Pennsylvania Ballet's Jerome Robbins program
Kick start?
LEWIS WHITTINGTON
Pennsylvania Ballet director Roy Kaiser used to begin Pennsylvania Ballet seasons with back-to-back weeks of classical and modern programs. It was his way of kick-starting the company after the summer off. That happened by default this month with three works by Jerome Robbins, followed by an evening of selected classical favorites to mark principal dancer Alexei Borovik’s retirement.
In the ‘40s and ‘50s, Robbins was the anti-Balanchine: He made ballet showy and showdance balletic. One of his biggest hits, Fancy Free, opened the evening of Robbins’s cosmopolitan, if dated, signature moments. Perhaps because of today’s perilous world events, it was hard to lose yourself on the town with three World War II sailors trying to score dates.
The swabs— Philip Colucci, Johnathan Stiles and James Ady— had charm to spare, even when they were boorishly trying to impress pickups Tara Keating and Amy Aldridge, with their big jumps and horse play. The ‘40s stylizations were fine, but their delivery lacked sufficient connecting animation. The dancers should look painted-in against the deep pink and purple pastiche of a cut-away corner bar with that bent lamppost at the entrance. Stiles carried the most aplomb with his easy smile and airy swagger. The Ballet orchestra’s muddy sound— on what should be bubbling Leonard Bernstein— didn’t help.
More sarcasm needed
In the Night attempts to puncture ballet’s hothouse romanticism with a dose of reality for the three couples dancing to Chopin on a starry night. Each duet is a peek into the hubris of relationships, even if all three couples end up beautifully waltzing. The three couples displayed different dramatic approaches—Arantxa Ochoa’s pristine phrasing kept her partner, Maximilien Baud, at such a distance that he seemed afraid. Julie Diana and Ady also experienced trouble creating sparks with the romantic adornments masking the angst. They did signal a little sarcasm through the sincerity, but unfortunately not enough. .
Riolama Lorenzo and James Ihde conveyed the drama and dualities in their duet. They were like Anna Karenina and Count Vronski taking the ballroom in a chase- me-so-I-can-catch-you scandalous romance. Martha Koeneman’s piano accompaniment was atypically brittle for Chopin. Perhaps it was intended ironically.
A gallery of loons
The Concert is slap-happy Robbins about a gallery of loons who make up the audience at a piano recital (we’ve lived it!). Riolama Lorenzo steals the show as the haywire ballerina who emasculates hapless partner Colucci with her pointe shoes. It as hilarious to see the gorgeous Lorenzo dropped by Colucci from the famous poisson (or fish dive) position, and equally funny later in a limb-entwined Balanchine parody that had her face caught between a thigh and a derriere.
The corps women are brought on like ballerina mannequins, riotously trying to stay in unison and not quite making it. Clipped pacing and precision physical comedy made this easily flattened soufflé rise to the end. Pianist Koeneman more than redeemed herself onstage this time with her bee-hive hat and sousy piano.
A shaky Sleeping Beauty, until…
The Ballet’s gala Evening of Audience Favorites on October 13 was an expected showcase of company style, skill and beauty for all of the company principal dancers. James Ady and Julie Diana started off shaky in Marius Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty with those static pointe poses, but in motion they were first-rate, radiating storybook magic. Amy Aldridge and Alexander Izilaev actually topped that with Balanchine’s Tarantella, with unfussy caractère gypsy gallops, skips and stomps.
Alexei Borovik danced Apollo to celebrate his retirement, , more than holding his own as Balanchine’s muse God even if this work makes him pant now. His partner, Martha Chamberlain, looked a most gracious Terpsichore escorting Borovik toward that brilliant sun one last time. At the curtain, the flowers rained on the stage as the audience acknowledge Borovik’s stellar 25 year career.
Arantxa Ochoa and Zachary Hench nailed Petipa’s re-styled Don Quixote, one of the most recognizable and demanding pas de deux in classical ballet. Not only were the two dancers technically thrilling, they danced the excerpt in character, showing they completely inhabit these parts. Let’s hope a full production will follow. Hench carved up the air with huge scissor kicks, and his saut de basque runs featured great elévation and speed. Ochoa kept raising the ante by attacking the choreography with such ease that her character shone through. Those 30 fouetté turns were always centered and breathtakingly executed.
LEWIS WHITTINGTON
Pennsylvania Ballet director Roy Kaiser used to begin Pennsylvania Ballet seasons with back-to-back weeks of classical and modern programs. It was his way of kick-starting the company after the summer off. That happened by default this month with three works by Jerome Robbins, followed by an evening of selected classical favorites to mark principal dancer Alexei Borovik’s retirement.
In the ‘40s and ‘50s, Robbins was the anti-Balanchine: He made ballet showy and showdance balletic. One of his biggest hits, Fancy Free, opened the evening of Robbins’s cosmopolitan, if dated, signature moments. Perhaps because of today’s perilous world events, it was hard to lose yourself on the town with three World War II sailors trying to score dates.
The swabs— Philip Colucci, Johnathan Stiles and James Ady— had charm to spare, even when they were boorishly trying to impress pickups Tara Keating and Amy Aldridge, with their big jumps and horse play. The ‘40s stylizations were fine, but their delivery lacked sufficient connecting animation. The dancers should look painted-in against the deep pink and purple pastiche of a cut-away corner bar with that bent lamppost at the entrance. Stiles carried the most aplomb with his easy smile and airy swagger. The Ballet orchestra’s muddy sound— on what should be bubbling Leonard Bernstein— didn’t help.
More sarcasm needed
In the Night attempts to puncture ballet’s hothouse romanticism with a dose of reality for the three couples dancing to Chopin on a starry night. Each duet is a peek into the hubris of relationships, even if all three couples end up beautifully waltzing. The three couples displayed different dramatic approaches—Arantxa Ochoa’s pristine phrasing kept her partner, Maximilien Baud, at such a distance that he seemed afraid. Julie Diana and Ady also experienced trouble creating sparks with the romantic adornments masking the angst. They did signal a little sarcasm through the sincerity, but unfortunately not enough. .
Riolama Lorenzo and James Ihde conveyed the drama and dualities in their duet. They were like Anna Karenina and Count Vronski taking the ballroom in a chase- me-so-I-can-catch-you scandalous romance. Martha Koeneman’s piano accompaniment was atypically brittle for Chopin. Perhaps it was intended ironically.
A gallery of loons
The Concert is slap-happy Robbins about a gallery of loons who make up the audience at a piano recital (we’ve lived it!). Riolama Lorenzo steals the show as the haywire ballerina who emasculates hapless partner Colucci with her pointe shoes. It as hilarious to see the gorgeous Lorenzo dropped by Colucci from the famous poisson (or fish dive) position, and equally funny later in a limb-entwined Balanchine parody that had her face caught between a thigh and a derriere.
The corps women are brought on like ballerina mannequins, riotously trying to stay in unison and not quite making it. Clipped pacing and precision physical comedy made this easily flattened soufflé rise to the end. Pianist Koeneman more than redeemed herself onstage this time with her bee-hive hat and sousy piano.
A shaky Sleeping Beauty, until…
The Ballet’s gala Evening of Audience Favorites on October 13 was an expected showcase of company style, skill and beauty for all of the company principal dancers. James Ady and Julie Diana started off shaky in Marius Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty with those static pointe poses, but in motion they were first-rate, radiating storybook magic. Amy Aldridge and Alexander Izilaev actually topped that with Balanchine’s Tarantella, with unfussy caractère gypsy gallops, skips and stomps.
Alexei Borovik danced Apollo to celebrate his retirement, , more than holding his own as Balanchine’s muse God even if this work makes him pant now. His partner, Martha Chamberlain, looked a most gracious Terpsichore escorting Borovik toward that brilliant sun one last time. At the curtain, the flowers rained on the stage as the audience acknowledge Borovik’s stellar 25 year career.
Arantxa Ochoa and Zachary Hench nailed Petipa’s re-styled Don Quixote, one of the most recognizable and demanding pas de deux in classical ballet. Not only were the two dancers technically thrilling, they danced the excerpt in character, showing they completely inhabit these parts. Let’s hope a full production will follow. Hench carved up the air with huge scissor kicks, and his saut de basque runs featured great elévation and speed. Ochoa kept raising the ante by attacking the choreography with such ease that her character shone through. Those 30 fouetté turns were always centered and breathtakingly executed.
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