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May 21, 2005
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Both in the current (Spring '05) Issue of Ballet Review. Holy Moly, Spring '05 actually appeared during Spring, '05! Ballet Review has not always been known for its punctuality. The magazine can be difficult to find, but is available in the promenade gift shop of the NY State Theater during NYCB performances - or email Ballet Review
Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Mark Godden's The Magic Flute, Halifax, NS
. . . Godden has favored storytelling over dance values, an endearingly retro quality.
He’s not entirely retro. His dance vocabulary moves with the prevailing wind for contemporary ballet; classical legs with the semaphoring arms that come from not only Forsythe or Kylián, but jazz and club dancing as well. Godden’s results are occasionally precious, but more often acceptable. The work looks tailored to the company and he makes the dancers look good.
. . .
Godden doesn’t falter in his handling of narrative, but there’s also music, and he’s up against Mozart. He’s attracted to the humor of the libretto but doesn’t know what to do about its delicacy. [Tara] Birtwhistle is given very earthy choreography but we’re listening to Cheryl Studer’s coloratura trills at the same time. Godden has the obvious analogue to coloratura vocal technique right at hand – pointe work – and dancers who are fluent at it. He uses pointe vocabulary, but sticks with the forceful aspect of it, relévés and turns, and avoids bourrées and other coloratura filigree. Godden also doesn’t make much of ensemble work; it’s all unison and tends towards the hyperactive. His vision has a great deal less texture than Mozart’s.
The Bolshoi Ballet in Don Quixote - Boston, MA
During the scene at the gypsy camp, Yulianna Malkhasyants does a dance with over-the-top mood swings that is the kind of freak-out I’ve only seen her and the Kirov's Galina Rakhmanova put over. . . The Bolshoi’s Mercedes (Maria Isplatovskaya) does her share [of backbends] during the tavern scene directly to the audience, pointedly and excruciatingly slowly after Espada flirts with another woman. They’re a triumphant trick to enforce her status. “Watch this. You can’t leave me. I can fold myself in half backwards.” And after astounding the audience and Espada she disappears, of course, never to be seen again.
. . .
Of all the smaller roles, character and classical, the loveliest dancer was Nelli Kobakhidze. One of a trio of Dryads in both performances, she danced the second variation during the act 3 grand pas. She’s a long-limbed beauty, delicate and strong all at once.
The corps de ballet danced as a single organism, fanning itself in unison in the first act or leaping and banging tambourines as one. The character dances are really classical dances with slight character flavoring, but they sell them as if they were actual character choreography. All the corps work is relatively elementary, but that’s a feature, not a deficit. It allows for beautiful clarity as well as ease.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at May 21, 2005 11:23 PM
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