Balanchine by the Seaside

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Dutch National Ballet Best of Balanchine 17 Nov 2019 15:00  Zuiderstrbdtheater, The Hague  

The Best of Balanchine triple bill must have been a big deal for the Dutch National Ballet for they presented Symphony in Three Movements and Who Cares? at the opening night gala on 10 Sept 2019, performed it in Amsterdam for the last two weeks at the end of September and then took it on tour to the Dutch provinces in November.  I make no complaint about that because we do not see as much of Balanchine as we should in the United Kingdom. The Dutch dance Balanchine's works very well. From what I have seen, they dance his work as well as any company outside the United States.

Balanchine was born, trained and started his career in Russia but he made his formidable international reputation in the USA. The works in the triple bill reflected that history. Ballet Imperial to the music of Tchaikovsky was pure Russian whereas Who Cares? was a celebration of America. Symphony in Three Movements to a score by Stravinsky was a blending of the two. Created in America for American dancers but a tribute to another great Russian émigré.

I had intended to see the Best of Balanchine in Amsterdam on 29 Sept but a nasty fall down the steps to a car park in Birmingham the day before put paid to that plan. Instead, I saw it at the Zuiderstrandstheater (literally "the Southern Sands Theatre") on the coast a few miles outside The Hague on Sunday. That theatre is one of the most beautiful I have ever visited. It has an ample stage allowing a good view from every part of the auditorium. I was in the middle of row 17 of the stalls which was far enough back to take in the whole stage but near enough to see the dancers' features. Even more beautiful is its settling, literally yards from the sea behind a big sand dune on one side and overlooking a small harbour with a coastguard cutter at berth on the other.  This was only my second time in The Hague but I really took to it. The 28 bus from the railway station took me past the Netherlands Dance Theatre's home base, the Houses of Parliament and the royal palace, the International Court of Justice, several embassies and a lovely park before reaching the Zuiderstrand which, for some reason or other, is called "Norfolk."

The leading dancers in Ballet Imperial included three of my favourites - Maia Makhateli, Artur Shesterikov and Riho Sakamoto. I took particular delight in seeing Sakamoto because I featured her when she joined the Junior Company (see Meet Riho Sakamoto of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company 6 Dec 2014).  I had an inkling then that she would do well and so she has. Another member of that cohort, Cristiano Principato, also had an important role in the pas de trois  It was also good to see some of the latest recruits in that work such as Leo Hepler, Sebia Plantefeve, Claire Tjoe-Fat and Wenjin Guo as well as Junior Company alumni such as Alexandria Marx and Conor Walmsley who are now élèves and Clara Superfine and Melissa Chapski who are in the corps. The work is created on Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto which was played enchantingly by Michael Mouratch.

In Symphony in Three Movements the women dancers exchange their buns for ponytails which immediately relaxes the mood.  Not too much, however, for this ballet was intended as a tribute to Stravinsky who composed albeit innovatively in the classical style. It is a ballet that flows though some of the positions are quite angular. Parts of the ballet are explosive and exuberant.  Other parts such as the duets require almost mechanical precision. There are three principal couples - Sakamoto with Edo Wijnen who won the Radius prize this year; Qian Liu and Jared Wright; and Floor Eimers (another artist I follow closely) and Vito Mazzeo - and five solo couples. All were exquisite.
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The finale, Who Cares? to the music of Gershwin as arranged by Hershi Kay was danced to a backdrop of Manhattan in the 1930s with the Chrysler Building, the Woolworth Building and other landmarks. The cast consists of one male lead - in this case, Constantine Allen - three female leads = Yuanyuan Zhang, Nina Tonoli and Maia Makhateli, five male soloists and five female and the corps. The ballet opened with the whole cast on stage. The next tune left only the corps. In the next scene, the female soloists in red and black costumes entered. They were followed by the male soloists in white shirts, ties and waistcoats.  There were some beautiful duets and solos. It was a great way to end the matinee but it was over far too quickly.

I had just one disappointment. Michaela DePrince appeared in the programme for Who Cares? There was no announcement that she was indisposed but I just do not remember seeing her in the show.  It was she who led me first to the Junior Company and then the Dutch National Ballet in 2913. I have not seen her in anything since the 2918 gala when she returned to the stage after a long recuperation from injury. I sincerely hope that there has been no recurrence of that injury. She is a beautiful dancer and I long to see her fly again.

Though again there was no mention of his name in the cast list, the orchestra was conducted by Matthew Rowe.  Always a pleasure to see him at the rostrum. 

I see a lot of ballets every year and have seen some particularly good ones this year but this matinee triple bill is among the best so far.

Boston Ballet: "High as a flag on the Fourth of July!"

What better way to spend the 4 July than with Americans? Americans bring a zest to ballet. I first noticed it as a young graduate student when I saw New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. I saw it again when American Ballet Theatre brought Cynthia Gregory and Carla Fracci to Covent Garden as America's gift to the silver jubilee celebrations of 1977. Such zest almost exploded when the Dance Theatre of Harlem came over. There are magnificent companies in Russia, Denmark and, of course, our own country but none of them have excited me as much as those Americans.

On Thursday I experienced excitement again when I saw Boston Ballet at the Coliseum. They danced a quadruple bill:

• Balanchine's Serenade 
• Nijinsky's L'après-midi d'un faune
• Jorma Elo's Plan 2 B, and
• Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements.

Choreographed in 1934 Serenade was the first great American ballet and was tremendously influential in the USA (see Toni Bentley "The Ballet that changed Everything" 3 Sep 2010 Wall Street Journal)   Although it alludes to the great 19th century ballets with a Tchaikovsky score it is nevertheless very American with more than a touch of Hollywood about it.  There is no scenery or props to speak of.   Just the corps de ballet in romantic tutus bathed in blue.  As the curtain rose there was a collective gasp and then spontaneous applause.  To understand why, take a butcher's at Cheryl Angear's photos in "Serenaded  by Boston Ballet" of 4 July 2013 in her excellent blog Ballet News.  I learned today that the planet Mercury has a crater called "Balanchine" because it generates blue rays reminiscent of the lighting and costumes of the ballet. 

On the 4 July the main roles were danced by Kathleen Breen Combes, Dusty Button,Seo Hye Han, Bo Busby and Nelson Madrigal. All danced well but I have to say that I was captivated by Breen Combes. It was the first time I had seen her and she was dazzling.  I was instantly reminded of Fracci when she danced at the Royal Opera House all those years ago.

So far as I know Serenade is not in the repertoire of any British company.That is a pity because it is a lovely ballet. The score is haunting and soaring and accompanies the other worldliness of the blue bathed stage perfectly. I saw the show with a student from my adult ballet class in Huddersfield who had taken class for years yet had somehow managed to reach adulthood without ever having seen ballet on the stage..  I was quite envious of her because I can think of no better introduction to ballet than Serenade.

Leon Bakst's stage setting for Faune

The next work was one that had hooked me onto ballet nearly 50 years ago: Nijinsky's L'après-midi d'un faune. I was drawn to the ballet by the richness of Leon Bakst's design rather than the choreography.   This ballet has been controversial ever since the day it was first performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes just over 100 years ago and it is controversial now. Cheryl Angear, who knows far more about ballet than I ever will, tweeted that it was one of her least favourite works.  It is an unconventional ballet but how can one not relish Bakst's designs, Debussy's score and Nijinsky's choreography.  Anyway the audience on Thursday seemed to love it as much as I did.  John Lam danced the Faun drawing cheers as he entered the stage with a deer like step almost becoming the creature. Ashley Ellis danced the Nymph exquisitely. 

Elo's Plan to B was the only work which we saw on Thursday that had been choreographed specifically for the Boston Ballet and its only recent work. It was first performed in Boston on the 25 March 2011.  No doubt because it is the company's very own work it was danced with particular exuberance.   The score was by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern which I had not heard before. The dancers were Button, Sylvia Deaton, Isaac Akiba, Jeffrey Cirio, Paul Craid and Bradley Schlagheck. They too drew thunderous applause.

The last work was another Balanchine but from the other end of his career nearly 40 years after Serenade,   It was first performed on 18 June 1972 to a score by Stravinsky who had died just one year earlier.   This was the work that showed what this remarkable company could do and just about everybody who had come to London was on the stage. The dancers who impressed me most were Lia Cirio and her brother Jeffrey (see Lia's YouTube interview). There were also strong performances by Misa Kuranaga, Rie Ichikawa, Lasha Khovashvili and Schlagcheck.

This is the company's first visit to London since 1981 and it was a very short season. I sincerely hope they do not leave it another 30 years and that they stay longer when they return. I hate to admit it as a proud  northerner but there is something special about a London audience. I used to go to Covent Garden, the Coliseum and Festival Hall a lot when I was at law school and starting my career because those theatres rub shoulders with legal London. I got to know the regulars and, indeed, probably became one of them. Muriel from Muswell Hill and Ida from Ilford had seen everyone from Ninette de Valois to Rudolf Nureyev and analysed their performances in the minutest detail. When a London audience reacts as they did on Thursday you know you have seen something special.

More on Boston Ballet
Shelby Elsbree "Touring with Boston Ballet" 4 July 2013 The Ballet Bag
Cheryl Angear "Serenaded by Boston Ballet" 4 July 2913 Ballet news
Boston Ballet "In the Press"  Company website
Boston Ballet Facebook page