ballet blog

BALLET REVIEW: ABT ON TOUR IN PARIS - LA BELLE AU BOIS DORMANT (Sleeping Beauty)

Last tuesday (September 6th, 2016) I watched American Ballet Theatre on tour in Paris perform Alexei Ratmansky’s Sleeping Beauty. I chose this night because it was a cast of some of my favorite ABT dancers: 

Princess Aurora: Stella Abrera Prince Desire: Alex Hammoudi Lilac Fairy: Veronika Part Carabosse: Marcelo Gomes Diamond Fairy: D. Teuscher Bluebird: J. Cirio Princess Florine: S. Lane

(Side note: I was surprised to see that a corps de ballet dancer, Cassandra Trenary, is opening and closing the run in Paris. That is a big opportunity for her.)

First off, I have seen ABT’s previous version of Sleeping Beauty staged by Gelsey Kirkland and Michael Chernov. The first time I saw Sleeping Beauty back at the Met Opera House in NY, it was absolutely beautiful. I walked away from the performance feeling so happy about what I had just seen. 

I was surprised when ABT announced that Ratmansky was restaging it. At first glance, I was confused by the costumes with the longer skirts, lower foot positions, elaborate wigs, and chainé turns on demi-point. I LOVE the old turquoise and gold tutu that Princess Aurora wears. Maybe Ratmansky was being a little TOO historically accurate. 

Now that I’ve seen Ratmansky’s new version live on stage, it is also a great production. Ratmansky’s stagings always bring a softness out of his dancers. Principal Stella Abrera and soloist Sarah Lane are good interpreters of his style. It was such a joy to see Stella Abrera dance as a principal dancer in the main role after she’s been a soloist for 14 years. I admire her dancing for her elegance and classiness. She brought graceful épaulement to the role of Princess Aurora.

French dancer Alex Hammoudi was Prince Desire, you could hear the appreciation in the audience as soon as he appeared on stage. His slender and tall frame looks good in the costume. He was a solid partner to Stella with effortless lifts and fish dives. 

One of the audience favorites was Sarah Lane. In the prologue as Miettes qui tombent she seemed to float across the stage in lightning quick bourrées. With Jeffrey Cirio in the Bluebird pdd, they delighted the audience. I have not seen Jeffrey perform with ABT ever since he joined from Boston Ballet. Jeffrey and Sarah work well together, both in height and style. In the past Sarah was paired a lot with Daniil Simkin and I saw them struggle a bit in the pdd’s, but it’s great to see how confident she was with a different partner. Sarah’s Princess Florine had articulate footwork and phrasing and charmed the audience.

Veronika Part was a magnanimous Lilac Fairy. I wish we saw her more on the stage at the Met Opera House. Marcelo Gomes as Carabosse was absolutely FABULOUS, DRAMATIC, and FRIGHTENING. Who knew he was so good at character roles??? He put in a lot of nuances that really made his evil character but were still loud enough to read from the back of the audience. 

Devon Teuscher delivered a sparkling performance as the Diamond Fairy and also got an appreciative round of applause from the audience. I’ve seen her perform a couple times now in supporting soloist roles and she always delivers on the mark. 

Overall, Stella Abrera and Alex Hammoudi performed a smooth and effortless Princess Aurora and Prince Desire. Alex has been dancing a lot of principal roles but was shortly sidelined by an injury. It seems it’s only a matter of time before he gets promoted to principal. Stella Abrera is always a joy to see for her classical lines and lightness on the stage, and I will always try to support her performances whenever possible! 

PS: There’s a lot of new faces in the corps de ballet. The corps was looking pretty good - their lines were sometimes a hair out of synch and sometimes the collective dancers on stage were a bit loud, but overall their choreography was flawless. It’s sort of funny to see former stars of the competition circuit and the ABT studio company in corps de ballet roles. No matter how good you are in your summer intensive or pre-training company, everyone has to pay their dues in the corps. 

Pics via: Paris Opera Ballet Facebook, Instagram @stellaabrera and @alexhammoudi

Marcelo Gomes and Veronika Part perform the White Swan pdd in YAGP's "Ballet's Greatest Hits"

In December 2012, there was a Kickstarter campaign to fund the filming of a ballet DVD/theatrical release of the YAGP gala. 

Now it's available for rent/purchase on iTunes and amazon. (Hint: You don't have to purchase the $19.99 HD version on iTunes, click the price button for a dropdown to just purchase the $14.99 standard version). 

For whatever reason in the final version, the segment of La Bayadere with Isabella Boylston & Joseph Phillips got cut because of musical licensing reasons? And they also cut out the Pas de Duke performance of the Ailey dancers :( 

Onto the DVD: Marcelo Gomes & Veronika Part (ABT) oozed elegance in the white swan PDD. You can tell that women always love partnering with Marcelo, and Veronika is one of the most under-utilized principals at ABT. Her costume could've been better (floppy tutu!) but her and Marcelo can do no wrong. She has long, languid lines and is always super expressive. 

Hee Seo (ABT) and Alejandro Virelles (Boston Ballet) did the Pdd from Alexei Ratmansky's The Nutcracker. Oh, so THAT'S what it's supposed to look like! I had seen Daniil Simkin and Sarah Lane perform it at BAM, but there were a couple of partnering glitches and Sarah's shoes were so loud on the BAM stage that it was a little distracting from her usual crystalline technique. Hee Seo is coming into her own, I saw her debut in Romeo & Juliet in Detroit a few years ago, and the performance was pretty but not a lasting one. Now she seems to have developed more confidence and smiley stage presence. Alejandro Virelles from Cuba has great energy and was the perfect cavalier, good find Boston Ballet!! 

Greta Hodgkinson from National Ballet of Canada (and sorry I am forgetting her partner's name) did the 2nd act Pdd of Giselle, with Stella Abrera (ABT) as Myrtha. Stella is another one of my favorite dancers who doesn't see enough stage time, and her Myrtha was controlled and ruthless, but I still don't love the role of Myrtha. It always seems to under-utilize the dancer who gets the role (see Marie-Agnes Gilot looking fierce and glowering while Aurelie Dupont gets to do all of the dancing in the POB version). 

Ashley Bouder and Daniel Ulbricht from NYCB did "Flames of Paris", which is outside of their usual Balanchine repertoire. Oof, again, the costumes! Not my favorite. Bouder's peasant costume looked more Giselle than French revolutionary. For Ashley this performance was nothing unusual but I'd never seen Daniel perform so it was a pleasant surprise. I've also seen Osipova & Vasiliev perform this at an ABT gala, and watched Catherin Hurlin & Shu Kunoichi perform it at the JKO school performance. 

Don Q closed out the DVD, with Taras Domitro and Maria Kochetkova (SFB) as Basilio and Kitri and Skylar Brandt (ABT) as a flower girl. Taras and Maria are on fire, they know their roles in Don Q inside and out. Kochetkova hits every step with perfect timing and her balances and turns are superb. Skylar Brandt is also spotless, she seems to flow effortlessly across the stage and really embodies the steps. 

Each performance excerpt has segments of interviews with other dances and choreographers such as Alexei Ratmansky, Alessandra Ferri, Misty Copeland, Denys & Mathieu Ganio, Nigel Lythgoe, Benjamin Millepied, and so forth, so it helps break up the monotony of the gala segments.