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October 7, 2005
Latest Dance Article
Igor's Show - covering the Birmingham Royal Ballet's Stravinsky program - is not available on the web, but in the Autumn, 2005 issue of Dance Now, which also has a lot of coverage on the Bournonville Festival. It's easier to find in the UK, but can be purchased by subscription from overseas.
If you’re a choreographer, Stravinsky can be either your best friend or your most formidable opponent. His complex and layered scores, no matter how challenging harmonically, are rhythmically danceable. It’s their greatest asset. But music as textured and structurally secure as Stravinsky’s is like a corset for choreography; there’s plenty of support and not much room to breathe.. . .
The best Maiden [in Rite of Spring] was the final one, Carol-Anne Millar. She took the best route to making her solo work; she tore into it ferociously. In a lucky bit of synchronicity, Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia were exceeding themselves in the pit that night as well. It made for the most savage and exciting performance, and the first time I have seen the ballet where it felt as if someone were trying to dance herself to death.
. . .
[Scènes de Ballet] [Nao] Sakuma has the warmth, charm and importantly, the chops for the role. I’m pleasantly surprised she has the lines. When I saw her as The Young Girl in The Two Pigeons at the Ashton Festival in New York last year, her limbs seemed linear and almost severe. I thought she might look better in Balanchine. Though this is probably all in the way she approached the role rather than any physical change, she seemed to have grown a few appealingly soft curves for a warm, rounded line that looked better in Scènes.
. . .
In the smallest of packages, Duo Concertant tells you almost everything you need to know about Balanchine’s view of love. . .[Robert] Parker and [Elisha] Willis had no trouble with the conceits of the ballet; as good as Parker looked in The Two Pigeons last year in New York, in this programme he looked more comfortable in the Balanchine rather than Scènes. Willis also looked more at home here. She is a quiet, introverted dancer, even a bit closed off but the contrast between his playfulness and her shyness works. He’s in charge; he charms her and it makes it all the more charming to us.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at October 7, 2005 11:30 AM
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