BWW Dance Review: Alexei Ratmansky and Wayne McGregor works presented at American Ballet Theatre, May 23, 2018

By: May. 26, 2018
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BWW Dance Review: Alexei Ratmansky and Wayne McGregor works presented at American Ballet Theatre, May 23, 2018

What was new yesterday is old today. And what's going to be new tomorrow might be forgotten in a few days. To quote the Jerome Kern song that I don' think anyone else might know, even though it's wonderful, "But after a few thrills, a new love is old."

Which is what I felt about Alexei Ratmansky's The Firebird and Wayne McGregor's Afterite-ok The Rite of Spring. It's the prerogative of a choreographer to reclaim ballets that have been etched in our collective dance memories and take them out for a spin to discover just what made them appealing for the past 100 years. And as a bonus in this case, you get to take Stravinsky along for the ride. The end result should be something glorious to behold.

However!!!

Alexei Ratmansky is, by most opinions, a genius. He can seem to do anything, narrative ballets, classic ballets, excavate long lost Shostakovitch ballets. He has a true pedigree, having been the director of the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as choreographing for the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and New York City Ballet, among othes. He knows his stuff.

As a great admirer of Russian culture, which is his birthright, it was almost inevitable that he would turn to a truly iconic ballet as The Firebird, whose images are clearly burned into our ballet subconscious through reviews, books, DVDs, and photos of the three most famous Firebirds of the twentieth century--Tamara Karsavina, Maria Tallchief, and Margot Fonteyn. Those names conjure up a star ballerina aglow in the spotlight, standing apart from the others, defying us to take notice of anyone else on stage. They were not part of a collective bargaining team. They couldn't be.

Which is the one defining problem with this production. This Firebird is just one of the birds; you really couldn't distinguish her from the others in her retinue. She has a great red costume that distracts from her dancing, since all I could notice after a while was red. But this is not Balanchine's Rubies. She is many things, but definitely not commanding. At the conclusion, the Firebird is lifted up, a sign that she is now aloft in glory. But would a Firebird really let anyone pick her up? She knows her place, thank you

Ratmansky has every right to change and update the tale as he sees fit. I'm glad that he has taken this opportunity, even if I don't see this production remaining in the repertoire for an extended period of time. There is no pomp, no grandeur to match the music, especially in the finale, which calls for majesty, those last notes swelling as if they could go skyward. It's just flat. We get rows of men and women dressed in what look like nightgowns, fitting in with the Ratmansky scenario, but never measuring up to the opulence that Stravinsky has written.

Would someone please tell choreographers to listen closely to the music?

Devon Teuscher as the Firebird and Alexander Hammoudi as the Prince are both able and capable dancers. But as I have written about other performers, they are not "star dancers." There is no wattage, no wave to engulf you. And if you don't have that, why even present The Firebird?

Wayne McGregor's Afterite, to quote the program's notes: "Inside the last colony, humanity is a fragile frontier and survival demands the fittest. As nature reclaims its rites, a mother must choose what she holds most dear and what she can afford to lose." There is another program note in the press release brochure informing us that McGregor has chosen the Atacama Desert of South America, a desolate patch of the earth among the driest on the planet, and a landscape often equated with that of Mars for his background. That sounds more like a Martha Graham solo.

But then what exactly is all this about. Others see spaceships, moon landings, deserts. What does it all mean? I think nothing, if I may be so bold to say.

Best of all, there was no riot after the performance, just nice applause.

The best thing about the work is Alessandra Ferri, who plays a mother in difficult straits. Not only does she have to partner someone who doesn't like her, but her daughters are in hot water. One runs offstage, while the other enters what seems to be a glass booth or a garden terrace, and is gassed right there on stage.

Yes, I get it, we're in an alien world, one where we have lost feeling, devoid of reason and compassion, where our every move is downcast with psychological afflictions.

McGregor's vocabulary is modern dance with an extra dollop of ballet. Even in purely technical terms, the work is not interesting. There is same-sex partnering that, in the right hands, can be highly engrossing, as in Lauren Lovette's Not our Fate at New York City Ballet. Here it just seems gratuitous. What it does not do is complement the Stravinsky music in any way. Stravinsky wrote of a pagan rite, of the power unleashed by a people sheltered from the sun and perpetually plunged into darkness. Not here. The power is mechanical, even dull. There are no soul-shattering images. Only the gassing and that is questionable. But then, what is questionable today?

I hope many people get a chance to see the ballet. I'd be very glad to hear back from them. Write when you have a chance and let me know. I'd love to compare notes.

I imagine that a great deal of money went into this. I know that the company receives large foundation grants for their productions, yet I wonder if the use of that money would be better spent on productions that intend to stick around for a while. I can't see this new production in the repertoire for a long time. Like the Ratmansky, it would be better to televise it on Great Performances and then let it disappear to be replaced by---what?

ABT, you've got to do better. Whatever you think is modern, cutting edge, audience-appealing, this is not it.

Photograph: © Marty Sohl



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