Tag: Roman Zhurbin

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ABT OPENING NIGHT GALA MET SEASON 2010

 

Photo from inside the gala tent last night at American Ballet Theater’s opening night gala taken from NY Social Diary, who, sadly, don’t seem to have any pics up of Irina Dvorovenko in her beautiful red gown. It was one of the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen — long and many-layered but each layer seemed to be made of a light, sheer piece of fabric, so the whole thing looked light and diaphanous, though it wasn’t really see-through, just looked that way. Anyway, if anyone finds a picture of her, please let me know! Roberto Cavalli probably designed it…

Anyway, so the opening night gala was last night. It was loooong — one of the longest I’ve seen. We didn’t get out until 9:30, and it began at 6:30. It opened with an excerpt from Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering, of seven couples waltzing at what seemed to be a party (I haven’t seen this ballet), with Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky the main couple.

Following that was a series of introductions and thank yous by Kevin McKenzie (Art. Dir.), Blaine Trump and Caroline Kennedy (the two women were honorary chairs of the evening, along with Michelle Obama, who wasn’t there), and then David Koch who has funded the upcoming production of the company’s Nutcracker this winter.

Then, a group of ABT II dancers performed an excerpt of Edwaard Liang’s Ballo Per Sei, which was a contemporary lyrical piece, set to Vivaldi. I recognized a SLSG favorite — Irlan Silva — right away.

Then came the “Rose Adagio” from Sleeping Beauty, performed by Michele Wiles, with Sascha Radetsky, Craig Salstein, Gennadi Saveliev, and Roman Zhurbin as suitors. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this performed so well. Michele really held those balances, and she was so vivacious! Both she and Paloma Herrera, who danced a later excerpt from SB later in the evening, really embodied a young Princess Aurora very well. Michele got loads of applause – the most thus far of the evening.

Then came David Hallberg and Natalia Osipova’s Olympic version of Giselle — this an excerpt from Act II. People laughed and shook heads in amazement at Osipova’s sky-high ballons and sprightly jumps and leaps. She is really incredible. And then at the end when she jeted off and he followed her, it was really beautiful. But athletically astounding as it was, it was still moving; nearly brought tears to my eyes. I mean, how do you manage to do athletic feats like that and make it seem like you’re a light, other-worldly spirit instead of nearly exhausting yourself to death? I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see anyone else dance Giselle again besides Osipova now. I saw a couple of etoiles from the Paris Opera Ballet perform it at the Guggenheim a few months ago and all I could think was, “wait, where’s the ear-high develope?” and “that arabesque penchee is nowhere near 6:00!” Natalia Osipova has spoiled me.

Then came Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes doing my favorite gala fare, the Black Swan pas de deux. They were magnificent. Veronika kept doing these equally astounding crazy penchees, and she was so tantalizing with all of her faux White Swan poses! She was really a bad tease! And perfect fouette sequence for her, and his jetes and all — they got loads of applause too (oh, and so did David and Natalia).

Then was the beautiful Thais Pas de Deux by Ashton, danced by Diana Vishneva and Jared Matthews. I recently saw this rehearsed at a studio visit by Hee Seo and Sascha Radetsky, and it looks so different onstage far away and with costumes and all. It looked a lot more like MacMillan than I remembered. I loved it; Diana and Jared did very well but I still can’t wait to see Hee and Sascha. For her gala gown, Diana was wearing a very interesting-looking Japanese-styled dress.

Ending the first half of the evening was the finale of Tharp’s Brahms-Hayden Variations, danced by a group of seven couples, replete with trademark Tharpian flash and crazy lifts and high energy. Can’t wait to see this now either. I have in my notes, “who is dancing with Hammoudi?!” When I looked at my program, I saw it was Stella Abrera. She is really back and really on!

First dance after the intermission was the “Kingdom of the Shades” scene from La Bayadere.  Beautiful as always though it seemed some of the dancers were not completely in unison.

Then came Paloma Herrera and Cory Stearns dancing the Awakening Pas de Deux from Sleeping Beauty, which was followed by the wedding pas de deux from that ballet danced by Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes. I particularly loved Paloma. As I said before, she and Michele Wiles really embodied the sweet, youthful spirit of Aurora. Paloma and Cory danced very well together. They seemed like a real couple.

Then was my second favorite excerpt of the night — the Act III Pas de Deux from Neumeier’s Lady of the Camellias, danced by a very passionate Roberto Bolle (who received a load of applause when the curtain initially opened on him) and a very dramatic Julie Kent. Every excerpt of this ballet makes me want to see the whole. Not much longer now — it begins next week, and I can’t wait. I think they received the greatest applause of the night. Audience really went wild, and it’s partly because he’s so internationally famous, but also I think because they just did so well with it. This seems to be a ballet that requires both good acting and excellent partnering ability because some of those lifts… The pianist, Soheil Nasseri, came onstage too for a bow at the end. He was very good.

Next to last was the Act III Pas de Deux from Don Quixote, danced by ABT audience faves Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy. There was a slight mishap with the lift where he throws her up, she does a crazy twist in the air and then he catches her and the fish dive wasn’t hands free, but they each danced spectacularly on their own. It looked at one point like she was doing quadruple pirouettes between some of her fouettes, and he nearly kicked his leg to his forehead during some of his jumps and then did a flashy little jump during his fouette sequence that had the audience screaming.

The evening ended on a modern note  with David Parsons’s Caught, danced by Angel Corella, who, expectedly did an exquisite job. The audience, many of whom hadn’t seen that dance before, seemed so spellbound they almost forgot to clap right away. Angel’s so cute 😀

And finally, everyone who danced came out onstage at the end and took a little bow while the orchestra continued to play. Dancers still in costume — Daniil Simkin, Craig Salstein, Gennadi Saveliev come to mind — did a flashy trick, the “Shades” did a little dance in unison, and then dancers who danced in the first half came out in party gown (which is how I fell in love with Irina’s dress).

Fun evening. During intermission I checked my cell-phone and found a text from a friend who saw me sitting in orchestra from the side par terre, where he was sitting. So I texted him to meet me afterward, and we went for martinis, clam chowder and crab cake sandwiches at Ed’s Chowder House across from the Plaza, my favorite post-ballet place to go since it replaced Center Cut mid-NYCB fall season. They have a TV in the bar, and I was happy that the Yankees were still on. So I saw A-Rod hit his game-tying home-run… But how my friend ever saw me in that enormous Met crowd I’ll never know. Though many arrived late, house ended up being packed.

Oh, and I almost forgot: at the beginning of his speech, Kevin McKenzie introduced several dancers – each representing an era of ABT (this being the company’s 70th anniversary)- who all came out and took a bow. Included were Lupe Serrano, Baryshnikov, Nina Ananiashvili (who got a lot of applause), Alessandra Ferri, Natalia Makarova, and cutie Frederick Franklin, who gave a little speech as well. Isabella Rosellini was in the audience, a few rows down from me. I didn’t recognize anyone else in the audience.

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GILLIAN MURPHY AND ANGEL CORELLA’S MOST PASSIONATE SWAN LAKE

Last night’s Swan Lake at ABT was the best I can ever remember seeing. Honestly. Angel Corella was the most passionate Prince Siegfried full of, by turns, intense longing, boyish amazement, passionate love, sexual excitement, sorrow, tragic pathos, etc. etc. etc. And Gillian was the ideal combination of swan and human being — not too ethereal to have a human connection with him, but also not entirely of this world, representing his ideal.

 

 

 

The White Swan pas de deux, which I am often bored by, was just breathtaking, oozing with passion. You could just seen Angel’s boyish marvel at Odette transform into romantic love. I don’t think anyone arches her back quite like Gillian. And Angel was all over her, resting his head on her chest when she’d end in that arched back pose. And those overhead lifts were heart stopping. They were the same lifts Marcelo Gomes did with Nina Ananiashvili in Le Corsaire — where he lifts her so high and she arches back so far she just looks weightless and you wonder how in the world she’s staying up there like that.

Audience went nuts for them. And at the end of the pdd, Angel harkened Gillian out for another bow. He let her have all the applause, and bowed to her, though the audience was going crazy for them both. So cutely boyishly deferential to his ballerina 🙂

And at the end of that pas d’action, when Odette turns back into a swan and floats off the stage, Gillian marked the tranformation from girl to swan with razor sharpness, shooting her arms out almost violently to her sides right as von Rothbart’s wicked theme begins in the music. And then she moved her arms up and down with such expansiveness and fluidity — she definitely had the biggest, most beautiful “wing span” of any ballerina I’ve seen!

And then in the Black Swan pas de deux that gorgeous wing span returned. Between every fouette, Gillian would do multiple pirouettes and raise her arms up and down, up and down. She really looked like she was flying. The audience went completely nuts. And Angel! Those two are the quintessential spinners! His fouettes, well they were just Angel fouettes – -no one, NO ONE turns like that man, with that kind of speed and wildness 🙂 And he kept leaning his head far to the side when he’d dip Gillian’s Odile. It was interesting because it looked dramatic and original and all but it also looked like he was really falling under her spell, like a foreshadowing of his encroaching ruin.

 

 

Jared Matthews danced like I’ve never seen him, not only perfectly clean but really nailing with precision and detail all of those jumps in his Benno (Siegfried’s friend) solo. Honestly, I’ve never seen him dance so well. He danced Benno’s pas de trois with Maria Riccetto, and Stella Abrera. It was my first time seeing Stella dance something difficult since her injury and she was perfect. She really lit up the stage and I can’t wait for her to make her full return.

Gennadi Saveliev and Roman Zhurbin danced von Rothbart, Roman in the sorcerer’s swamp creature form. And Roman completely took over every scene he was in, which is typical for that one 🙂 I don’t know what it is — others like Vitali Krauchenka who dance that part — are taller and larger, but somehow Roman just has a way of eating up space. He kept bending his knee and lunging far to the side for one thing, which gave him a lot of breadth. And he really threw those caped wings about with such flair. Roman, ever the scene stealer!

 

 

But Gillian and Angel really made the night. They’re just magic together. Just everything they do — at one point, they were doing a series of assisted pirouettes and it really looked like she was just spinning herself around and around. Of course she wasn’t but that’s how it should look; it shouldn’t really look like the guy’s doing the work.

Ever so fortunately, there’s actually a DVD of this cast (but with Marcelo as von Rothbart!), so everyone can see it. And watch some YouTube clips: here, here, here, and here. The last link is to the Black Swan solos. Gillian doesn’t do the rapidly “flapping” arms there, but the straight fouettes. I wonder if that’s a new invention of hers…

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GILLIAN AND ROMAN STEAL THE PIRATE SHOW, AND THE LAST OF THE SYTYCD AUDITIONS

 

Ethan Stiefel was supposed to dance Ali last night at ABT, but he was out with injury. I was disappointed of course, but it wasn’t like it was such a horrible thing having to see Angel Corella in that role again! He jeted out from behind the curtain during curtain calls last night (as did Gillian!– so I was happy)

Anyway, the male cast was mainly the same as opening night: David Hallberg as Conrad, Carlos Lopez as Birbanto, Daniil Simkin as Lankendem. The main differences were the two female leads: the spectacular Gillian Murphy as Medora, and the small, lovely Maria Riccetto as Gulnare — and, as it turned out Roman Zhurbin as Seyd, the goofy pot-bellied pasha. See my earlier post if you don’t know the characters and story.

Gillian and Roman made my night. Gillian has definitely got to be athletically the strongest ballerina in the company, maybe in the world. During her fouette sequence she did so many multiple pirouettes between each fouette I couldn’t even count; she was a blur. I don’t even see how that’s physically possible. She is truly a marvel, to make a massive understatement. And she goes so fast during the chaines and those traveling pirouettes around the stage’s perimeter. But not only that, she has such soft, beautiful liquid lines. And she and David I think are so used to each other now, they dance so well together in the romantic scenes. The bedroom scene was really really beautiful. She threw herself into those lifts like Nina did with Marcelo, except David isn’t Marcelo and so he didn’t do such flamboyant dives that it looked like he’d practically shoot her to the sky 🙂 But it was a really beautiful scene and she really floated in his arms.

And David is so good at those romantic scenes because of the kind of romantic dancer he is. I think he’s aware that those looks can at points be limiting and so he tries overly hard to be a hardass in those pirate-y bravado scenes. He was really kicking at and pushing around some of his fellow pirates! But I think maybe he doesn’t really need to do that. He doesn’t need to be a kick-ass aggressive warrior Conrad; he can always go for the more brooding Romantic pirate and let his hard-ass buddies help him along with getting the girl and fending off Lankendem and his crew, etc. And then the scene where he realizes Birbanto has betrayed him and he has to kill him to protect himself and Medora is all the more compelling since it may not be his nature to do that.

Anyway, Roman stole the show as well. Good lord! They usually have retired dancers who still teach and coach at the company do these character parts — the role of Seyd has been played by Victor Barbee at the last two performances I saw. But sometimes they give Roman these parts because he’s such a good actor. He was so giggle-out-loud hilarious as he rolled around the stage patting his big old pot belly and goofily lusting after all those slave girls. He was too much! It reminded me of this short film I saw a few years ago about a couple of movie extras. One of them just could not fulfill the requirements of “extra” work, and at one point there’s this scene where the two principal actors are having an important dinner conversation and you see the guy in the background open-jawed, smacking his hands on the table, laughing hysterically about something and it’s so funny because your attention is completely drawn to him and away from the main characters’ all-important conversation. (The film was mainly a comedy but had a little of the tragic about it, focusing as it did on the minor people who work hard and never get any recognition but who are essential in making a big film happen — kind of like Jerome Bel’s film about Swan Lake from the perspective of a corps dancer). Anyway, Roman was very lively, to put it mildly. Absolutely hilarious.

(headshot from ABT site)

Also, happily, the Lincoln Center fountain is operational again!

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Unfortunately, it was such crap weather last night, no one was able to enjoy it.

So then I came home and, since I remembered to record SYTYCD for once, was able to watch the last day of auditions, which I was thoroughly disappointed with. I wish I would have seen Alex Wong’s audition Wednesday night because I feel like they only have the bad people on at this phase– like that blonde contemporary dancer whose father has multiple sclerosis (sorry, I can’t remember names this early on!) She was pretty — and all three judges kept remarking on that ad nauseam. She did a pretty pirouette at one point, but she seemed totally off-balance, like she was on the verge of falling every time she lifted one leg off the ground. The judges didn’t seem to notice that at all and advanced her straight to Vegas seemingly on the basis of her looks (since they kept going on about how gorgeous she was).

I did really like the pop & locker guy though – the one with the charming smile. He was amazing — not only what he was doing with his facial muscles, which Nigel recognized as well, but those ticks (I guess that’s what they’re called). His didn’t seem to be as robotic as they normally look (which are cool anyway), but his seemed more fluid, and it looked like he was moving in slow motion. Amazing. I’m glad he passed choreography and advanced. And I also thought the female tap dancer from last season was very impressive and am glad to see she made it.

What were they going on with that Asian Latin couple about? Nigel telling her to make sure and be sexy and then all of them remarking how much she stole the show with her sex appeal. I honestly thought he was technically better than she. Do the judges care about the art of dance or about sex appeal? And, when the female of the couple said when you think ballroom you usually think Russian or South American dancers, not Asian: anyone who’s ever been to a ballroom competition knows that’s untrue. Russian yes — ballroom is dominated these days by Eastern Europeans, Western Europeans (mainly the Italians, Germans, and English), and by Asians — Asians are a huge presence in ballroom competitions these days. Japan often has a team at Blackpool for the world competition and the Chinese always have Latin formation teams there (which are a blast, by the way – the Chinese Latin formation teams!) And the world pro demos take place in Japan. And Asians often take the top individual awards. So Asians are everywhere in serious ballroom competitions right now; South Americans nowhere. South Americans dominate ballet these days, but they don’t dance serious ballroom; Latin dance is social dance for them, not competitive.

Anyway, sorry for the rant — it just upsets me when something really wrong and misleading to the public is said on these television shows!

Maybe we just didn’t see enough of the other dancers, but none of the others seemed very good at all. Except for the ballerina who didn’t advance because she couldn’t pass choreography. That really made me upset because her solo was beautiful and technically very solid. I can’t imagine David Hallberg — or many of the current ballet greats — excelling at hip hop either. So then I got upset all over again just like I did last year during the auditions wondering what this show is about and why everyone can’t be valued for what they’ve worked on their entire lives to be brilliant at.

Anyway, I’m glad the auditions are over and we can advance on to the real show so I don’t have to get so pissed off anymore 🙂

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DANCES PATRELLE DOES JUDY GARLAND AND EDGAR ALLAN POE

 

On Friday night I saw Dances Patrelle, who is celebrating its 20th anniversary, to see their Murder at the Masque: The Casebook of Edgar Allan Poe, a world premiere, and Come Rain / Come Shine, a revival from 1986, both choreographed by artistic director Francis Patrelle. Funny, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone besides Dance Times Square perform at the Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, so, I was a slight bit confused throughout the evening because of that. I couldn’t figure out what Marcelo was doing on the stage instead of Pasha and what people were doing in pointe shoes instead of Latin stilettos… I guess it’s fitting I brought with me my ballroom friend, Mika.

And I’m so glad I did. She had a blast. Said it was some of the best ballet she’d ever seen. AS I KNEW IT WOULD BE!!! Said Marcelo was very Slavik (as in Kryklyvyy, as in man drama queen total show-off show-stealer, as in I’m totally predictable in my taste in male dancers whether it be ballet, ballroom, or whatever style. Oh well…)

Anyway, Murder, on first, was a dramatic ballet murder mystery that was interestingly told. The figure of Poe seemed to be writing the story as we were seeing it, from afront a scrim, and it seemed to me he was changing things throughout. I’m still not sure who committed the murder in the end (but that may well be because I was so excited about the second piece of the night). It had an air of Balanchine’s La Sonnambula about it — unsettling, foreshadowing tragedy, and set at a ball and in the same period — and Patrick Soluri’s music set that tone perfectly. Matthew Dibble, guest starring with the company (he’s danced with Twyla Tharp’s company), danced the lead very well, expectedly.

 

 

Second on was Come Rain / Come Shine, Patrelle’s longish but lovely set of dances for three couples set to a group of Judy Garland songs. Sorry I’ve posted that picture above about 10,000 times on this blog; it’s the only one I have of that dance 🙂 All six dancers in that ballet were guesting from ABT: Roman Zhurbin (ballet god) and Gemma Bond danced the first, youngish, romantic couple; Isaac Stappas and Kristi Boone (who BLEW ME AWAY) danced the second, more mature, argumentative couple; and Marcelo Gomes and Maria Riccetto danced the third couple, consisting of cocky, taunting, teasing, out-of-control man and the poor woman whom he’s got his eyes on. Of course Marcelo had to have the cocky part, and his role, which was very “That’s Life” from Tharp’s Sinatra Songs, consisted of him flying all about and around her, doing every trick in the book — ginormous jetes, Balanchinian continuous twisty jumps, turns and turns and jumps jumps jumps galore — which of course I love 🙂 Oh, and Maria’s tiny, so he did a bunch of the one-handed assisted pirouettes he often does with Julie Kent that drove the audience here WILD. The guy behind me was seriously orgasmic. Mika and I were giggling throughout, and finally, on the last assisted pirouette, I just burst out laughing.

What would the world be like with no Marcelos? Ballet would just not be fun. To say the least.

Roman was Roman — not doing a thing wrong, everything perfect, perfect form, perfect precision, perfect acting, just sheer perfection.

Gemma was likewise perfect and Isaac was strong and Maria sweet.

(But it was Kristi who really blew me away. Where did she come from?! I guess I’ve never really seen her up close before … well, I did notice her before — in Tudor’s Jardin des Lilacs, which ABT put on in their Tudor centennial celebration last season — she danced the role of the lover of the man betrothed to another and she danced with such longing for him and anger at the situation and beautiful composure in the face of despair. But time got away from me and I never had time to write about that performance… Well, she had a similar character here: a woman fighting with her man, seemingly not able to fully trust him, not wanting to give herself completely to him for that reason, but unable to stop loving him nonetheless. She and Isaac (who happen to be real-life husband and wife) are really the emotional centerpiece of this ballet and she acted it with such intense emotion. She made me feel everything her character was feeling, really took me to that place. And she made such amazing shapes with her body! Isaac kept throwing her into these overhead and waist-high fish positions and she’d raise her arms up and curve them over, turning her head to face the floor. At times it looked like she was letting him lift her but was also rejecting him, couldn’t bear to look at him. At other times, she kind of looked like a dove, and in a way she was trying to make peace, so the image made sense. So she didn’t just make original, remarkable shapes; she made shapes that had meaning, and were also original and cool.

And also, her feet and legs — such strength! Her feet were almost like Veronika Part’s her points were so pronounced!  If I was a ballerina I’d want people to notice that — strong feet and legs. I wouldn’t want to look like I was floating through the air like a feather, I’d want to look more strong and toned and powerful, like my legs were carrying me through the world. Anyway, I am a new Kristi Boone fan, needless to say.

It was an intoxicatingly rich evening and I felt like I always feel when I leave the Kaye Playhouse after seeing divine dancing: deliriously high, and then kind of sad…