By Victoria Looseleaf
For balletomanes – indeed, dance lovers of all stripes – there can never be too much Balanchine. To prove that point, Los Angeles Ballet, in its seventh season and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of George Balanchine’s death, has mounted its first ever Balanchine Festival. This may have been the little company that could (click here to read our most recent LAB piece; click here and here for earlier articles), but LAB is now firmly entrenched on hallowed ground – with glorious results.
And if these are growing pains, we want more! Seriously, under the direction of husband-and-wife team Thordal Christensen (formerly artistic director of Royal Danish Ballet) and Colleen Neary (she was a soloist with New York City Ballet, first encountering Balanchine as an 8-year old SAB student, and is now a Balanchine répétiteur, one of about three dozen who are licensed by the George Balanchine Trust to authorize the staging of the master’s ballets worldwide), the troupe has surged to 35 members. Its repertory, too, has mushroomed, as has the company’s command of the stage.
In the first of its two all-Balanchine programs, LAB has mounted four ballets, two premieres (La Sonnanbula and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux) and two revivals (Concerto Barocco and The Four Temperaments). But hurry, you’ve only got one more chance to catch this stellar evening, dubbed Balanchine Gold, as the final program of this rep is April 6 at Long Beach’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
Admittedly, we’re a wee bit biased, as we’ve been writing, talking about and supporting Los Angeles Ballet since its first season’s The Nutcracker in December, 2006. And, we’re also leading pre-concert discussions with Neary at the Valley Performing Arts Center (our next is May 25, 6 pm), while other notable dance folks are doing the same at other venues. (Click here for Balanchine Red information.)
As for the performance, it was absolutely thrilling. From the first work, La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker – and no, Chelsea Paige Johnston, above, was not under the influence of Ambien, but a vision of ghostly glamour, her tiny forward and backward bourrées a marvel), this short, eerie story ballet captivated. With Zheng Hua Li (above), as the smitten Poet and Alyssa Bross a teasing Coquette, the masked ball took us back to an earlier era, if not all sweetness and light. Joshua Brown’s noble Baron also impressed in this work originally created by Balanchine in 1946 for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
The fiendishly difficult Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, also new to the company, was effortlessly danced by Bross and guest artist Ulrik Birkkjaer, on loan from The Royal Danish Ballet, where he’s been a principal since 2009. As Balanchine once said, “When you put a man and a woman onstage together, there already is a story.” This couple told a magnificent tale to discarded music from Swan Lake, Bross’s lightning-fast supported turns and Birkkjaer’s lofty leaps making for a dizzying ride in the work first created in 1960.
Concerto Barocco, made in 1941 to Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, is another showpiece. With Julia Cinquemani and Alynne Noelle as the “violins,” the architecture of the work shone brilliantly, Alexander Castillo (left), the lone male doing the company proud. After making this dance, also for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Balanchine replaced the original costumes with leotards and tights several years later (it had its City Ballet premiere in 1948), thus becoming known as one of his signature black-and-white works.
The concert concluded with The Four Temperaments, a 1946 work with commissioned music by Paul Hindemith. Originally performed for the opening program of Ballet Society, City Ballet’s forerunner, this is another foray into abstract movement, with Hindemith’s score divided into a multi-faceted three-part theme and four equally intricate variations. While the opening section can be looked at as a study in design, Balanchine crafts each ensuing variation as an evocation of the medieval theory of character types, the cast bringing these distinct personalities to life. Kudos to Noelle and Christopher Revels in the second variation, Sanguinic, Li, who impressed in Phlegmatic, the third, and Kate Highstrete (above), a mighty presence in Choleric.
Well worth the trek to Northridge (we actually began our radio career doing weekly arts roundups, The Looseleaf Report, at KCSN), we look forward to seeing Los Angeles Ballet’s next cycle of Balanchine masterpieces (May 11 through June 9). LAB, by keeping the Balanchine flame alive, is also helping put Los Angeles on the dance map, no easy feet, er, feat, in a town known more for churning out mediocrity to the masses. In other words, vive la danse and long live Mr. B!
