Mary Cargill

"Coppélia"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 23, 2004 

Like all comedies, Coppélia is hard do put across without being condescending or coy. In their respective debuts, Gillian Murphy and Marcelo Gomes, had mixed, though technically brilliant, results. Murphy is a phenomenal technician, but playfulness and charm do not seem to come naturally, so Swanilda is a challenge. She has obviously worked very hard on the character, and the opening mime scene was

"Stravinsky Violin Concerto", "Cortège Hongrois", "Symphony in Three Movements
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
Sunday, June 27, 2004 

The final performance of the Balanchine celebration was, appropriately, an all-Balanchine program. But, equally in keeping with the injury-plagued season, the scheduled Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 had to be scrapped because there was no one available to dance the male lead. 

Stravinsky Violin Concerto, with its astringent and witty

"Allegro Brillante", "Scherzo a la Russe", "Duo Concertant", "Tschaikovsly Suite No. 3"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
Sunday June 20, 2004

This all-Balanchine program promised to be a refreshing affirmation of the virtues of choreography, and in many cases, it was. Kyra Nichols danced Allegro Brillante; though she certainly does not have the ease or the power of earlier years, she still enters like a clipper ship parting the waves, blown

"Mozartian, "The Cage", "Andantino", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
June 9, 2004 

Breaking up the spring season into chunks of music makes for some strange programming, and this Russian evening coupled the sublime Mozartiana with the definitely unsublime The Cage. The evening, salute to Russia notwithstanding, could be called a salute to Wendy Whelan, since she danced in both.

It may be that the ballets were too varied,

"Don Quixote"
[staged by Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones]
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 10, 2004

Xiomara Reyes and Angel Corella, who were so winning as Lise and Colas in last year’s La Fille Mal Gardée, danced together again in Don Quixote. Since they basically share the same story of young love outwitting greedy adults, their combination of technical fireworks and youthful joy was exhilarating, a refreshing and spicy drink of

"Raymonda"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 3, 2004

A student is reported to have said, on seeing his first Hamlet, that he didn’t understand why people thought it was so great, since it was all clichés. Ballet goers might have the same reaction to Raymonda—the garlands, the scarves, the vision scene, the character dances are all familiar. But in Petipa’s hands these seem less like a formula than a manifesto, a

Theme and Variations/Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux/Mozartiana/Ballet Imperial
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 29, 2004, matinee and evening

ABT’s classical extravaganza was billed as a Salute to Balanchine, but it might as well have been called a Salute to Tchaikovsky, or a Salute to The Sleeping Beauty, since both Theme and Variations and Ballet Imperial are essentially variations on the theme of Aurora. It was not the

Who Cares?/Western Symphony/Stars and Stripes
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
May 25, 2004 

The Fourth of July came early this year, with three of Balanchine’s most rousing closing ballets on one program—not one of the most balanced of evenings, but, if it seemed like a meal of popcorn, it was applauded to the hilt by a very happy audience.

Who Cares? had two debuts, Ashley Bouder as the red girl, and

La Bayadère
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, New York
May 14, 2004 

American Ballet Theatre’s version of the great Russian ballet, "La Bayadère", is now twenty-five years old, and it remains a strong and lush production. The sets and costumes, by Pierluigi Samaritani and Theoni Aldredge are vibrant and danceable, and evoke the nineteenth-century opulence without seeming to be overly heavy or a dated pastiche. And since I am someone who

Dances at a Gathering/Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet
Dances at a Gathering/Union Jack
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
May 11, 2004 and May 15, Matinee, 2004 York City Ballet

Dances at a Gathering, Jerome Robbins’ lyrical, moving, funny, profound, and very fragile ballet, returned this season, with several debuts, and looks in fine shape. Damian Woetzel and Benjamin Millepied (in his debut) danced the boy in brown; both had been very good as the bounding boy

Valse Fantaisie, Continuo, Vivaldian Chat, A Glimpse, Reflections
BalletNY
Symphony Space
New York, NY
January 8, 2004

The Fugate/Bahiri BalletNY (formerly DanceGalaxy) presented a varied program of old and new, lyrical and dramatic works. If some of the experiments were less successful, the company, basically a pick-up group of dancers with various backgrounds and performance histories, looked well-rehearsed and engaging.

The 1967 version of Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie (to Glinka—the music was taped) opened