Fresh Cream

"Whipped Cream"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
July 5, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

ABT's spring season may be winding down, but the company is still showing off its dancers and in the final week, devoted to Alexei Ratmansky's "Whipped Cream", Arron Scott danced his first Boy and Calvin Royal III made his New York debut at Prince Coffee.  Both dancers gave their parts a distinctive slant and their interpretations were remarkably individualized and accomplished.  Scott, always one of ABT's most musical dancers, was not just a light-hearted scamp.  His stomach pains, as he writhed in agony, were not played for laughs, and he conveyed the fear a child has for strange, powerful grownups; the running in place moment had a hint of helpless desperation.  This nightmare atmosphere gave his eventual escape to that magical world filled with light and joy (and lots of whipped cream) a joyful triumph.

Cassandra Trenary was Princess Praline, his youthful companion.  She was sweet-natured and playful, and their pas de deux, as they echoed each other's movements, was both innocent and moving – a nostalgic vision of an imaginary moment.  Scott danced his solo for his Princess, not his audience, showing the Boy's growing confidence as he started rather shyly and ended with a thrilling series of turns.  Trenary gave her fleet, crisp solo a happy, confident air, ending in a triumphant and generous flourish of elegantly placed fouettés.

Devon Teuscher was a luxuriously smoky Princess Tea Flower, and her cool beauty created a mysterious remoteness; she was an exotic being with a hidden warmth.  Royal, too, gave his Prince Coffee a gleam of emotion that made their long pas de deux a hushed dialogue; it was not a straightforward love story, but they embodied the feeling and it was a lyrical and beautiful performance.

Christine Shevchenko is certainly beautiful but there was nothing lyrical about her lively, preening Mademoiselle Chartreuse.  She shed her sometimes steely technical prowess and showed off a wonderfully chic comic persona, strutting around and basking in the raucous rivalry between Ladislav Slivovitz (Alexandre Hammoudi) and Boris Wutki (Thomas Forster) as they conspired to rescue the Boy from the doctor and those demented nurses, a sly take off on the equally dangerous wilis.  There are several other nods to ballet history, notably in the entrance of the little cream droplets as they slide down the ramp so thoughtfully vacated by their Bayadere cousins -- what would a classical ballet be without a white act?  

"Whipped Cream", with its detailed and delicate whimsy, is a colorful spectacle supposed by elegantly complex choreography with no discernible message.  (Eating a lot of candy may be a child's vision of paradise, but it is not really an admirable goal.) But, though it certainly appeals to children, it is not only a ballet for children. It is a ballet for those who remember being children and want to indulge themselves if only for an evening.
Copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill