Whims: 23rd Century Ballet

George Jackson

30 Mar 2022 — 1 min read

Farewell Celebration for Kevin McKenzie
American Ballet Theatre
Kennedy Center Opera House
March 29, 2022

Two things happened in Washington, at the Kennedy Center's Opera House on Tuesday evening, March 29. One was a farewell celebration for American Ballet Theatre' artistic director Kevin McKenzie. He has been in charge of the company for about 3 decades but will be retiring at the end of the current season. Who will succeed him has not yet been announced. The other event was an attempt by three choreographers chosen by McKenzie to define 23d Century ballet.

The farewell came off splendidly. McKenzie is somewhat of a local lad, having been trained and polished at the late Mary Day's ballet academy and company - The Washington Ballet - prior to his joining the Joffrey Ballet and then American Ballet Theatre as dancer and then directing ABT. Tuesday's program showed ABT to be in good form., but were the new works worthwhile? The three premiers had things in common. All were amalgams of ballet steps with pop dance moves, and to pop music. There were incidents but no real plots. The dancers were not full blown characters but not just figures in motion. They were "types" we have come to know from commercial entertainment. The opener, Ratmansky's "Bernstein in a Bubble," surprises with its short phrasing. It is brief, compact. The sharp phrasing is well crafted. By comparison, Alonzo King's "Single Eye" is tense and bulky to its music by Jason Moran. Whereas "ZigZag" , in Jessica Lang's choreography, is dominated by Derek McLane's and Tony Bennett's visuals and accompanied by Bennett's and Lady Gaga singing and some Bennett artwork. All three ballets seem like whims of mood.

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Too Much Imagination