In lieu of time I don’t have to follow-up in detail on shows I’ve previewed over the past few weeks, here’s a grab-bag of impressions and memorable moments of the fall season thus far:
Miami City Ballet’s Chicago debut was, overall, deserving of the fawning praise it received from the Tribune and Sun-Times. “Symphony in Three Movements,” first on the bill, wasn’t trumped by anything that followed but was alone worth the price of admission. Bart Cook and Maria Calegari’s staging thrust all the important information into the foreground and all six soloists embodied their roles clearly and confidently. My most snobbish and nit-picking side comes out when watching Balanchine abstracts, and still nothing about MCB’s interpretation of one of my favorites touched a nerve. The pas de deux, danced by Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg and Carlos Miguel Guerra, and first movement especially won me over with their purity of delivery and disciplined service of the ballet’s intricate spatial and musical geometries. In the second act, “Valse Fantaisie 1953” fared better than did the Black Swan grand pas, whose Mary Carmen Catoya failed to suggest the duet’s narrative crux. The swift withdrawal of Odile’s hand from Siegfried’s kiss should freeze blood in the vein — Catoya merely pulled it away with no more attention than was paid to her glissades précipités. Rolando Sarabia, however, was powerful and tastefully-restrained in the best Cuban tradition. As for “In the Upper Room,” I’m — sorry — not in the camp that believes Twyla Tharp to be a genius. The “bomb squad” duo was danced to perfection and the energy was kept high enough to keep me engaged, but Tharp’s kitchen-sink vocabulary and forced casualness have always kept me from being swept off my feet the way a piece of that length wagers I will. Still, I hadn’t seen world-class ballet dancing in a long time — I hope Villella is already planning MCB’s next Chicago visit. Read More…
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