![]() ![]() Paloma Herrera, whose natural rhythms are legato, was a surprising choice to lead the brisk first movement, but her warmth of character lent her performance great charm. If the speed of the steps occasionally got the better of the cast in “Symphony in C,” high spirits and eagerness compensated. ![]() (American Ballet Theatre/The Washington Post)Īs for the quality of the dancing, this program attests to a company in fine fettle, which grew in confidence as the evening progressed. ![]() That ABT delivered on both - the first one pure technique and killer timing, the other all mood and understatement - speaks to its impressive range.Īnd Ratmansky? How he teases out the subtle unnerving ribbons running through Shostakovich’s 1945 symphony, written in the thick of Stalinism, while staying true to its overtly jaunty atmosphere, and how he holds light and dark in perfect balance, is a marvel to experience.Ĭompany dancers perform George Balanchine’s ballet set to music by Bizet. Limon, with uncanny perception, distilled Shakespeare’s “Othello” into a 20-minute dance for two couples. Balanchine brought out the blazing speed and mysticism of Bizet’s long-lost symphony with his invigorating vision of ballet (and, in true 1940s fashion, a dash of Rockettes-style gigantism, the stage filling with all that perky white satin, all those lively bare legs). The evening closed with “Symphony #9,” a ballet tailor-made last year for ABT by Alexei Ratmansky, the company’s artist in residence, accompanied by Dmitri Shostakovich ’s bright, snappy 1945 work of the same name.Īmbition was the theme on all fronts. On the other end of the spectrum, modern-dance pioneer Jose Limon created “The Moor’s Pavane” in 1949 to showcase a weighted, full-bodied and emotionally rich new art form. George Balanchine whipped up the crisp “Symphony in C” in 1947 for the Paris Opera Ballet (calling it then “Le Palais de Cristal”). Two of the three works were created for vastly different outfits. The play of contrasts on view Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center Opera House was thrilling in scope. The redesign of classical ballet, the expansion of modern dance, the deepening of the Soviet symphony: Art exploded in the 1940s, and American Ballet Theatre captured that energy in a singularly dramatic program that opened the company’s six-day sojourn. ![]()
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