Home
Ballet Talk
Magazines
Specials
Reviews
Ballets
Dancers
Companies
Studio
Shop
Links
Subscribe

---

May 29, 2000

Light as a feather, charming and fleet, that was the Benjamin
Millepied I grew to know on stage at the New York City Ballet.
The Millepied who was chosen while still at the School of
American Ballet by Jerome Robbins to star in his 2&3 Part
Variations, the one who sails through Balanchine's Valse
Fantasie or bounds about in a happy-go-lucky manner through
Robbins' Goldberg Variations.

Benjamin Millepied in Valse Fantasie. Photo: Paul Kolnik.

While I enjoy all that, it is Millepied's portrayal of the dark
side that has fascinated me the most. In Angelin Preljocaj's
1997 Diamond Project offering, La Stravaganza, Millepied's
Amish-like visitor from another land and age was truly chilling.
More so because it was so unexpected.

During the ballet, a stone-faced, slow-moving Millepied first
appeared to sexually manipulate Kathleen Tracey's Amish woman
and later seduce and rape Emily Coates, an intrigued woman from
the present time, all the while looking sweeter than one of the
boys from My Three Sons.

Millepied was equally affecting as the aggressive matchmaker in
Robbins' Les Noces.

That is not to say that the 23-year-old NYCB Soloist is not
excellent in the lighter roles in his repertoire. His soaring
performance in Helgi Thomasson's Prism is, so far, one of the
highlights of this year's Diamond Project, with his entrance
bringing gasps from the audience.

This season has also seen Millepied essay of the three sailors
on leave in Fancy Free by Robbins. His pas de deux with
Jennifer Ringer raised the temperature at the New York State
Theatre, and things stayed hot during Millepied's rumba solo.

While admittedly still improving his partnering and his ability
to present himself on stage, Millepied has excellent elevation
and quick feet. As Oberon in Balanchine's Midsummer Night's
Dream, he skims the floor's surface during the character's
famous moonlit solo. He is noble, never succumbing to the
temptation of slapstick.

However, Millepied is joyous in the third movement of
Balanchine's Symphony in C and gracious, with sensitive
phrasing, in Brahms/Schoenberg Quartet, third movement.

This week, Millepied can be seen in Symphony in C and in the War
and Discord portion of Coppelia.--Dale Brauner