Home
Ballet
Talk
Magazines
Specials
Reviews
Ballets
Dancers
Companies
Studio
Shop
Links
Subscribe
The Revolution in MiamiMiami City Ballet
Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
Friday, June 1, 2001
by Alexandra Tomalonis
George Balanchine's Jewels was both revolutionary and reactionary when it was created in 1967, and remains so today. Revolutionary, because it is a full-evening's entertainment consisting of three one-act plotless or abstract ballets. Reactionary, because, at a time when pop art and modernism were ascendant, Jewels could be seen as Balanchine's statement about classicism, as rigorous a one as Petipa's Sleeping Beauty had been 70 years earlier.
There was nothing reactionary about Miami City Ballet's dancing of of this beautiful, complex and demanding work.
The first jewel, "Emeralds," is perhaps the most difficult because it is a ballet of arms and atmosphere, and deceptively simple. Set to Gabriel Fauré's Pélleas and Mélisande and Shylock suites, music Balanchine considered "musique dansant," the ballet shimmers. The poetic frame of reference for the choreography is water, and the dances ripple through the music like gentle waves. It's an ode to Romanticism, and women, with a nod to the Middle Age's Court of Love. The MCB dancers are ravishing in this work. Mary Carmen Catoya came as close to capturing languid and voluptuous port de bras of Violette Verdy, who created the leading ballerina role, as any mortal might hope to do, and Shannon Parsley was equally beautiful in the sleepy, "walking" solo. Carlos Guerra and Yann Trividic were their worthy cavaliers. Arnold Quintane, in the pas de trois, had a militaristic air, as though he were the knight most likely to win in battle.
"Rubies," the jazzy, "American" jewel, set to Stravinsky's Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, got an electric performance from Jennifer Kronenberg and Eric Quilleré, as well as Michelle Merrell in the "big ballerina" role. "Rubies" is loose, fast, witty, and just a tiny bit vulgar--a deliberate contrast to the poetic "Emeralds" and the grand "Diamonds," to follow--and the cast caught all of this, and danced it BIG, to boot. They took chances and looked as though they loved every minute of it.
"Diamonds," the Russian jewel, set to Tchaikovsky's 3rd Symphony, was made for a big company at the height of its powers. It's grand, and MCB doesn't quite have the power to pull it off completely--it can't be expected to, this small, feisty little company that's barely ten years old. It's a ballet associated with giants--Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins (in the role originated by Jacques D'Amboise), both with big, rich bodies; the dancers of the NYCB corps, too, were the companies strongest and weightiest. Miami's "Diamonds" is a bit on the light side, a series of cleanly danced segments that never quite came together, but, as with the ballets on the company's triple bill danced earlier in the week, the outline of the ballet was firmly in place and it should grow richer with time and performances. Deanne Seay and Mikhail Nikitine led the able cast.
"Jewels" is still associated with its first dancers, especially Verdy in "Emeralds;" Patricia McBride and Edward Villella (MCB's current artistic director) in "Rubies"; Farrell in "Diamonds." Villella, whose direction of MCB is moving from honorable to downright righteous, invited Verdy, McBride and Farrell to coach his dancers when the company first acquired the work. Mimi Paul, who happened to be in the neighborhood, reportedly dropped in on Friday's rehearsals. How reactionary, to bring in "old ballerinas" to coach their roles. How dangerous--a lesser artist might feel threatened. How revolutionary.
To take part in a conversation about this performance, and to read other views, come to Ballet Talk.