ABT dances Millepied, Ratmansky, Tudor, and Wheeldon
June 7, 2011
new Wheeldon: Thirteen Diversions
A long-shelved Antony Tudor ballet, Shadowplay, followed pleasurable dances by Alexie Ratmansky and Benjamin Millepied for American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House. Then Christopher Wheeldon's Thirteen Diversions enthralled, closing the May 25th matinee with its grand display of episodic mood changes and stark colored lighting. 
The Wheeldon may not be perfect, but like all his work, it is generous. Josu De Solaun plays Benjamin Britten's Diversions for Piano and Orchestra conducted by Ormsby Wilkins. It opens with bombast. Then for the next 26 minutes, the dancing and music flow while we anticipate every unpredictable move.
The stage is full of eight pairs of black clad dancers; the women wear swirling skirts that reveal an underlayer of fluorescent color. Steely pairs— Stella Abrera with Eric Tamm, Isabella Boylston with Marcelo Gomes, Maria Riccetto with Jared Mathews, and Simone Messmer with Alexandre Hammoudi— lead in silver gray. Costumer Bob Crowley's mens’ ballet jackets flap out over their rumps, suggesting truncated male versions of skirts or tutus.
We expect the finest from ABT. Boylston’s solo scintillated. In following duets, Abrera and Tamm are exceptional, and Boylston and Gomes’s romantic and passionate duet melts our hearts. This last is so fine, we wonder how they will break it off; they do just that. An awkward carry into the wings is the one unfortunate moment in Thirteen. Its dances for the full cast emanate the most energy and elegance. Their circular floor patterns fall into Busby Berkeley rigor that exhilarates in Brad Field’s lighting.
Tudor's modern ballet Shadowplay
Shadowplay, created in 1967 for the Royal Ballet, shows its age unlike Tudor classics like Jardin aux Lilas. It is psychological and allegorical, but it is also fantastical. Creepy Arboreal characters squat and hunch with knobs on their heads. The Boy with Matted Hair is Daniil Simkin who is always a joy to watch. Focusing on his suggestion of innocence and sexuality, I missed the Eastern dance gestures in the choreography. Roddy Doble impresses as the Terrestrial who supports Simkin on his back at one point. Sara Lane is a regal Celestial who rides above their heads and pulls at Simkin’s heartstrings, calling him to come of age. The Tudor and the music by Charles Koechlin is based on Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book and the boy Mogwi. ABT premiered it in 1975 with Baryshnikov. The Arboreals climb on gnarled, twisted rope tree and hanging vines— Michael Annals original scenery. In Shadowplay we see interiority and the mutual admiration between Tudor and Martha Graham. Could Trisha Brown have remembered this dance when she created her Floor of the Forest with its web of rope?
Troika, Dumbarton
Millepied’s Troika has light humor and flawless elegance in flowing, undulating circular movement. The trio— Thomas Forster, Jared Matthews, and Blaine Hoven— update jester characters in two-tone chartreuse, rust, and olive tops with matching pants. It is a dance that doesn’t ask for or demand much but feels like a proper 21st century American ballet. Jonathan Spitz plays Bach cello suites on stage. Bach feels updated too in Millepied’s asymmetrical design.
Millepied and Ratmansky both play with asymmetry. Ratmansky’s Dumbarton for ten has a quintet with the odd dancer casting glances about. It is to a melodic Stravinsky Concerto in E Flat, commissioned by Robert Woods Bliss of The Research Center and estate Dumbarton Oaks. Five glide through this lyrical fantasy as if unencumbered by their neutral-colored school uniform costumes. Dumbarton and Troika are satisfying dances that I’d look forward to seeing again. Millepied is coming into his own. Wheeldon aims high with his masterful Thirteen Diversions and wins big. 