Summer 2015 Ballet Review ©2015DanceResearch Foundation,Inc.Allrightsreserved. 4 Brookly n – Susanna Sloat 5 Berlin – Darrell Wilkins 7 London – Leigh Witchel 9 New York – Susanna Sloat 10 Toronto – Gary Smith 12 New York – Karen Greenspan 14 London – David Mead 15 New York – Susanna Sloat 16 San Francisco – Leigh Witchel 19 Boston – Jeffrey Gantz 21 New York – Harris Green 39 22 San Francisco – Rachel Howard 23 London – Leigh Witchel Ballet Review 43.2 24 Brooklyn – Darrell Wilkins Summer 2015 26 El Paso – Karen Greenspan Editor and Designer: 31 San Francisco – Rachel Howard Marvin Hoshino 32 Chicago – Joseph Houseal Managing Editor: Roberta Hellman Sharon Skeel 34 Early American Annals of Senior Editor: Don Daniels The Sleeping Beauty Associate Editor: 54 Christopher Caines Joel Lobenthal 39 Tharp and Tudor for a Associate Editor: New Generation Larry Kaplan Michael Langlois Webmaster: 46 A Conversation with Ohad Naharin David S. Weiss Copy Editors: Leigh Witchel Barbara Palfy* 54 Ashton Celebrated Naomi Mindlin Joel Lobenthal Photographers: Tom Brazil 62 62 A Conversation with Nora White Costas Nina Alovert Associates: 70 The Mikhailovsky Ballet Peter Anastos Robert Greskovic David Mead George Jackson 76 A Conversation with Peter Wright Elizabeth Kendall Paul Parish James Sutton Nancy Reynolds 89 Indianapolis Evening of Stars James SuXon David Vaughan Leigh Witchel Edward Willinger 70 94 La Sylphide Sarah C. Woodcock Jay Rogoff 98 A Conversation with Wendy Whelan 106 London Reporter – Clement Crisp 110 Music on Disc – George Dorris Cover photograph by Costas: Wendy Whelan 116 Check It Out and Nikolaj Hübbe in La Sonnambula. the prince and Clara, but they make no claim twenty-firstcentury,althoughhisvocabulary to sovereignty over the other creatures. and line are in many ways closer to Petipa and All clamor around the homecoming prince Cechetti than Balanchine was. Or, rather, Bal- and Clara and urge them to tell their story of anchine extended and revised the Petipa aes- war and love. Afterwards, in what is perhaps thetic to form a new continuity. the only moment of gravity in the entire Ratmansky alternates the old-school Rus- evening, Drosselmeier and the Sugar Plum sian aesthetic with post-postmodern pastiche Fairy show the young couple a house, whose and slapstick to create a new discontinuity. thresholdtheysolemnlycrossto- gether,like bride and groom. Out front, everyone dances. The Arabian variation is par- ticularly telling. In a Nutcracker that is largely about the tribula- tions and rewards of love be- tween a man and a woman, this variation parodies in another Romantic-Realist vignette the consequences of trying to divide your love among four wives or concubines. Four women start out vying for the pasha’s atten- tion. As he continues to play one against the other, however – rather than commit himself ex- clusively to one, as they request – the women wax angry. In a de- cisive show of female solidarity,they all aban- (MerepostmodernismwouldnottolerateRat- don him at once, leaving him in a heap of frus- mansky’s friendly and generative intercourse tration at center stage. with classicism.) The adult Clara and Nutcracker Prince How is that possible? Who could have fore- (whom we know well already as a result of the seen that the academic vocabulary of ballet action’s many flash-forwards) emerge from would survive into our century? Then again, thehousetodancethegrandpasdedeux.Clara who could have foreseen that it would survive iscrownedintokenofherbondwiththeprince into the twentieth? Never mind. Just be grate- and perhaps of her belonging to this utopic ful that New York City once again has a Rus- land of joyful fairies, flowers and bees, poli- sian-born man of the theater who not only chinelles, and lovers. At the very end, Clara knows the ins and outs of turnout and pointe wakes from her dream in the Stahlbaums’ work but also has a vision of human action house. But she will never be the same again. and intercourse worth aspiring to. And this is all danced brilliantly in the zip- py, ironic, hyperclean style with which Rat- El Paso mansky has revived the art form over these Karen Greenspan past ten years. It is refreshing to have narra- tivedramaturgythatreallymakessenseagain. Here on the west Texas border, along the Rio But his choreography is the real miracle – au- Grande, in an area known for college basket- thentic, complexly musical, astonishingly in- ballandsometimesprickly,ordangerous,bor- ventive and fresh, unquestionably of the der tensions with neighboring Ciudad Juarez, 2 ©2015KarenGreenspan the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) cel- with the sea-nymph Galatea. Unfortunately, ebrated its centennial anniversary on August the cyclops Polyphemus has also been smitten 30, 2014, with a cross-cultural collaboration by Galatea’s beauty.Unable to control his jeal- called“OperaBhutan.”Dancersandmusicians ousy, Polyphemus hurls a huge stone at Acis from “The Land of Gross National Happiness” and kills him. The chorus consoles Galatea, traveled halfway around the world to join in- convincing her to use her semidivine powers ternational vocalists and opera directors as to transform her dead lover into a flowing well as a chorus and orchestra comprised of stream, immortalizing him. UTEP students and faculty (including some Once the Bhutanese expressed interest in from Juarez). Together, they performed the hostingitsfirstoperaproduction,Mr.Carpenè George Frideric Handel opera, AcisandGalatea, approached Italian stage director, Stefano based on a Greek myth retold in Ovid’s Meta- Vizioli, who was enticed by the novelty of the morphoses. project and its potential for learning and As I walked to the venue to attend a dress reaching beyond the ordinary. Next, they rehearsal, my jaw dropped as I realized we would have to find a sponsoring partner. were entering the university’s huge Don After several rejections from various opera Haskin’s Center, a basketball arena that seats companies, Mr. Scott reached out to UTEP,re- 12,000 people. I am not used to that level of calling the curious link between the school opera attendance – even in my hometown of and DrukYul, or the Land of the Thunder Drag- New York City. Dr. Diana Natalicio, UTEP’s on.Onehundredyearsago,thewifeofthefirst President for twenty-six years, smiled as she dean of the school, Kathleen Worrell, read a told me they hoped for at least 7,500 to attend 1914 National Geographic photo essay, describ- the free event, “a gift the school is presenting ing the travels of Jean Claude White, a colo- to the community in celebration of our cen- nial officer stationed in the Raj, who trekked tennial.” across the isolated mountain kingdom of In 2004, early music specialist and conduc- Bhutan. She likened the Himalayas to El Paso’s tor Aaron Carpenè had the novel idea to pro- Franklin Mountains and convinced her hus- duce the first Western opera in Bhutan. He ap- band that Bhutan’s architecture would be a proached Preston Scott, consultant to the goodmodelforuniversitybuildingsthatneed- Bhutanese government and curator for the ed reconstructing after a fire. SmithsonianFolklifeFestival,andin2009they Sincethen,UTEP’sbuildingsconformtothe proposed the idea to Bhutanese officials. The unique style of Bhutan – battered walls taper- project would be a collaboration uniting ele- ing outward at the base, a wide reddish band mentsoftheirperformingartstraditionsw ith painted around the upper portion of the fa- the Western operatic form. The opera Acis and cade, Bhutanese designs dotting the band and Galatea, with its story based on Ovid’s Meta- the painted borders around the windows, and morphoses, seemed the perfect platform as it red roofs that seem to float above the tall walls shares many universal themes that resonate crowned by golden pinnacles. Over the years in Buddhism – love, suffering as a result of this relationship has been nurtured to include anger and attachment, and death leading to frequent cultural events, student exchange, transformation. and now – Opera Bhutan. This baroque pastoral opera, composed by Seeking ways to strengthen the school’s George Frideric Handel, originally premiered relationship with Bhutan beyond its archi- in 1718 as a courtly entertainment for a pri- tecture and because of her own vision for her vate gathering in the English countryside. students and the larger El Paso community, in Sungi nEnglish(whichisBhutan’ssecondlan- 2012 Dr. Natalicio threw her support behind guage), the opera’s simple plot is a tragic love Opera Bhutan and its creators. With a student triangle. Acis, a young shepherd, falls in love population of 23,000, whose demographics re- summer 2015 27 flect those of the region – 78 percent Mexican characters, chorus, and Bhutanese dancers American and another 8 percent who com- made their entrances at audience level (below mute across the border from Juarez – she is the stage) and proceeded around the stage be- committed to creating the highest education- fore climbing up or leaping onto it. alopportunitiesforahistoricallyunderserved Backstage in the RAPA dressing room, usu- population. ally quarters for UTEP’s famed basketball Through Opera Bhutan, UTEP students, players, I couldn’t help but notice the cultur- performing in the opera chorus and orches- al dissonance between the posters of UTEP’s tra (along with some faculty), would work star players plastered on the walls keeping professionally with international vocalists company with the sacred dance masks and in- and opera directors, travel and work abroad strumentsoftheBhutanesedancers.Iwatched