{"id":147213,"date":"2023-11-21T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T21:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/2023\/11\/bodies-full-of-light\/"},"modified":"2024-04-10T11:28:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T15:28:27","slug":"bodies-full-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/2023\/11\/bodies-full-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Bodies full of light"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a summer performing Giselle<\/i>, Romeo and Juliet<\/i>, Swan Lake<\/i>, and the new Christopher Wheeldon ballet Like Water for Chocolate<\/i> on the Metropolitan Opera stage, American Ballet Theatre returned to New York for a two-week fall season featuring short, mostly abstract works at Lincoln Center\u2019s David H. Koch Theater. Spread across double and triple bills, the ballets flaunted the chameleon-like abilities of ABT<\/span> dancers: plucked from around the world and cast in a wide-ranging repertoire, they excel at adapting to new ballet styles. Nowhere was this ability more on display than in the three pieces of \u201c21st Century Works: King, Ratmansky, and Bond.\u201d<\/p>\n

First up was Single Eye<\/i>, a thirty-minute piece commissioned for ABT<\/span> last year by Alonzo King, the American founder-director of San Francisco\u2019s LINES<\/span> Ballet. Set to music by the jazz composer Jason Moran, the piece was inspired by a verse from the Gospel of Matthew, adapted from the King James Version and printed in the program: \u201cIf thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.\u201d In dividing the work into seven sections\u2014a number often connoting completeness in the scriptures\u2014King has embedded symbolism into the structure of the piece, which loosely progresses, in both its music and its steps, from discord to harmony.<\/p>\n

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A\u00a0 scene from\u00a0<\/em>Single Eye. Photo: Rosalie O\u2019Connor.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Various combinations of ensemble dancers and soloists appear in gold-toned bodysuits, leotards, and tunics against a shifting backdrop sometimes resembling gold foil (all by Robert Rosenwasser). On the opening night, Calvin Royal III<\/span> crumbled to the ground before opening his eyes to the sky in a mysterious solo at the apex of the work, and at another moment held his hands as if in prayer. Elsewhere, there were duets with difficult pivots and twists performed with both partners\u2019 holding hands. At one point, a dancer slowly pushes two men to the ground. This tension was resolved in a tender pas de deux between Cory Stearns and Skylar Brandt, who in earlier sections held single-foot balances on pointe and in later a section seemed to wipe something from her eyes. As intriguing as these moments were, much of this complex work remained obscure.<\/p>\n

The second ballet, Depuis Le Jour<\/i>, is a jewel from 2012 by the former Royal Ballet and ABT<\/span> dancer Gemma Bond. A seven-minute pas de deux, Depuis <\/i>is set to an aria from Gustave Charpentier\u2019s opera Louise <\/i>(1900), here sung live onstage by the Venezuelan soprano Maria Brea. At this point in the opera, the title character, a seamstress, has just run off with her artist lover, Julien, whom her parents forbade her from marrying. Though abstract, Depuis<\/i> has the quality of a daydream and entwines closely with Charpentier\u2019s music and lyrics in its portrayal of idealized love.<\/p>\n

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Hee Seo & Joo Won Ahn in\u00a0Depuis le Jour. Photo: Rosalie O\u2019Connor.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The work begins as it ends, with a pair of dancers (Joo Won Ahn and Hee Seo) seated facing the backdrop, sweeping their arms in a yawning arc before performing a gentle back stretch resembling the cobra pose in yoga. Bond has expressed Louise\u2019s joy and triumph in her moment of freedom by giving the dancers flurries of mirrored steps, spins during moments of embrace, generous arm movements, and a gorgeous lift in which Seo, held horizontally above Ahn, appeared to fly. The pair, dressed in simple costumes with Seo in a flowing lavender skirt, danced with a youthful freshness that made Depuis<\/i> feel like a scene from a MacMillan ballet.<\/p>\n

The night concluded with Alexei Ratmansky\u2019s On the Dnipro <\/i>(previously On the Dnieper<\/i>), a one-act story ballet set in a Ukrainian village in the early twentieth century. Named for the river that runs through Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, Dnipro<\/i> was Ratmansky\u2019s first commission upon joining ABT<\/span> as artist in residence in 2009. Dnipro<\/i>\u2019s revival is both a farewell gesture\u2014Ratmansky left ABT<\/span> in August for the same post at New York City Ballet\u2014and a nod to current events, the importance of which is far from abstract for the Kyiv-raised choreographer (and onetime Bolshoi director), an outspoken supporter of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

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Devon Teuscher & Cory Stearns in\u00a0<\/em>On the Dnipro. Photo: Rosalie O\u2019Connor.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Dnipro<\/i> stems from a lost work, Sur le Borysth\u00e8ne<\/i>, <\/i>choreographed in 1932 by the Ballets Russes star Serge Lifar (himself Ukrainian) for the Paris Opera Ballet. Ratmansky took Lifar\u2019s scenario and the surviving forty-minute score by Sergei Prokofiev to create a new work that harnesses the dramatic abilities of ABT<\/span>.<\/p>\n

In the opening night\u2019s performance, Cory Stearns starred as Sergiy, a young soldier who returns home to find that he no longer loves his fianc\u00e9, Natalia, danced by Devon Teuscher. Sergiy is drawn instead to Olga (Christine Shevchenko), provoking the ire of her unnamed fianc\u00e9 (James Whiteside). White cherry blossoms, fences, and, in the second half, a massive full moon projected onto the backdrop make up the cool-toned set.<\/p>\n

Stearns and Whiteside were well paired as opposites. The former was smooth and lyrical, conveying the gentle strength and melancholy of a war-weary veteran. Whiteside, bold and fiery as the jealous fianc\u00e9, began with a jovial swagger while keeping an eye on Olga, whom he circled possessively. In a magnificent solo performed after his ill-fated engagement party, Whiteside channeled the character\u2019s overflowing rage into virtuosic sequences of turns and traveling jumps.<\/p>\n

Like the \u201cpsychological\u201d ballets of Antony Tudor, some of Dnipro<\/i>\u2019s most impactful moments are the least flashy. Stearns\u2019s raised hand, telling his fianc\u00e9 to leave after she liberated him from an angry mob, was quietly devastating. In the ballet\u2019s final moments, after watching Sergiy dance with Olga, Teuscher as Natalia kneeled and performed a deep backbend towards the couple with outstretched arms, a peace offering tinged with resignation. Teuscher, a deeply poetic dancer, gave the heroine a haunting innocence, conveying her delight at Sergiy\u2019s return and gradual acceptance of his indifference with admirable restraint.<\/p>\n

While it seems unlikely that Ratmansky will pursue many character-driven ballets for NYCB<\/span>\u2014most of the company\u2019s recent commissions, including his own, have tended towards abstraction\u2014the subtle emotional realism of Dnipro<\/i> makes you wish for at least a few more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On \u201c21st Century Works: King, Ratmansky, and Bond\u201d at American Ballet Theatre.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2407,"featured_media":147573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[647,732,695,670],"dispatch-city":[3291],"acf":{"participants":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_65fb0bff29d65","label":"Participants","name":"participants","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"user","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"role":"","return_format":"object","multiple":1,"allow_null":0,"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"participants","_valid":1}},"featured_image_credits":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_651c536113a8e","label":"Featured Image Credits","name":"featured_image_credits","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":0,"_name":"featured_image_credits","_valid":1}},"enable_paywall":{"simple_value_formatted":"No","value_formatted":false,"value":"0","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_66009169342f2","label":"Enable Paywall","name":"enable_paywall","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"true_false","value":null,"menu_order":2,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"message":"","default_value":0,"ui":0,"ui_on_text":"","ui_off_text":"","_name":"enable_paywall","_valid":1}}},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Jane Coombs","author_link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/author\/jane-coombs\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/seroyal1ro-1_cropped-300x144.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/seroyal1ro-1_cropped-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Dispatch<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Dispatch<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Art<\/a>","Dance<\/a>","New York<\/a>","Theater<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Art<\/span>","Dance<\/span>","New York<\/span>","Theater<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 months ago","modified":"Updated 4 weeks ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 21, 2023","modified":"Updated on April 10, 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 21, 2023 4:45 pm","modified":"Updated on April 10, 2024 11:28 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["author_meta","featured_img","jetpack_sharing_enabled","jetpack_featured_media_url","coauthors","tax_additional","comment_count","relative_dates","absolute_dates","absolute_dates_time","featured_img_caption","series_order","jetpack-related-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147214,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147213\/revisions\/147214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147213"},{"taxonomy":"dispatch-city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dispatch-city?post=147213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}