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MADISON KEESLER |
This week was a marvelous week of astounding performances. American Ballet Theater came to Berkeley this past week and I was lucky enough to be able to see both programs that they brought while on this tour. Program A consisted of the following: Ballo della Regina, The Sleeping Beauty Rose Adagio, Le Corsaire, and closed with Fancy Free. I saw the Wednesday night cast for this program. In my opinion, Fancy Free was by far the best thing in this show. Not only is the choreography wonderful, but also all the dancers in it were superb.
While I must say that there were some ups and downs in program A, program B was flawless and it was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time. Opening that Saturday night show with the wonderful and light Baker’s Dozen was an excellent choice. It was my first time to see this Twyla Tharp work and I enjoyed it very much. Following Baker’s Dozen was Sinatra Suite, another Tharp masterpiece. The only other time I had seen Sinatra Suite was with the videos of Baryshnikov and Elain Kudo, and I must say Marcelo Gomes was easily up to par with Baryshnikov in this part. Gomes, as usual, captured the audiences the second he stepped onstage with Luciana Paris. He is such an incredible performer and actor that he effortlessly made the thoughts of the character he was portraying extremely evident. The changes in the relationship were understood and he somehow made every person in the audience understand and relate to what was happening on stage. After the four pas were finished he ended with the “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” solo, which was just as brilliant as all of the previous.
Thinking that not much could top Sinatra Suite I was extremely shocked when I saw C. to C. which I must say was my favorite ballet in the show. With a cast of Julie Kent, Marcelo Gomes, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, Stella Abrera (who stepped into Sat night cast for Kristi Boone), and Jared Matthews it isn’t hard to believe I fell in love with this piece. Those amazing dancers weren’t the only things that made this piece so magical though. Jorma Elo is a genius, and everything from the background to the costumes to the steps themselves was out of this world. When Julie Kent dances my heart just melts. She is so beautiful in everyway and this performance was no different. I have to say that she was my favorite dancer when I started ballet at the age of six, and still at seventeen (just turned 17 this past Saturday) my love for her dancing has never wavered. Hopefully someday I will be privileged enough to meet this amazingly talented artist.
The ballet closed with a new work by Benjamin Millepied called From Here On Out. I, as I expected to, thoroughly enjoyed this work as well. I have to say certain parts reminded me a bit of what he did this summer at Stiefel and Stars, which is by no means a bad thing. The dancers executed the difficult movement extremely well and Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg were simply beautiful as the leads in this ballet.
I am so glad that I had a chance to see ABT do such an amazing rep. It was most definitely an inspiration, which is something every dancer needs every once and a while. The other great thing was being able to see and say hello to the people I spent the past two summers with at Stiefel and Stars. Overall it was an incredible week and I am so glad that I got the chance to experience all of it.
