The wow factor was up full volume on Saturday night at the National Theater for the 4th International Ballet Star Gala, and that was before the intermission. It was such an evening of superlatives it was hard to know where to begin, except it seemed unlikely my editor would pay for a 500-word review made up of OMG, OMG, OMG!
Everyone more than lived up to their star billing, but three couples — Silvia Azzoni and Alexandre Riabko, Sarah Lamb and Rupert Pennefather and Denis and Anastasia Matvienko — and three works — The Little Mermaid, Tryst and Thais pas de deux really made the evening.
The show started with Nao Sakuma and Chi Cao (曹馳) from Birmingham Royal Ballet in the Sleeping Beauty pas de deux; they were the princess and prince that every beginning ballet student dreams of becoming.
Then bam, a sudden shift of mood and what turned out to be the best in an evening of stunners — John Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, with Azzoni and Riabko of the Hamburg Ballet. Azzoni, clad in a sea-green bustier and long, long, long silken trousers (to give her an almost fish tail) was mesmerizing. Her arched arms undulated like the waves as she bewitched, enticed and protected her human love. Azzoni was absolutely amazing.
Tryst, by Lamb and Pennefather of The Royal Ballet, showed why Christopher Wheeldon has been hailed as one of the saviors of ballet. The work was spare, almost ascetic, yet fully complete, with graceful curves frequently highlighted by the straight line of a splayed foot.
Daniil Simkin had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand with the irreverent Le Bourgeois — or he would have if they could have stopped screaming long enough. Charmingly self-assured and tossing off a “540º” like he was simply tying his shoelaces (it’s a 360º revolution plus a 180), the 23-year-old Simkin is the epitome of panache.
If the audience thought that Simkin’s 540º was an eyepopper, the Matvienkos were a reminder why the Mariinsky Theater continues to set the standards by which other dancers are measured. Le Corsaire is a duet, but it’s really all about the danseur. He’s got the flash and dazzle and Denis exceeded expectations, tossing in his own 540º on top of everything else, while Anastasia nailed every fouette and pirouette.
In the second half Azzoni and Riabko shone again in Neumeier’s Illusions Like Swan Lake/Meditation, while Lamb and Pennefather took your breath away with their mastery of Frederick Ashton’s Thais pas de deux. At one point Pennefather placed his hands just at the top of Lamb’s thighs and lifted her straight over his head as she posed, ankles crossed, like a goddess; then just as easily he slowly lowered her to the ground and kept going down until he was on bended knee behind her. Thais left you aching for more — more of the couple and more Ashton.
In Edward Clug’s Radio and Juliet the Matvienkos were sharp as knives as very modern, very sexy star-crossed lovers. This was no tentative first love, but the passionate mating of two experienced, equally matched lovers.
Other memorable moments included the Giselle pas de deux by Mizuka Ueno and Friedemann Vogel. Ueno was as light and ethereal as the tiny wings on her back. Several times Vogel picked her up and swung her tenderly from side to side in front of him; it was incredibly romantic and reinforced the weightlessness of her character.
Vogel also showed his flexibility and comedic talent in Marco Goecke’s quirky, loopy and literally slaphappy solo Mopey.
Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz of the San Francisco Ballet were great in William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, but I have never seen a danseur throw his partner up in the air for the lifts in the Don Quixote pas de deux the way Luiz did in the evening’s finale.
Once again Wang Tzer-shing (王澤馨) has raised the barre for ballet performances in Taipei. It’s a good thing we only have to wait until April for the next gala.
After the show there was even more good news for ballet lovers. Word has it that the Royal Ballet has been scheduled for the National next June. And former American Ballet Theater principal dancer Cynthia Harvey, who was in the audience, has been in Hong Kong working on a production of Sleeping Beauty for the Hong Kong Ballet, which opens on Oct. 29.
Yesterday at Representation Theatre’s Arts Factory (再現劇團藝術工場), Richard Chua’s (蔡两俊) choice of Lin Li-yun (林麗雲) as the leading protagonist in Generations (同輩), a play about a dysfunctional mother incapable of coming to terms with her divorce, was perfect.
Lin’s restrained hysteria, both in the execution of her lines and her gestures, as well as her occasional outbursts, sent shivers down this reviewer’s spine. The one-hour production tells the story of a divorcee (Lin) who projects her desires on to a gay son who rebuffs her advances. That is, until he finds out that his lover has been murdered.
The tension created by the mother’s disturbing behavior and the struggles the filial son undergoes at the expense of his own sexuality speak to the generations of Chinese who have repressed their sexuality under the pressure of a culture that expects them to marry, have a family and perpetuate the ancestral line. However, the somewhat uneven script, with its pretensions to Oedipus Rex, reverts to a number of cliches about homosexuality that distracts the audience from the primary theme: how an individual suppresses his own identity for a perceived greater good. The fact that the son is making a conscious decision to be with the mother does little to evoke sympathy for the predicament of either character.
The final performances of Generations take place on Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm at Representation Theatre’s Arts Factory, B1, 43, Nanchang Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市南昌路一段43號B1). NT$300 tickets are available through NTCH ticketing or online at www.artsticket.com.tw.
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