American Ballet Theater, November 12, 2004, Jones Hall

This first post is going to be a little fuzzy, because I saw this performance over a month ago, and all of the pieces were new to me. Here are a few random thoughts on the program. Mozartiana (Balanchine) Julie Kent was the lead in this, and boy does she ever deserve all the fame she has. I sat in an unusual place for me, the front row, so I could see EVERY little nuance that she put into her performance (and hear her breathe, too!). This is a great piece, although I wasn't that crazy about the choreography for the men. The piece incorporated 4 Texas girls (about 10 years old) who did a wonderful job in what was surely a stressful situation for them. Pillars of Fire (Antony Tudor) A nice narrative piece with much stylized movement. It tells the story of a middle sister who fears she is doomed to become an old maid like her sister (gasp!). Gillian Murphy played the lead role (Hagar), and her dancing was lovely, if a little stiff. I ended up wondering why The Friend was attracted to her at all. Petite Morte (Jiri Kylian) This was my favorite piece of the evening. It combined raw masculinity with grace and a stunning sense of line (mostly as provided by Sascha Radetsky). The men start out the piece dancing with fencing foils and did some inventive movements rolling the foils on the floor and manipulating them with their feet. My overall impression of the movement was very European, perhaps because of the almost sculptural quality of the movement. Some later partnering work was equally breathtaking. As the ABT website says, "Petite Mort, literally meaning 'small death' serves as a paraphrase for orgasm in French and Arabic." As I understand it, this term applies more to women than men, and I think this informs much of the movement, especially the fact that the actions of the men were the focus. Throughout the piece dresses in the style of the court of Louis XIV, stiff and on casters, made appearances in ways that didn't seem to go with the rest of the dance. Sechs Tanze (Jiri Kylian) Something of a continuation of Petite Morte, although choreographed before it and in a completely different mood. Silly, funny, and unpredictable, it may be the only "serious" choreography I've seen with a man in drag. The dresses were back, and this time they made sense are part of the comic mood of the piece. Six dancers flitted through complex movements to Mozart's Six German Dances, with powdered wigs playing a small but surprising part in the action.