American Ballet Theatre at the Kennedy Center

Tuesday night I went to the opening night performance of the American Ballet Theatre's stop at the Kennedy Center. I always look forward to seeing ABT as part of my ballet subscription. Did you know that ABT has performed at the Kennedy Center for 50 years, every season that the Kennedy Center has existed? That's quite the partnership!

Not only does this year mark the 50th anniversary of this partnership, but it also marks the final season with Kevin McKenzie as the artistic director of ABT. He was a dancer himself, and he has been in his current role for 30 years. He helped choreograph the company's own versions of the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and "Don Kee-shoat" (as the KenCen's President Deborah Rutter pronounced it. Eek!). So this is the end of an era!

While the group is performing Don Quixote the rest of the week, I saw their "ABT Forward" performance, which included three parts:

Bernstein in a Bubble

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First of all, I loved the costumes for this piece. I want to wear those dresses! Where can I buy one?! The colors, the flowy short skirts, the large keyhole back... divine. And the men's outfits showed off those enormous leg muscles; here I thought I had thunder thighs! 

But in general I didn't love this piece. The music by Leonard Bernstein was just a little too carnival-brassy-parade for me. The whole thing actually felt quite childish, as if lyrics could have been set to the music for a children's show like Barney. The choreography felt the same way: the dancers hopped, marched, crawled, and even played peek-a-boo. When I go to the ballet, I want to see grace and beauty, and much of this piece was not that. And while many might disagree with me on this, my opinion is: just because you are performing some sort of movement on stage does not make it good art.

Kids build pyramids all the time, right? Image found here

Image found here

There was one jazzy piece called "Blues" (how original), featuring Chloe Misseldine and Andrii Ishchuk, which was a nice pas de deux. But it's unfortunate that out of eight mini-parts within this piece, there was only one that I mostly liked, and only one distinct lift in the whole thing.

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I was very surprised that there was an intermission after this piece, since it wasn't very long. The following piece was much longer; it should have been first!

Single Eye

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I honestly can barely remember anything about this piece, even as I was leaving the theater that night, so that's not a good sign. The music, composed by Jason Moran, was mostly jazz piano, which is not my cup-o-tea. There was one percussion-heavy part that I did enjoy, though, and at one point they played nature sounds, like birds chirping, so that was interesting.

Some of the moves were pretty cool. Many of the dancers crouched on point and then huddled across the stage; dancing on point is already hard enough, let alone doing it while you're practically sitting down in a narrow squat! There was also a pas de deux in which the male dancer lifted the ballerina as her feet were dragging or sliding along the ground, which you don't commonly see. 

Calvin Royal III had a solo piece. He is very talented! Image found here

In both this piece and the first Bernstein one, a lot of the movements made me think of toxic relationships. There was a lot of pushing, pulling, shoving, crouching... it was like watching a bad relationship happen on stage. That's just not very pleasant to watch. 

Another thing I noticed during this piece: dancer Michael de la Nuez has a hair lip. I do not think I have ever seen a ballet dancer with a cleft lip! I am pleased to see the inclusivity of the ballet world opening up in this way. (Although perhaps Rudolf Nureyev of the Mariinsky Ballet had one, too?) And speaking of inclusivity, there was so much homoeroticism throughout the evening. I don't think I've ever seen so many men do lifts with other men. At any moment I thought different pairs were going to start kissing on stage! ("Not that there's anything wrong with that!") Again, just the changing of the times, and I appreciate ABT's openness.

ZigZag

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This was BY FAR my favorite piece of the night! All of the music was from the crooners, with Tony Bennett singing most of the songs (not that he was there, although that would have been amazing!). They were songs like "What the World Needs Now," "Blue Moon," and "It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing." As a blues dancer (who dabbles in swing dancing), I loved all of these songs! I also very much appreciated the Americana vibes of this performance. Even the zig-zag backdrop made me think of Charlie Brown's shirt, and later there was an image of the New York City skyline highlighted in the background. It made me want to visit the Big Apple!

Once again, the costumes were beautiful. I would have worn any and all of those dresses! And the men who were wearing all white made me wish their outfits would magically change color (à la Project Runway). And all of the dancing was so lively and fun! I didn't love some of the moves, like zombie-arms or "the worm," but most of it was gorgeous. I especially liked when some of the dancers created the NYC skyline with their own bodies, arms overhead to create the tops of buildings and the like. 

So reminiscent of SJP in Sex and the City! Image found here

This piece was so joyful! The program definitely ended on a high note. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Misty Copeland had been performing!

Here's a video of a previous curtain call for this piece, just to give you an idea of the vibe:

Speaking of the curtain call, this final one went on for MUCH too long. Not only did the dancers expect you to clap over and over again for them, one by one it seemed, BUT Kevin McKenzie came on stage for multiple curtain calls of his own. They even dropped pink rose petals from the ceiling! It was all a little much. Can you imagine if each of us, in our day-to-day jobs, demanded that everyone clap for us for nearly TEN MINUTES just for doing our jobs? Please.

Want to see this company perform Don Quixote at the Kennedy Center? Purchase your tickets now!