WILL THE REAL RAYMONDA PLEASE STAND UP?

NYCB 5-15-97

Cortège Hongrois is a problematic work. Created for the retirement of Melissa Hayden, it is the third ballet by Balanchine to the Glazunov music, and arguably the weakest. Swelling the forces in the corps by a factor of four over Pas de Dix (the earliest work, and based on the Petipa) he manages to lose in impact what he attains in volume.

Balanchine fed upon change, benevolent or perverse. Here we see him getting bored with Raymonda, and as if it were a china vase, dropping it and reassembling the pieces. Eight couples do the entree instead of four, and they seem to almost be dividing the original steps amongst them. The adagio in the entree that was originally the ballerina's is done by the corps in unison - but seems diluted homeopathically by this amplification.

The problem is one of focus. Pas de Dix is a ballet of modest means, one lead couple, four corps couples. Cortège Hongrois has two leading couples, one classical and one character, and one can never really tell where Balanchine wants one to look. One can see it in the perfunctory way he moves about the corps; the stage space doesn't live as it does in his other ballets of that size.

Rumor (see Taper's biography of Balanchine) has it that Balanchine said upon creating the work, "Wait until Milly goes. I'll clean it up for Patty [McBride]. . ." and that sense of obligation hangs over the ballerina role and its diminution. She loses her adagio in the entrée, she doesn't get the passés in the coda, the only "Raymonda" touchstone she gets is her solo, with its importuning bourrées and crackling handclaps.

Miranda Weese danced the classical ballerina, and I'll forego the encomiums, because I've said them ad nauseam before. Suffice it to say that her virtues are beautifully suited for classical work. The way in which her youth shows is that she is only beginning to learn how to be differently beautiful in each role. Her Raymonda is just starting to be shaded differently from her Aurora, particularly in the aforementioned solo. Not to worry, her instincts are excellent. She understands instinctively classical style, and as she matures, she will show us classical style individually distinguished, rather than intelligently generalized.

Damian Woetzel as her partner both danced well and paired well with Ms. Weese. I hope to see more of the partnership, it bodes well, and I am curious to see what effect they have on each other.

Notable as a conundrum was Albert Evans as the lead character male. I hope that the company will take a better look at Mr. Evans and realize that he is no longer the company exotic, but a classical technician of admirable purity. When Mr. Evans debuted with the company in Forsythe's Behind the China Dogs, he was about 16 and was part ballet dancer, part House of Venus voguer. He has made major changes in his placement and style as a dancer, and his seriousness and diligence in developing a classical style ought to be reinforced and rewarded with more than a marginal place in the repertory.

While Mr. Evans' character work with classically pure, looking in the corps, one could see one dancer with a deep and delicious understanding of character style and that was Alexandre Izilaev. I am assuming he has had character training, because one could see the soft, sexy insinuation in timing, even with his accuracy within the body. The softly rounded hands, the gentle bounce in the knees; it's like the lisp in Castilian, artifice, but needing to seem utterly comfortable and natural.

LAW

©1997 Leigh Witchel. All rights reserved.