His appearance as Basilio was a recent cast change perhaps they needed more rehearsal time. She was less secure when partnered by Daniel Camargo, a Brazilian guest artist this season. In the wedding scene, Christine Shevchenko sailed through Kitri’s technical demands with upbeat ease - at least when she was left to do so alone. And the tranquil, sleek Chloe Misseldine, a standout in Lauren Lovette’s “La Follia Variations” last fall, continued to be one to watch as one of the Flower Girls on Monday. As Amour, Léa Fleytoux fluttered across the stage with feet that pattered as briskly as a string of broken pearls. Hee Seo brought her subtle brand of loveliness in the Act 2 vision scene, but isn’t it supposed to be a dream? Has the lighting for it always been this gloomy? Other vivid performances came from unexpected places. Hurlin, scheduled to dance all three acts on Wednesday night, with Ahn, uses every bit of the stage as her canvas. On Monday, as Kitri in Act 1, Catherine Hurlin, a soloist, stood out with her powerful jump and speed, as well as her disarming personality - nodding with daffy encouragement as Bell’s Basilio described his occupation to her father or peeking behind her fan with an expression both sultry and sweet. Brandt, the final promoted dancer, didn’t perform until Tuesday when, as Kitri, opposite the veteran Herman Cornejo, she had the night all to herself. Her Espada was Gabe Stone Shayer, who, in that same block of promotions, was elevated to soloist. On Monday we saw Calvin Royal III (Espada, Act 2) Joo Won Ahn (Basilio, Act 2) Aran Bell (Basilio, Act 1) Thomas Forster (Espada, Act 1) and Cassandra Trenary (Mercedes, Act 3). Likely the vision behind this “Don Quixote” had to do with solving a math problem: How many dancers promoted during the thick of the pandemic back in September of 2020 could the company squeeze onstage?Īll but one. With the exception of contributions by Alexei Ratmansky, the company’s artist in residence, the company has often seemed out of touch. Vision isn’t the word I would use to describe the direction of Ballet Theater in recent years. “Some of us call this insanity, many of us call it vision.” “You see the world not as it is, but as it could be,” Fales-Hill said of McKenzie. It didn’t help that the gala performance was delayed by 20 minutes for rambling speeches in which the company trotted out dancers (Erica Lall and Skylar Brandt) to pay tribute to a trustee, Susan Fales-Hill, and the artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, who is retiring after the season). Tone, temperament and technical expression were ever-shifting over the course of the night, ballet itself felt increasingly tacked on - like an accessory. In a story ballet, even one as slight as “Don Quixote,” this mixed-up casting depletes the drama of the dancing and the dancing of the drama. There’s no time to develop characters’ nuance and mood: It’s the difference between acting and playing make believe. (There were three conductors, too, one for each act.) Ballet Theater has experimented with multiple casts before in “Don Quixote” never has it seemed so erratic, so incidental, so last minute.įor the dancers, jumping in and out of roles is an awkward task. The production’s young lovers, Kitri and Basilio, as well as the street dancer Mercedes and the bullfighter Espada, were danced by different couples in each act. So why did American Ballet Theater return to the Metropolitan Opera House on Monday with so little imagination? In honor of its first opening night at the Met since 2019, the company dusted the cobwebs off a war horse, the three-act ballet “Don Quixote.” But still, dust remained.Įven more dispiriting than presenting this crusty comic ballet, mainly beloved for its bravura power, was the way Ballet Theater dusted the cobwebs off something else: gimmick casting. Two years of canceled seasons should have been ample time to hatch a comeback plan.