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Boiled-down 'Bayadère' sustains the drama

DANCE REVIEW: Pavlova a standout in Metropolitan's show

Posted on Monday, March 12, 2007

By Margaret Putnam
Special Contributor to the Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH – How lucky we are that Czar Alexander II saw fit to commission an exotic ballet for the Imperial Ballet in 1877 and employed Marius Petipa as choreographer. That ballet was La Bayadère, a four-act drama set in India where a noble warrior, Solor, loves a temple girl, Nikiya. The Rajah, however, has other plans, as he is in love with Nikiya and insists that Solor marry his daughter, Gamzatti.

The challenge of bringing the necessary grandeur, eroticism and magnificent scale of this masterpiece fell on Metropolitan Classical Ballet on Saturday night at Bass Hall, and the results were stunning. Lacking the huge cast of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi, or the Kirov, Metropolitan Classical Ballet co-artistic director Alexander Vetrov carefully garnered what was available, reducing the four acts to two and eliminating several scenes. Purists would be disappointed (gone were the famous procession of Shades down a long ramp and the temple blown up in flames), but the essential story stayed intact.

The set consisted of tall walls of gold, large columns and two benches. Candles flickered, filtering in warm and gauzy light. Grand sets call for dancing of the same caliber, and we were not disappointed. The rangy Andrey Prikhodko has developed into a dancer of larger range and control, covering the stage with lofty leaps and sharp turns. Dressed in silky chartreuse pants and shirt, he still had a boyish, self-consciousness that kept him from expressing the fire of Solor, or for that matter the power.

  

 


Olga Pavlova in La Bayadère
Photo by Marty Sohl

As for guest artist Marianna Ryzhkina (Gamzatti), she was confident of her allure and beauty, accepting Solor's attention with graceful, distant attention. The turbulence was not far behind as Nikiya (Olga Pavlova) learned of her lover's treachery and was given a basket with a hidden snake in it. She was a marvel of expression and will, leaping like the wind was at her back and with her feet touching the ground without a sound. Her undulating arms and arching back conveyed a wealth of emotions, from surrender, to joy, to trust.

Mr. Vetrov did not ignore the complicated subtexts of the story, involving priests, exuberant temple dances, sprightly pages stamping barefoot, flashy fakirs and a Golden God. But as the story wound its way through the end, the classical element took over, with exquisite variations delicately depicting the crystal clear of the pure classical style.

The program ended on a giddy note with Paul Mejia's Notes on My Life, set to familiar Richard Adler tunes like "Hernando's Hideaway" and "You Gotta Have Heart." Despite the Manhattan backdrop, no one would have mistaken his paean to New York as the jazzy, freewheeling and daring tribute George Balanchine created for Who Cares? Notes was frisky but lacked emotional punch.

Margaret Putnam is a Richardson-based writer who covers dance.

© Copyright 2007 The Dallas Morning News Co.

 
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