Metropolitan Classical Ballet Recent Reviews

Metropolitan Classical Ballet successfully displays versatility
Season premiere features three widely diverse works
11:54 PM CDT on Saturday, September 4, 2004

By DANA GAVIN FRANK / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH - On Friday night, Metropolitan Classical Ballet proved that ballet could still defy expectation and make art out of that unexpected. The season premiere at Bass Performance Hall featured three widely diverse works. Such variety can serve to demonstrate a company's versatility or it can be an attempt at widespread appeal. In this case, the company managed both with aplomb.

The evening opened with the most difficult and elusive work, Michail Lavrovsky's Casanova Fantasy. The narrative ballet opened with staging so benign, downright noneventful, that it seemed to ramble on. Once Casanova, danced by Andre Prikhodko, entered the masquerade dance, the entire tone of the ballet shifted into a complex and engaging treatise on the artifice of ballet and love.

Prikhodko first danced Casanova as a graceful fop, but his performance matured as his character learned the danger of disguises. Richer momentum and passion gave way to interesting choreographic motifs, such as overt flexed feet and off-balance partnering. The ballet concluded with the same measure of darkness as light in the opening, with the arched body of Casanova hung tragically from his looming chandelier.

What might have been deemed a step back into the archaic (1845 to be exact) with a paragon of Romantic ballet was a triumphant step forward. Pas de Quatre revealed four female powerhouses in Olga Pavlova, Marina Goshko, Maria Kudyakova and Sara Marr.

The women, clad in white against a bright blue background, danced a triumph of technique and elegance. Their beautiful unison was all the more impressive because each dancer's individuality stayed well intact. Rather than appearing affected or simplistic, each gentle gesture and properly tilted face revealed the dancers' strength and physical command.

Cowgirls Live Forever was the night's biggest and most pleasant surprise: sharp choreography by Paul Mejia refused to go soft when paired with vocalist Elizabeth Blum's country tunes. As they bounced and spun to the sweet sounds of the Johnnie High Band, the dancers radiated fun.
Dana Gavin Frank is a Dallas freelance writer.

Email dgavinfrank@yahoo.com