Metropolitan Classical Ballet New & Reviews

Giddyup, Metropolitan
Thursday, September 2, 2004

By Wayne Lee Gay
Star-Telegram Classical Music Critic

Probably no company in America has such a close connection to both the Balanchine tradition and the Russian ballet tradition.

Formerly called Ballet Arlington, the compact troupe has made an impressive climb in recent seasons, taking on a new name -- Metropolitan Classical Ballet -- to represent its ambitions to gain a regionwide audience and an even wider reputation.

On Saturday, Metropolitan Classical Ballet opens a new season at Bass Performance Hall -- and a new era for the dance company. Although the studio and school remain based in Arlington, the company has opted to move its main performances to downtown Fort Worth, confident that its loyal audience will come along and that other dance lovers from around the area will join them.

Saturday's performance will cast a wide net, with pieces ranging from a Dixie Chicks-inspired cowgirl country romp to a classical work to a restaged piece delving into the life of the great lover Casanova.

Here is a closer look at all three:

o Cesare Pugni's Pas de Quatre, one of the oldest and most famous works in the standard ballet repertoire, premiered for Queen Victoria in 1845. It features four female dancers in constant interaction and provides a glimpse of the art of ballet as it was conceived in the 19th century. Co-artistic director Alexander Vetrov has drawn on his experience at the Bolshoi to stage the work. The Texas Chamber Orchestra will accompany.

o Bolshoi choreographer Michail Lavrovsky created the Casanova Fantasy, set to the music of Mozart, for Vetrov. Vetrov has restaged the work, which explores the character of the legendary lover, for Metropolitan Classical Ballet dancer Andre Prikhodko.

o Metropolitan's co-artistic director Paul Mejia originally created Cowgirls Live Forever in collaboration with the Dixie Chicks, then an up and coming, barely known cowgirl band, for an outdoor festival in 1994. The Johnnie High Band and country-western vocalist Elizabeth Blum will join the company for this lighthearted collation of country and classical.

Metropolitan Classical Ballet
8 p.m. Saturday
Bass Performance Hall
Fort Worth
$10-$30
(817) 212-4280 www.basshall.com

Leaps and bounds

Though the Metropolitan Classical Ballet's budget, at approximately $1 million, remains relatively small for such an ambitious company, several fortunate circumstances have fed the company's momentum.

o Bolshoi principal Alexander Vetrov, one of the company's two co-artistic directors, keeps the pipeline open to Moscow for guest artists, rights to ballets and rentals of costumes and sets.

o The company recently doubled its studio space in Arlington and is exploring ways to expand its outreach to schoolchildren and to start a summer program for young dancers, probably in conjunction with an area university.

o The ballet's other co-artistic director is Balanchine protege and former Fort Worth Dallas Ballet artistic director Paul Mejia. He is renowned for his insight into the Balanchine repertoire, his connections in the national ballet community, his own Balanchine-influenced choreography and his expertise as a teacher and trainer of dancers.

-- Wayne Lee Gay