Season Opener:
Swan Lake (Act II) & The Firebird
Dell Hall at the Long Center
Oct. 2
If you go hunting in tights, you’re bound to run into something magical, likely a bird. Swan Lake is the most famous portrayal of this ballet rule, and Ballet Austin’s season opener balanced Act II of this classic with The Firebird, a ballet hatched not in
the 19th century but in the 20th and danced not to Tchaikovsky but to Stravinsky. While both ballets have female fowl at the center and belie Russian origins, the bird ballerinas in them are not just avatars of a single hen. (Can you see the Venn diagram yet?)
To a ballet lover, a good Swan Lake is like comfort food, and after Ballet Austin’s excerpt, I felt like I had eaten a pretty decent bowl of mashed potatoes. Ashley Lynn Gilfix’s Odette was regal and tragic, and the orchestra, conducted by Peter Bay, made me swoon. Unfortunately, something was amiss in the partnering between Frank Shott, as Prince Siegfried, and Gilfix: They looked tired and tense, and none of the overhead lifts made full height. The corps de ballet, 16 female swans, seemed robotic at times, but they turned this sort of militarism into fantastic power near the end of the act. The four Little Swans were near flawless in their linked-together variation.
After intermission came The Firebird. Originally choreographed for the Ballet Russes in 1910 by Michel Fokine to a score by Igor Stravinsky and with designs by Léon Bakst, The Firebird was a ballet in a tradition of ballet as whole theatre, with rich and exotic designs, controversial drama, and the flow of steps unimpeded by virtuosic ballet tricks. The story is based on a Russian folk tale involving Prince Ivan, the magical Firebird, and a princess guarded by an evil magician. Long story short, the Firebird tries to unite the prince and princess, but she is killed by the magician. Ivan then finds a giant egg that houses the magician’s soul and drops it on the ground, killing him. In the final scene, Ivan and the princess marry.
Ballet Austin’s new production didn’t stray far from the existing classical versions of this ballet, and the costumes and scenery, borrowed from Louisville Ballet, were merely adequate. Artistic Director Stephen Mills tweaked the story to bring the Firebird back from her death to perform the marriage, which almost made sense, and his choreography retained the characteristic flitting jumps and sharp glances for the Firebird and a stage full of action when Ivan is captured by the magician’s guards. I had hoped Mills would inject more freshness, but I enjoyed Aara Krumpe’s exotic, wild, and powerful Firebird. While the upper body movements in Swan Lake show preening and expansive wingspans in slow motion, the Firebird is all darting head movements and flitting hands, which Krumpe captured perfectly. Partnered by Paul Michael Bloodgood as Ivan, Krumpe had the qualities of flight and strength that were missing in Swan Lake.
During both works, I was underwhelmed by the leading men’s acting, as they seemed to allow stock mime to stand in for real motive and feeling. The company overall showed some inconsistencies that might be fixed with coaching. For example, in the wedding scene at the end of The Firebird, some of the corps de ballet men were smiling their heads off, while others looked terrified. In fact, there was more than one grin that seemed out of character on opening night, and it occurred to me that perhaps the dancers were simply happy to be onstage and beginning the new season, in a couple of great ballets, with a live orchestra.
This article appears in October 9 • 2009.