Alexei Ratmansky’s story ballet, based on an ancient Greek romance novel of “love and anger,” has a moment of “Sleeping Beauty.” The premiere of this work took place in California in March 2020, just before the pandemic broke out, driving much of the world into a sense of tranquility that felt like a deep sleep.
But on Monday, the ballet, which performed an ambitious, bold and luscious full-bodied dance, was as if the spell had been lifted when it premiered in New York at the American Ballet Theater. By doing so, the company also awoke. Last week — the first performance of the Ballet Theater in the Metropolitan Opera House since 2019 — the dancer was stuck in a musty piece of “Don Quixote”. With “love and anger,” they transformed with a new sense of purpose and promise.
Ballet is inspired by the early Greek prose work “Kaireas” (written between the 1st and 2nd centuries BC) by the Chariton of Aphrodiceus, a two-act work. A big dance that doesn’t overlook the delicacy of the position, such as a fresh and airy, relaxed wrist with raised arms and a low rush of the sprinter about to take off.There’s a lot of talk, but maybe too much — this isn’t the moment to skip Program overview —But Ratmansky relies on dance to carry it, not false, over-choreographed acting.
“Love and anger” is rarely static.When there teeth mime, it develops as a rich extension of the body. The soft and elegant dance extends beyond your fingertips. And when it’s fiercely masculine, the body ignites and burns across the stage like a raging fire of turbulence. With pirates, prisoners, and war, this ballet is a ballet-like, ever-moving adventure. “Dangerous island” Or, in fact, a vintage swashbuckling movie, but underneath it all, “Of Love and Rage,” is a meditation about love, loss, and forgiveness.
The musical arrangement of “Gayane”, mainly by Philip Feeney’s composer Aram Khachaturian, the vibrant and bright ballet score, “Love and Anger” is the formation and position of the choreography, and its set and ballet south. A light Greek outfit by Jean-Marc Puisant carrying from the former Greek city of Italy, Khachaturian, to Babylon. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, is approaching in the background. Aphrodite’s head sometimes hangs behind the scenes.
In Ratmansky’s ancient world portraits, jealousy leads to impulsive and devastating misjudgment when a young bride is killed by her husband. At least that’s how it first appears. A story with a parade of characters can be a bit complicated. (I agree with reading this book. Not only to better understand the plot, but aside from violence, it’s a kind of screwball rampage.)
At its core is the story of Callirhoe (Catherine Harlin) -a woman so beautiful that people think she is the goddess Aphrodite-and Chereas (Aran Bell). They meet and get married. But other men also love Callirhoe. First, three suitors plan to dissolve the couple. It works and its effects are devastating.
Young lovers have matching gold bracelets. Replicas are used to make Callirhoe appear to be fooling Chereas. A breathtaking Chaereas breaks into Callirhoe’s dormitory. When she runs, her body is dead. (In her novel, he kicks her; Ratmansky and his dramaturge, Guillaume Gallienne, omitted the details.)
Chaereas is horrifying and Callirhoe is buried, but not actually dead. She wakes up as if a pirate and his men were robbing her grave. They take her with her loot, and this is where ballet suddenly turns into a big chase: Chaereas with his loyal friend Polycharmus (Andrii Ishchuk) Dionysius (Daniel Camago). ), Aristocrats and widowers. This is the fate of Callirhoe over and over again: a man gets a boom at a glance at her! He is in love.
After discovering that she was pregnant — by Chaereas — Callirhoe decided to marry Dionysius to keep her baby safe. Meanwhile, while searching for Callirhoe, Cheleas and Polycharmus were arrested and taken to the Palace of Mitridates, Jarod Curly, a member of the Corps de Ballet who set foot for the injured Corey Sterns. increase. With Dionysius. Convened to rule by the King of Babylon. But who will appear? Of course, Chaereas.
With a boyish courageous bell and a sharp and authoritative curly, Camargo is great — commanding, heroic, calm, sad, almost worthy of a sequel. But Harlin as Callirhoe is sacred and shows how she grows from a beautiful girl to a woman who realizes her pain: men, every man wants to own her as a glittering object. The beauty that I think.
Do you measure other Callirhoes? (There are multiple casts.) The simple tranquility of Harlin’s face, surrounded by cascade curls, is riveted, as is the bold amplitude of her expressive and peculiar dance. She jumps into her arms of the bell with the suppleness of her cat. Her sculptural and supple upper body width does not take into account nasty moments or over-decorated theatricalness, especially in the order in which her arms open wide like a flower.
she teeth Prairie Poppy — Beautiful, but suffering, wise, and resentful in the way her life is unleashed in front of her. Harlin brings naturalness to her unnatural role.
After winning the war, Khachaturian’s exhilarating battle, Chereas, is the battle scene between him and Dionysius. “sword dance” A thriller of sound and choreography texture — find a way back to her. His remorse is almost miserable. It begins tentatively when they renew the bond, but Ratmansky gradually revives their early enthusiastic choreographic moments when their love was pure and simple. Rotate your wrist, blink the gleaming bracelet together, and then release it to clearly see the bond. And the strangest thing happens to Harlin’s face and her body: the tension is released and her tear-wet glow is restored.
“Love and anger” shows that jealousy can infect a relationship, but it does not always destroy it. Born in Russia and raised in Kieu, Ratmansky was devastated by the war in Ukraine. In an interview with the New York Times, he said ballet was “definitely not me at this point.”
However, in “Love and Anger” created before the beginning of horror, Ratmansky seems to be examining the world today. It comes down to the words in the ballet title: Rage. Its toxicity, its epidemic and anger are another epidemic of our time. But in Ratmansky’s adventure, anger is not a victory. Forgiveness and redemption do so. And love.
Of love and anger