Balanchine Turns 100: (Actually, that is only tangentially related to the subject matter of this essay). Went to see NYCB’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Leigh this evening. Yet again, I’m reminded that some people are Reviewers or Critics; I am, quite happily, just an audience.

I loved Peter Boal’s Oberon: he danced like a fairy, all shimmery weightlessness and ephemera. Reminded me, more than anyone else I’ve seen, of Antony Dowell. However, I am told that his beats are no longer as crisp as they once were, and at his best he never approached Eddie Villella (upon whom Balanchine choreographed the role). Now, I’ve never seen a tape of Villella in this role, but I have seen him in other things. Dude used to be a boxer. Fairy-like he ain’t. “Well, there are different kinds of fairies,” said one Reviewer. (There’s a Mike Tyson joke in there somewhere—if you write it, I’ll post it and give you credit.) The grand artistic aesthetic that is “Balanchine” is certainly about laser-sharp, lightning-fast technique. But I have trouble placing that particular cloak upon Oberon’s shoulders (I think that makes him a little too much like Puck). Dare I suggest that there might be a conflict between the Balanchine aesthetic and the Shakespearean Oberon? Nah, I can’t suggest that. I’m neither a Balanchine scholar nor a Shakespearean scholar—again, I’m just an audience.

We saw another of Dance As Ever's recent Guest Artists: Alexandra Ansanelli as Helena. She didn’t hold back and threw herself into everything like it was a matter of life-and-death. I thought that that would have been spectacular to watch in a plotless or abstract piece, but it didn’t make dramatic sense here: if you’re giving up 6 o’clock penche to Demetrius, the love of your life, you might be inclined to hold back a bit when dull old Lysander comes calling.

(Does it seem like I’m reviewing the conversations about the ballet as much as I’m reviewing the ballet itself?)

We did agree on a couple of things, though. Like that the kids in this production (and there are a lot of them) were terrific. The "pros" liked how they fit into the structure of the ballet, I just thought they kicked a**: right from the beginning, the curtain went up, and for a good 3 minutes I just thought that I was watching a “short” cast.

The other thing we agreed on was that it doesn’t seem to make sense to do only the first act, as some smaller companies are wont to do. The first act tells a linear story, and while that’s fine (and you know I love story ballets to begin with), left on its own, it’s kinda Ballet Lite, kinda Ballet for Young Audiences, Grown-up Division (“Ballet is a story told in music and dance language…”). The second act is a non-literal, right-brained piece danced by the same characters we met in the first act and, well, it’s just very Balanchine (and here, Balanchine does not have to compete with Shakespeare) and it makes the whole evening feel like an evening that only the 100th Birthday Boy could give us.