Last Updated: Friday, August 29, 2008

Black Swan, Black Ink

By Tony Guzman

Katia Carranza & Renato Penteado
Photo: Mark Elias  

Miami City Ballet’s recent Program II at the Jackie Gleason Theater paired classic choreography by Petipa and Ivanov– Act II from Swan Lake and Act III’s Black Swan Pas de Deux – with the first and last movements of Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3.

The highlight of the program, at the Saturday night performance, was the Black Swan of Katia Carranza who’s steadily becoming an especial favorite of MCB fans. Her winsome, youthful vivacity assaying the knowing seductiveness of the part made for an enchanting brew. Carranza’s sometimes eccentric phrasings and subtle syncopations have an arresting, often hypnotic effect. In lieu of the concluding duet’s traditional barrage of grand fouettés, Carranza supplied a somewhat contained mélange of fouettés and pirouettes – which drew the evening’s most enthusiastic ovation. She was paired with Luis Serrano, who’s lost some of the lower body musculature that gave him a rather squat effect. He’s a more agile leaper now, and continues to evolve encouragingly in terms of his ability to generate audience rapport.

Swan Lake, Act II featured Deanna Seay and young Carlos Guerra as the star-crossed lover leads. Seay’s slender, delicate lines and finely-chiseled beauty make her a well-nigh ideal Odette, and she portrayed the White Swan’s delicate trepidation marvelously, albeit without any particular focus or edge. Guerra, handsome but as of yet rather unformed as a stage presence, solos and partners with an appealingly musical fluidity, although he’s not a particularly explosive leaper. We’re left wondering, though: who will ever light Seay’s fire (on stage).

Irene Balague brought a refreshing, romantic impetuosity to the female lead in Elegie, another of Balanchine’s wistful meditations on the Feminine, here in an unaccustomedly unfettered free-form mode accentuated by the flowing costumes of Nicolas Benois.

Saturday night also saw Jennifer Kronenberg paired with Eric Quillerè in Theme and Variations. The two seem temperamentally well-suited, if not exactly showering us with sparks: Quillerè’s stylish precision, Gallic reserve and intelligent, if occasionally choppy, partnering and Kronenberg’s polished technique and hauteur. The corps danced with considerable brio and fire here, making of the piece a rousing finale.  

There was a mood of upbeat contentment as the throng of happy campers exited the Gleason. Apart from the afterglow of an enjoyable show, the good vibes had been set up by the encouraging opening announcements of Miami City Ballet’s president of the board, Mike Edison. The company is now operating at a profit, he announced (thanks to last season’s Giselle and the rebound in fan support it set off). Loans have been paid off and the dancers’ pay cuts from last year have been made up. The upcoming production of Coppélia will feature a live orchestra (Applause!). Then there’s the signal honor of MCB’s sharing the bill this year with the Bolshoi, Kirov and American Ballet Theatre at a special program at the Kennedy Center.

One cloud in MCB’s once again sunny sky: no new choreography of note. Villella’s own Neighborhood Ballroom suite, the complete version of which closes out the season, is, based on the portions we’ve seen, not much more than a fan-friendly, fluffy divertissement. No ballet company we ever heard of ever attained and maintained greatness without also serving as a vehicle for new works. Take the course of American Ballet Theatre’s development, for example, since the Miamians will be dancing with them: new-at-the-time works by Balanchine, Ashton, Tudor, de Mille, Massine, Fokine, Robbins, Tharp, etc. Villella’s adamant consigning of anything new to the “Eurotrash” bin hardly poises MCB on the crest of the wave of ballet’s future.