Romantic Ballets Win Rave Review for New Jersey Ballet
When New Jersey Ballet presented, “An Evening of Star-Crossed
Lovers” at Kean University on Jan. 14, dance critic Robert
Johnson gave the program, to be repeated in March and May, an enthusiastic
recommendation. Writing in the Newark Star-Ledger,
he said: “Ballet fans enjoy some first-rate dancing.”
Johnson
continued, “In his one-act ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ former
American Ballet Theatre star Johan Renvall attempts to liberate the ballet's
most intimate and exciting scenes from the weight of its Renaissance pageantry…in
this version, Friar Laurence and Juliet's nurse meet sometime after the young
lovers' deaths to recall the tragedy. The concept is intriguing...
“The leads, Mari Sugawa and Albert Davydov, are pretty ingénues
of peaches-and-cream, whipped by an invisible breeze that lifts them in the air.
Sugawa in particular manages to balance emotional spontaneity with delicate,
stylistic precision. Her light-footed performance was exquisite. As Mercutio,
Andres Neira shrugged off the choreography's virtuosic demands with apparent
ease.
“Always a favorite, ‘Giselle’ Act II mists the stage with a
creepy, supernatural atmosphere in which the ghosts of jilted maidens rise from
their graves to wreak vengeance on the male sex…the Wilis exist in a veiled
realm untouched by the emotions of the living. Myrtha, their queen, seems inhumanly
cruel. Yet the ballet's recently deceased heroine, Giselle, still recalls the
tenderness of a woman in love. As Giselle, ballerina Julia Vorobyeva betrayed
this passion subtly, saving the life of her beloved, Albrecht, while preserving
the demeanor of an elusive wraith.
“Michelle deFremery was an airborne Myrtha, especially fine in a circle
of tours jetés and solid poses on pointe. Vorobyeva omitted a pirouette
on pointe…yet her execution was otherwise flawless and she lent an alabaster
beauty to the role. Her partner, Andrei Jouravlev, made Albrecht a figure of
suffering humanity.
“While displaying the dancers' prowess, New Jersey Ballet's ‘Giselle’ Act
II builds to a wonderful climax of dramatic suspense.”
“An Evening of Star-Crossed Lovers” can be seen at 8 pm
on two Saturdays, March 4, at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in
Englewood (phone 1-888-PAC-SHOW) and May 20 at the Community Theatre
in Morristown (phone 973-539-8008)
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