ADVERTISEMENT
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • ADVERTISEMENT & PAID CONTENT OPPORTUNITIES
SUBSCRIBE NOW
No Result
View All Result
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
The Ballet Herald®
  • HOME
  • BALLET MAGAZINE
    • Ballet Performance Reviews
    • Interviews with Ballet Professionals
    • The Latest Ballet News
    • Feature Ballet Stories
    • On This Day in Ballet History
    • Ballet Schools & Training
    • Opinions
  • BALLET PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
  • BALLET SHOWS IN…
    • Ballet Shows in London
    • Ballet Shows in New York City
    • Ballet Shows in Paris
    • Ballet Shows in Washington, D.C.
  • FAMOUS BALLETS
    • Cinderella
    • Coppélia
    • Don Quixote
    • Giselle
    • La Bayadère
    • La Sylphide
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • Swan Lake
    • The Nutcracker
    • The Sleeping Beauty
  • 2023 BALLET SUMMER INTENSIVE RESOURCES
    • 2023 Ballet Summer Intensive Programs
    • How to Successfully Prepare for Ballet Auditions
    • How to Organize Your Ballet Auditions
  • MORE
    • Ballet Books & Gifts
    • Dance Jobs
    • List of Ballet Companies
    • 2023-2024 Ballet Company Seasons
  • HOME
  • BALLET MAGAZINE
    • Ballet Performance Reviews
    • Interviews with Ballet Professionals
    • The Latest Ballet News
    • Feature Ballet Stories
    • On This Day in Ballet History
    • Ballet Schools & Training
    • Opinions
  • BALLET PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
  • BALLET SHOWS IN…
    • Ballet Shows in London
    • Ballet Shows in New York City
    • Ballet Shows in Paris
    • Ballet Shows in Washington, D.C.
  • FAMOUS BALLETS
    • Cinderella
    • Coppélia
    • Don Quixote
    • Giselle
    • La Bayadère
    • La Sylphide
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • Swan Lake
    • The Nutcracker
    • The Sleeping Beauty
  • 2023 BALLET SUMMER INTENSIVE RESOURCES
    • 2023 Ballet Summer Intensive Programs
    • How to Successfully Prepare for Ballet Auditions
    • How to Organize Your Ballet Auditions
  • MORE
    • Ballet Books & Gifts
    • Dance Jobs
    • List of Ballet Companies
    • 2023-2024 Ballet Company Seasons
No Result
View All Result
The Ballet Herald®
Home Ballet Magazine Ballet Performance Reviews

American Ballet Theatre’s Don Quixote Review: Professionalism, Power, and Prowess on the Potomac

byStone Meredith
April 2, 2022
in Ballet Performance Reviews
Reading Time: 6 mins read
American Ballet Theatre's Don Quixote Review

American Ballet Theatre Review: Professionalism, Power, and Prowess on the Potomac

American Ballet Theatre’s Don Quixote Review
March 31, 2022 | The Kennedy Center – Washington, DC , USA

On Thursday night, March 31st, Washington, DC’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosted the first of five performances of American Ballet Theatre’s Don Quixote. The story ballet was set to the original 1869 choreography of French master Marius Petipa, with Alexander Gorsky, scored by Ludwig Minkus and arranged by Jack Everly. Staging was the 1995 crafting of ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie, with Susan Jones.

As the Kennedy Center celebrates the 50th season, we remember that the Center’s inaugural season spotlighted an ABT performance of the famous Act III pas de deux from this ballet. Over these fifty years, the Kennedy Center’s stages have remained stalwart national homes for excellence in the arts. Concurrently, ABT has remained foundational to that excellence, returning every season for residency. 

The Thursday night performance reflected layers of tradition and the profiles in courage required of such a long-running partnership.

In this 50th season, we see an ABT with a powerful, talented collection of dancers so vast that they can stage, literally, five complete performances without ever duplicating a dancer in key performative roles. ABT fosters this significant talent through company-wide consistency in footwork and form while nurturing individual expertise in port de bras and pantomime. The result: each performance is consistent, but the characters are as individual as the dancers themselves.

For example, at Thursday’s daytime open dress rehearsal, Kanon Kimura was light and ethereal, impish and exacting in her role as Amour, a part she’ll deliver Friday night. But for the Thursday night performance, Amour Léa Fleytoux was long and lean and athletic. Both dancers had excellent form – fast, fast footwork supported stable upper bodies conveying their character’s emotions and actions. Both Amours were captivating and believable, but on each dancer’s individual terms, a freedom McKenzie has nurtured over his 30-year career.

ADVERTISEMENT

American Ballet Theatre's Don Quixote at The Kennedy Center

For Thursday night, former ABT Principal and now Guest Artist Daniil Simkin was our Basilio, a perfect partner to Isabella Boylston’s Kitri. Throughout the first act, Simkin’s silky pirouettes set a standard he maintained all night – controlled, easy, and precise. Despite insignificant, minor gaffes here and there as Boylston settled into what would become definitive second and third Acts for her, the audience was reminded of the power of live performance. We didn’t come to see robotic perfection.

We came to watch real stories unfold. And that’s what we witnessed.

Most importantly, for this ballet to convey the Cervantes ideal of challenging societal norms, we must know the characters as people we can trust. And we trusted this Kitri and Basilio. Of course, the dancer’s individual reputations as accomplished performers factored into that trust.

But the company’s complete internalization of the choreography allowed consistent focus on character development, from gazes to direct visual connection with the audience. For example, by Act I’s charming ‘leg catch,’ in which Basilio catches Kitri’s leg on the third try, the audience was already entranced in the couple’s actions, laughing out loud en masse.

Devon Teuscher’s Mercedes alongside Thomas Forster’s Espada, the Matador, also captivated the crowd from Act I forward. For the several grand, full-stage runs and cape work, the audience could often see the anticipation in Forster as he attacked his moves, much as the crowd sees the action in Spain’s San Fermin Festival. Forster’s height allowed Teuscher to circle fully underneath his expanded overhead cape in their pairing.

Solo, Forster commanded the cape with flawless execution. When the cape finally landed on the stage, several in the audience shouted out at the spectacle. Toro indeed. The playfulness of his six-member toreador troupe completed the important tenets of the Spanish trope.

Teuscher’s dramatic navigation of the Toreador’s banderillas was also memorable. Side-to-side, then backwards en pointe, she navigated the bright little darts with gentle ease.

This performance also provided the best villain this reviewer has ever seen in Don Quixote, Luis Ribagorda, who embodied a sophisticated if oft-duped Gamache. Extensive white facial make-up and a well-coiffed black wig underscored his confident air, enhancing comedic gaffes more than once at his character’s expense.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tickets for Kennedy Center Performances ⤞

Act II allowed the six-member gypsy corps to showcase height and full extension in their cavalcade of leaps and feats. The pull between The Matador and his mesmerizing bull, personified in Teuscher’s Mercedes, was palpable here as well.

The call-and-response twinning of Simkin and Boylston was electrifying by this point, with resounding applause following each lead’s solo. Perfect arching of the back – a consistent realization by all this night – complimented everything from the staccato pointe work to softer demi-pointe passages.

Again, as in Act I, dreamy twining of port de bras between Simkin and Boylston showcased symmetrical height and placement.

By Act III, the audience happily assumed each movement would end in sync between dancers and orchestra due to the expertise of ABT Music Director and tonight’s Conductor, Ormsby Wilkins.

From start to finish, the orchestra committed to Wilkins and his baton; he committed to his dancers, and the synergy built throughout the performance. Such collaboration is required of this complex and rapid ballet but rarely realized at this level.

Santo Loquasto’s scenery and costumes were spectacular in this final act, particularly the sparkling white, bejeweled wear of our Kitri and Basilio. And the final, coy veronicas between Mercedes and Espada were dazzling against their gold costumes.

American Ballet Theatre - Don Quixote - DC
Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin in Don Quixote. Photo by Gene Schiavone.
ADVERTISEMENT

The audience enjoyed Simkin’s delicate positioning of Boylston for her complex, gravity-defying attitudes balances. Her fouettés, too fast and flawless to count, brought her forward on the stage. Simkin answered with vigorous, stunning grand allegro, entrechats, and extensions.

The much-anticipated final pas de deux between Boylston and Simkin was worth the wait – paradoxically intimate and expansive in the realization. What started as a slow burn in Act I culminated in a full eruption of speed and execution that had the audience verbally reacting for much of the last Act.

As the ballet closed with the complete company in happy movement during the Wedding Scene, the audience was roaring with applause before the curtain even started coming down. The buzz continued outside the Opera House, as patrons raved all the way to the Center’s front door over the ballet’s stunning success. Magnificent.

While attending a ballet is about the performance itself, of course, The Kennedy Center created a complete experience, as always, for all patrons, starting at the Vaccine Verification Center, when Staffers like Jeff Urujo patiently and warmly welcomed us to the Center and the experience. No detail is missed at the Center, and the pride in the staff showed at every level.

Don Quixote continues at The Kennedy Center through April 3rd.

Featured Photo of Isabella Boylston in American Ballet Theatre’s Don Quixote. Photo by Gene Schiavone.

Tags: American Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet Theatre 2021-2022 SeasonDaniil SimkinDevon TeuscherDon QuixoteIsabella BoylstonKanon KimuraKennedy CenterKevin McKenzieLéa FleytouxLuis RibagordaOrmsby WilkinsThomas Forster
Stone Meredith

Stone Meredith

Stone Meredith is the founder of The Clever Chicas Project, a collaborative network that highlights ordinary women doing extraordinary things. The project promotes cultural literacy through a series of educational initiatives. Initiative collaborators include The Florida State Theatre and The Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Georgia. She is an accomplished online instructor of college-level literature, philosophy, and writing.

Related Posts

American Ballet Theatre 2023 Summer Season
The Latest Ballet News

American Ballet Theatre 2023 Summer Season

April 17, 2023
Gloria's Promise - A Labor of Sisterly Love
Feature Ballet Stories

Gloria’s Promise: A Literary Labor of Sisterly Love

March 20, 2023
First Chicago ABT Pride Night Features Two Chi-town Premieres
The Latest Ballet News

First Chicago ABT Pride Night Features Two Chi-town Premieres

March 16, 2023
Stella Abrera is ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School's New Artistic Director
The Latest Ballet News

Stella Abrera is ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School’s New Artistic Director

March 16, 2023

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

The most interesting ballet news and stories of the week

Receive a roundup of news & upcoming performances direct to your inbox.

Order Now!

Mr. B


Being a Ballerina


Grand Jeté and Me

Popular Stories

Ballerina with Alzheimer’s: The Untold Story of Marta Cinta

Nutcracker Ballet Quiz: Test Your Knowledge!

The Professional Ballet Community Adapts in a Pandemic World

Ballet Books for Your Reading List

Gargouillade Gate: Everything You Need to Know About the American Ballet Theatre and Dutch National Ballet Feud

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram RSS
No Result
View All Result

The most interesting ballet news and stories of the week

Receive a roundup of news & upcoming performances direct to your inbox.

The Ballet Herald

  • Privacy Policy

© 2023 The Ballet Herald™ by BalletNomad, LLC®

No Result
View All Result
  • ➩ Subscribe Now
  • Home
  • ☀️ 2023 Ballet Summer Intensives Resources
    • 2023 Ballet Summer Intensive Programs
    • How to Successfully Prepare for Ballet Auditions
    • How to Organize Your Ballet Auditions
  • Ballet Books & Gifts
  • Dance Jobs
  • Ballet Magazine
    • Ballet Performance Reviews
    • Interviews with Ballet Professionals
    • The Latest Ballet News
    • Feature Ballet Stories
    • On This Day in Ballet History
    • Ballet Schools & Training
    • Opinions
  • Ballet Performance Calendar
  • Ballet Shows In…
    • Ballet Shows in London
    • Ballet Shows in New York City
    • Ballet Shows in Paris
    • Ballet Shows in Washington, D.C.
  • Famous Ballets
    • Cinderella
    • Coppélia
    • Don Quixote
    • Giselle
    • La Bayadère
    • La Sylphide
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • The Nutcracker
    • Swan Lake
    • The Sleeping Beauty
  • Ballet Companies
  • 2023-2024 Ballet Company Seasons
  • ⊙ About
  • ⊙ Contact
  • ⊙ Advertisement & Paid Content Opportunities

© 2023 The Ballet Herald™ by BalletNomad, LLC®