Legwarmers and Tiaras: Sinatra Suite -- ABT at Bard College, Friday October 17, 2008

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sinatra Suite -- ABT at Bard College, Friday October 17, 2008

Sinatra Suite gives the viewer pleasure on several levels. If you are a fan of Ol' Blue Eyes, as I am, the sexy tones of the singer of the songs sends ripples up and down your spine. You could close your eyes and enjoy the five songs on their own. Ah, but then you'd miss the sexy dancing! And the sexy Jose Manuel Carreño. And the luscious Luciana Paris tangoing and slow-dancing so senuously with him. Oh, and if fashion is your thang, then knowing that Oscar de la Renta designed the little black dress and fitted three piece suit might turn you on.

For those used to a bare-chested Carreño or a Carreño in bold-colored tights which show off his leg musculature, or those hoping for a glimpse of his beautiful strong neck, well.....too bad. You're getting instead the suave, self-assured, 40 year old Carreño who knows his way around a (ballroom-)dance floor and around a beautiful lady. In glossy black dress shoes and sleeves down to his wrists, Jose gives us a Frank Sinatra-styled terpsichorean smoothie with just a hint of Hispanic flair. No Fred Astaire here. This is a Carreño original! By the time he gets to his closing solo ("One for My Baby ....and One More for the Road)", his tie is undone and he's lost a cufflink on the stage, but he hardly looks disheveled.

A classical Jose Carreño in a Roy Round photo

No, not our "Frank". His shirt is still neatly tucked into his trousers, his hair is still neatly coiffed, his shoes are still shiny, and his vest still buttoned up. A class act into the wee hours of the morning is our guy. Alone and wistful, but his own man, lady or no. But what about the dancing? Oh baby, there was dancing, exquisite and intimate, transporting the onlooker to her own memories of dances danced. Accomplished and sometimes balletic, with multiple dress-shoe pirouettes spun out by Carreño during his solo. When things got hot, the jacket came off, the first time with Luciana Paris's help in tossing it into the wings (it reappeared later, airborne, from the opposite wing, thrown in to be donned for the next song).

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Elaine Kudo in Sinatra Suite

So, let me tell you about Luciana Paris. I'll start by talking a little about Elaine Kudo. I don't think there are many dancers today who can do what Kudo did in and for Sinatra Suite. She had the right combination of slightly dangerous, untouchable woman, forbidding yet striking in appearance, a woman who was in control, not only of herself but of her partner (even when it was Baryshnikov), and her partner knew it. Elaine Kudo instinctively knew how to make you like her because you could identify with her sense of jaded longing, despite being in awe and a little fear of her! This characterization worked so well in Sinatra Suite, where the dancing goes from glamourous tenderness to eristic scrappiness to been-there-done-that-but-I'll-do-it-again-if-only-for-the-memories arousal and momentary euphoria.

So that's what Luciana Paris had to live up to! She didn't make it, of course, but what she did make, was wonderful, taken for itself. Paris's seductive, submissive response to "Strangers in the Night" and "All the Way" was haunting in its beauty. She had the opportunity to use her ballet-perfected technique to great advantage in the pas de deux filled with lifts, supported arabesques and penches, turning attitudes and pirouettes. In character pumps (with the pink elastic which blends into the tights holding the shoe on), Paris has a beautiful foot, and her draped black dress floats enticingly in harmony with her leg extensions.

Paris' "That's Life" was a quirky, almost quaint, response to Carreño's harsh treatment. Harsh is almost too strong a word, for I never felt threatened by Carreño. This strange pas de deux, in the hands of these two dancers is more zany than abusive, but carefully so. There was little letting loose, more a controlled couple's quarrel. It made the head bobbing and yanking movements comical instead of hateful, the pushing and pulling playful rather than menacing. I would have liked to have seen more sharpness in angles and head throws, more sustenance and holding back until a last minute-release in those push-pull sequences.

Instead of cynical indifference during "My Way", Paris presented an unused soul to her partner and was left a bit bewildered in the lurch, as if this was a first-time emotional hardening.

Luciana Paris and Marcelo Gomes in Sinatra Suite
Gene Schiavone photo

I give her kudos :) for undertaking this difficult pentathlon of dances (she doesn't appear at all in the fifth one, Carreño's solo, but is definitely a part of it in retrospect). I'd love to see her dance it again. I'd also like to see it attempted by a number of other ABT women from all echelons of the company.

The Suite ends with the solo "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)", a real chance for Jose Manuel Carreño to step out of the box of classical ballet and show us a completely new side of himself. He did not come through. While the dancing is extraordinary in its seeming simplicity, which Carreño can easily pull off because of his body of work in ballet, there was more opportunity to show us something unexpected and memorable. I, at least, did not get that. Maybe others did. It was utterly fabulous, from the sheer dancing aspect, and the nuances were there, but, I have to say, when I saw Carreño's name in the program, I was very excited.

Angel Corella and Sarah Lane in Sinatra Suite
Gene Schiavone photo

Maybe I shouldn't have had any preconceived expectations. But I did. I wanted an unbelievable, amazing, transformative rendition of these pieces. I wanted people who didn't know Carreño from Adam to sit up and take notice and walk away with "I just saw the best thing since Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly". I suppose we will still be in wait for someone to take up that mantle. I don't think Marcelo Gomes can uproot their hold, either, but I would like to see him try! I hear he and Misty Copeland are the bomb! I never did get a chance to see them together. Lucky are those that did.