ABT's Ballet Imperial/The Dream: a weak start but a triumphant end

American Ballet Theatre’s fall season continued with a double bill of established classics, Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial and Ashton’s The Dream. One was an unalloyed success, the other an interesting failure.

Perhaps it was not a good idea for ABT to program Ballet Imperial so soon after NYCB put on Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. Balletomanes know that Ballet Imperial and Piano Concerto No. 2 are the same ballet, just with different costumes.

The positive first: when the curtain rose on the ABT corps, the ballet looked magnificent. The backdrop of St. Petersburg, the chandeliers and curtain drapes, the lovely bell-shaped tutus, all looked so, well, imperial. Especially in contrast to NYCB’s rather ugly blue costumes. Skylar Brandt in the second ballerina role also walked away with the honors. She was musical and technically adept, with excitingly fast chaîné turns and wonderfully articulated entrechats.

However, in the famously difficult prima ballerina role, ABT showed its limits. In the fall, Tiler Peck and Sara Mearns blew through the steps with so much ease it looked almost casual. Last night, Isabella Boylston looked careful and tense in the same steps. She did them, but without any freedom or ease. James Whiteside also looked unusually clumsy in the partnering. He also did not do the double tours to the knee, but simply did double tours. It wasn’t until the third movement that both dancers looked more confident. Boylston did finish the evening with a wonderful set of fouettés.

Another issue was the tempi. It was painfully slow. Maybe too slow, as dancers often struggled holding balances for as long as the conductor held the notes. I don’t expect ABT to dance with quite the speed of NYCB, but there was no contrast between the fast and slow sections, no momentum building, no accelerating during the cadenzas. It was just slow and slower.

Intermission, and then in The Dream, ABT reminded us why they are still a world-class company. Everything was just so right, so harmonious. This is the sort of ballet they do so well. Their dancers tend to be excellent actors with a natural affinity for Ashton’s understated, humane style.

Gillian Murphy reprised her well-loved interpretation of Titania. She’s just about perfect in this role. She’s bossy, she’s endearing, and she has a supple back which is used to great effect in the final pas de deux. Daniel Camargo has the long lines and the ability to hold extended arabesques that were a trademark of Anthony Dowell (the role originator). They were a believably tempestuous married couple.

And of course, Jake Roxander’s debut as Puck was everything you’d expect. It’s a cliché to say that his feet never touched the ground, but in this case it seemed to be an actual description of his dancing. He flew across the stage and then darted in those tiny elfin steps in a way we haven’t seen since, well, Herman Cornejo (the gold standard for the role). If his characterization isn’t quite as clever as Cornejo’s, I’m sure that will come with time. Blaine Hoven reprised his well-loved portrayal of Bottom. His pointe work was not as secure as years past, but it’s still fun to watch him.

The Dream is such a crowdpleaser that one wishes they would do this more often in their Met season. Four performances in the fall just isn’t enough.