American Ballet Theatre: Kyle Abraham's Mercurial Son disappoints

American Ballet Theatre kicked off its fall season with a program featuring two world premieres. I didn’t have many expectations for the Gemma Bond work, but I had sky-high expectations for Kyle Abraham’s new piece. As it happens, I ended up really liking Bond’s La Boutique, and I found Abraham’s Mercurial Son a little disappointing. Such is life.

Bond’s La Boutique is self-consciously retro. The music is Rossini’s La Boutique Fantasque. The costumes by Jean-Marc Puissant are weird-looking tutus with black skirts and split panel bodices and black stripes running down the green tights for the men. They were slightly quirky, but the drop waist on the bodices for the women made all of them look like they had long torsos.

The choreography is a tribute to Petipa. There are three couples, all with their own pas de deux. The corps make that classical diagonal formation. It reminded me of the Paquita Grand Pas de Deux.

It was a shallow if fun ballet. When choreographers like Balanchine and Ratmansky do their tributes to Petipa, it comes across as more Petipa than Petipa. That style is in their bones. This is more surface. The other weakness is that while the pas de deux and variations were very lovely, the corps work didn’t have the vision of a Petipa ballet. But it was pleasing. There is something to be said about ballets set to melodic music and choreographed with a classical style.

The three couples were all very good, although I did think that maybe with more bravura dancers, this piece could have been more exciting. Skylar Brandt/Carlos Gonzalez, SunMi Park/Cory Stearns, and Devon Teuscher/Aran Bell are all rather understated stylists. Teuscher and Bell’s pas de deux was the loveliest, although Teuscher did have an unfortunate spill.

Kyle Abraham’s Mercurial Son was polarizing. The people I ran into either loved it or hated it. I’m in the “hated” camp. The music was the biggest problem. Grischa Lichtenberger’s electronica score was loud and abrasive, without much of a percussive, danceable beat. If you want to see ballets that use electronica music that is danceable, watch any of William Forsythe’s works.

The steps Abraham set on the ABT dancers were repetitive and somewhat boiler-plate. He relies too much on the undulating arms and torso. I lost count of the number of times a dancer entered on a diagonal, the spotlight followed them, and they waved their arms frantically, completed a manège of piqué turns, and then disappeared offstage.

I’ve seen Abraham’s pieces for NYCB and Alvin Ailey company, and you could see how much more inspired Abraham was in those ballets. The Runaway or Love Letter (On Shuffle) were really love letters to Taylor Stanley and their unique gifts. This time around, it just seemed as if Abraham wasn’t very inspired by ABT’s dancers. The costumes by Karen Young did not help. The flowing tunics for the men made them look shapeless.

If there was an MVP of Mercurial Son, it was Cassandra Trenary, who made the most out of the steps she was given. But to me, this was the least interesting Abraham I’ve seen.

The evening ended with Harald Lander’s Etudes. It’s long, but with the right cast, it’s a surefire crowd pleaser. The classroom-exercises-to-YAGP-gala never loses its appeal. Jake Roxander was spectacular in the Mazurka, but we all knew he would be. His elevation is unreal, his ability to accelerate and decelerate his turns is audience catnip, and he never sacrifices his fifth position. Only a stumble out of the series of double tours in the finale reminded us that he is human. New principal Isaac Hernández’s dancing had an understated beauty. Catherine Hurlin sparkled in the ballerina role. Her épaulement has improved so much, so her dancing now has a gracious glow as well as speed and power. The audience went home happy.