American Ballet Theatre: a lack of chemistry sinks Swan Lake

One of the things actors have to do when auditioning for a role is a “chemistry read” with other prospective members of the cast. This is not necessarily just romantic chemistry. Directors like to see how different actors play off each others’ energy. Lack of chemistry within a cast can be an absolute killer and the difference between a smash hit and a box office bomb. 

I was thinking about this last night as I watched ABT’s umpteenth Swan Lake. Although there was very fine dancing, it was undone by the complete lack of chemistry between the leads. Catherine Hurlin and James Whiteside had no connection, no eye contact, no warmth. As a result, this Swan Lake seemed tired and rote. 

To be fair to Whiteside, he was a late substitution when Isaac Hernandez withdrew with an injury. But the technical demands of Siegfried are now a little beyond Whiteside’s abilities. His arabesque line is not as pure as it once was and he seems to struggle with plié, so his landings are brittle. The plusses of his dancing: his partnering is outstanding. 

Hurlin on the other hand is a dancer in her prime. From far away, she looks and dances a lot like Gillian Murphy (retiring this season). Same red hair, same height, similar facial bone structure. She also has Murphy’s strength in footwork and weakness in adagio. 

Hurlin’s Odette was impeccable step-wise, but there was not much liquidity in her arms, back and neck. Her upper body doesn’t sing. The hallmark of an adagio dancer is the ability to slowly raise or lower the leg in arabesque or developpé. Hurlin’s legs had a tendency to rise and fall in a straight line without that beautiful arc that the most skilled adagio dancers can make. 

Beyond that, she was just not a natural tragedienne. There was a brightness to her eyes, a strength and straightforwardness that worked against Odette. To Hurlin’s credit, she did not purposely adopt the sad, staring-at-the-ground mannerisms that a less confident dancer might have added. But overall, Hurlin and Odette are not a natural fit. The lack of connection between her and Whiteside was more noticeable in the lakeside scenes. They seemed to be dancing in the same spaces rather than dancing together.

Her Odile, however, was excellent. She is a wonderfully fast, secure turner. Her extroverted personality worked for the Black Swan pas de deux. For the coda, she chose to substitute the traditional fouettés with a manège of piqué turns and jetés. I didn’t really mind the substitution, although it probably disappointed a lot of audience members. 

The pas de trois (often an afterthought) received an excellent performance. Fangqi Li was particularly charming in the ‘turning’ girl solo. Elisabeth Beyer in the ‘jumping’ solo was more mixed. Her entrechats were excellent, but there was something too YAGP-gala about her performance. She held balances for way longer than the speed at which the conductor was managing the tempi of the music, and was relentlessly mugging the audience with a bright, fixed smile. Carlos Gonzalez was understated but charming as Benno.

Purple Rothbart’s solo in the ballroom scene remains one of the productions’ weirdest quirks. In the past, it was a short, brief solo for the company’s many superstars like Marcelo Gomes and David Hallberg. Last night, Andrii Ishchuk chugged through the solo with noticeable effort. 

Kevin McKenzie shredded the final act by erasing the swan dances (they instead march in front of a curtain scrim as the scenery is loudly moved in the background), and erases the moment of Siegfried trying to find Odette among her swan flock. Instead, it’s a 5 minute pas de deux, a jump into the lake, and that is it. As mentioned, there was little rapport between Hurlin and Whiteside. An Odette and Siegfried who looked about as warm as strangers in an elevator made the finale anti-climactic.