American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Season made its return to the Metropolitan Opera House for the first time in three years with a week of Don Quixote. This sunny romp through 16th-century Spain has only the most cursory relationship with Miguel de Cervantes’ novel. Instead, it’s become a great showcase for old-fashioned bravura dancing. It's no surprise that this ballet is a huge favorite with the Bolshoi Ballet. Bolshoi means “big” in Russian, and that’s the way they dance Don Quixote – grand, bold, in primary colors. Ballerinas like Maya Plisetskaya or Natalia Osipova set new benchmarks for how the role of Kitri should be danced, defined by huge, gravity-defying jumps and lightning-fast footwork.
In contrast, ABT’s Don Quixote comes across as sweet but slight. Its effects are in shades of pastel. The performance I attended had excellent dancing, but the overall impression was like a Broadway show that’s been running for so long that the original magic is gone. Skylar Brandt (Kitri) was charming. She has a great stage face with the large eyes and a bright smile. Technically there wasn’t much she couldn’t do, although her jumps are on the small side. Her fouettés were excellent – very centered, with multiple pirouettes thrown in. The weakness was a certain lack of musicality. In Kitri's fan variation, I noticed that Brandt waved her fan and timed her échappés with little relation to the music.
Herman Cornejo (Basilio) is now 41 years old, and no longer the virtuoso trickster of years past. However, he is still the best dancer onstage. Like all great artists, he knows how to show off what he can do and hide what he can’t do. He no longer has much of an arabesque. His cabrioles are still air-splicing wonders. He now likes to do a series of decelerating pirouettes and shows off such gorgeous line and control that the audience starts applauding wildly. His partnering skills have improved – I remember the days when he struggled with the one-arm lifts. No such problems tonight.