Edson Barbosa, José Pablo Castro Cuevas, and Amanda Assucena. Photo by Cheryl Mann.
The Joffrey Ballet visits the Kennedy Center this week and dancing for all its worth. As it turned out, it was worth a lot on opening night—as dance, as terrific theater, as a living legend of the RussIan-inspired Golden Age of Ballet.
…one of its finer programs in years…spectacular…
The years between 1916 and 1927 was truly a most remarkable era in dance. Impresario Serge Diaghilev had gathered the great artists in Europe and formed a touring company, The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. With sets by Pablo Picasso; costumes by Leon Bakst; music by Igor Stravinsky; choreography by Michel Fokine, George Balanchine, Leonide Massine and Vslav Nijinsky, Ballet Russe was a trend-setter and drew much attention throughout the western hemisphere.
In one of its finer programs in years, The Joffrey Ballet paid a special tribute to Ballet Russe and its penchant for Russian story ballets. In a word, the Joffrey’s rendition of “Anna Karenina” is spectacular and brought memories of the Joffrey’s 1987 ballet, “Sacre du Printemps,”originally choreographed by Nijinsky for the Ballet Russe. Joffrey, a ballet company that prides itself in classical contemporary, modern, pop and historical recreations, is perfectly suited for the difficult task of re-staging these famous works.
Last Wednesday’s Kennedy Center debut of “Anna Karenina” was heart-wrenching, led by Amanda Assucena, the doomed aristocratic wife who falls in love with the dashing officer and family friend, Cavalry Officer Alexey Vronsky (José Pablo Castro Cuevas), while her husband, Alexey Karenin (Edson Barbosa), dances in grief and despair. Meanwhile, the handsome Konstatin Levin (Xavier Núñez), a family friend and suitor to Kitty (Yumi Kanazawa), who adds perkiness and frivolity to the ballet, demonstrates his passionate desires for Anna in choreographed variations created by the Ukrainian-born Yuri Possokhov, a former Principal with the Bolshoi Ballet and recent choreographer for the San Francisco Ballet.
Costume and Set Designer Tom Pye deserves praise for his creations. The set pieces move up and down and around and around, with dancers dashing above and below, especially spooky in the Prologue, set in the train station that presages the tragic ending. Composer Ilya Demutsky created a voice—a choral, symphonic piece for The Joffrey Ballet in a co-production with the Australian Ballet. The magnificence of this opus, performed with power and grace by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra under the spirited baton of Scott Speck, captures the intensely human traits in the story. This intensity transfers into powerful dancing, especially the Pas de Trois where Anna is thrown from her lover to her husband, back and forth as we gasp.
Other dramatic dances include the poignant part where Anna struggles with her husband to reach out to their son, Seryozha (Jaziel Peralta). Anna takes morphine to dull her misery and soon recognizes a simple way to end her suffering in a modern dance solo that would have pleased Martha Graham.
The dance performance is an accurate portray of Tolstoy’s great work. I highly recommend this ballet, however, I would suggest you refresh on the plot and characters—or just sit back and enjoy the ballet.
Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes including one intermission.
“Anna Karenina,” based on Leo Tolstoy’s 1878 book, runs through April 9, 2023 by The Joffrey Ballet at the Kennedy Center Opera House, 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20566. For tickets and more information, visit here. Masks are optional.
