cloudy ruminations

Somehow, Olga Smirnova is making this choreography and her beautiful Vaganova/Bolshoi style all new to me--every phrase urgent and unexpected, her extension and command of the stage gripping. I’m shocked that something that’s often seen in the US as so cliched and mannered (from the cutting reviews of the Bolshoi Ballet’s Swan Lake in Lincoln Center a couple years ago) is so breathtaking, new, and moving to me this morning.

Today’s must see: extraordinary Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin in Bolshoi’s Swan Lake, the White Swan pas de deux. 

Mr. Millepied’s choreographic style is his own — fleet, with the body often arrested in sudden still positions that draw the eye to the beauty of line in classical ballet. His partnering is inventive without being overly manipulative. He is highly musical and although the ballet is abstract, the gestures and groupings often suggest a social world, evoking thoughts of friendship, love, power, isolation, fear and hardship.” --Roslyn Sulcas, NYTimes (x)

Some shameless self-promotion because I love Pat’s music and it’s such a cool thing to have been involved with this...!