Rabbit and Rogue

That is the actual title of the new Twyla Tharp ballet for ABT although it may as well be a commentary on the two lead dancers themselves. Ethan Stiefel, who I know fancies himself the rogue, looked quite at home in his black zippered unitard, challenging the rabbit at every opportunity. Herman Cornejo made a wonderful rabbit, bounding across the stage effortlessly - he owned the piece. In one sequence, after one of the pas de deux couples exited, Herman Cornejo flashed across from one corner to the other in a series of lightening fast turns - if I had blinked I would have missed it. Gillian Murphy, David Hallberg and Paloma Herrera were also very good but Cornejo stood out over everyone else.

The strangest thing about the piece was just how much it reminded me of the Twyla stunner In the Upper Room. Although that piece is set to Philip Glass, Danny Elfman's score for Rabbit was very Glass-esque - I have to believe that he saw In the Upper Room while he composed the score and deliberately sought to emulate it. There were moments where the music diverged from Glass patterns and Elfman's movie sound shone through but that did little to erase the earlier work from my mind. I certainly enjoyed Rabbit but I was hoping that Elfman's music would have brought something completely new to the table.

I also have to point out that Etudes, which made up the first half of the program, is exactly the reason why I usually choose NYCB over ABT. ABT performs so many of what I will call society-polite ballets - they can be beautiful and have technical showstopper moments but overall they are just so boring. My least favorite is the "meet and greet" move where the dancers approach each other, wave an arm, move on to the next dancer, wave an arm - just dance already! The spring ABT season is the worst offender - if you have never seen one of their full length ballets then it is worth going once but I just can not sit through Swan Lake, Giselle, Bayadere over and over again. Although NYCB is starting to get more repetitive with its locked in programs, at least each performance offers enough variety that I feel there is always something new to enjoy.