LA Times Review Blackamoore

The Los Angeles Times

DANCE REVIEW Diaghilev-Era
Joffrey Show
The no longer new reconstruction program Sacre du Printemps” still dominated the Joffrey Ballet’s Diaghilev-era program Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Beatriz Rodriguez brought anguish, desperation and rage to the role of the Chosen One, and traced a dramatic struggle against the loss of physical strength. The company danced with visceral impact. Allan Lewis conducted Stravinsky’s music with surging power. Company prowess also was evident in Fokine’s “Petrushka.” But Carl Corry, in the title role, while warm and appealing, generated insufficient sense of pathos and suggested more a puppet than a puppet with a soul. Rodriguez, however, made a sly, knowing Ballerina. Edward Morgan was an energetic, arrogant Blackamoor. Jerel Hilding offered a cryptic Old Showman. Lewis here led Stravinsky’s score with surprisingly low energy. In his first season as the Chinese Conjurer in Massine’s “Parade,” Peter Narbutas bounded and hov. ered weightlessly and offered con- trast between powerful, sharp at- tacks and feline softness. But his leg -work was a bit blurred. The familiar cast of performers trying to lure an audience by doing highlights from their acts included Carole Valleskey as the Little American Girl, and Deborah Dawn and Tom Mossbrucker as the Acro- bats. John Miner conducted Satie’s music with sensitivity and vigor.
-CHRIS PASLES