STRAVINSKY FESTIVAL IN HOLLAND.

STRAVINSKY FESTIVAL IN HOLLAND

DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET HET MUZIEKTHEATER AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS FEBRUARY-MARCH 2000

The Dutch National Ballet has grown tremendously to such a high standard during the last few years that it is a feast to see them dance. During February and March the company presented a festival of six ballets to Stravinsky's music. With delight and great musical feeling, the company performed three choreographies of George Balanchine--Apollon-Musagete, Stravinsky Violin Concerto and Symphony in Three Movements --Bronislava Nijinska's Les Noces and two premieres.

Apollon-Musagete was danced in the original long version with Altin Alexandros Kaftira as a heroic and strong Apollo and Sofiane Sylve outstanding as Calliope, a role she danced with ease and elegance. Coleen Davis, a principal soloist who says farewell in May after more than twenty years with the company, excelled as a proud and forceful bride in Les Noces.

Premieres were created by Wayne Eagling, artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet, and Krzysztof Pastor, a freelance choreographer.

Eagling has made only a handful of works for the company since becoming its artistic director, but for this festival he choreographed a new Le Sacre du Printemps. The ballet starts out strongly with nine women and nine men dancing to the driving force of the music. Around them a stage-length billowing cloth, another canvas backdrop and several stones are placed to create an impression of nature. Eagling's spring offering is a male, the dancer Gael Lambiotte, who descends from above and is seduced by Sofiane Sylve. Their duet is earthy; they circle each other with acrobatic moves. The group surrounds them and lifts Sylve atop Lambriotte. The couple's dancing is terrific, but unfortunately, the choreography lacks interesting group work and coherence with the music.

Krzysztof Pastor created a visually attractive lyrical ballet, Do not go gentle ..., to Stravinsky's In memoriam Dylan Thomas and the largo movement from Symphony in E-flat, all set against astonishing video projections of moving clouds in different skies. The choreography consisted of a poetic duet for two women dancers and a trio of three male dancers. Ruta Jezerskyte and Valerie Valentine, in elegant golden brocade tunics, investigate each other in turns and jumps, expressing the spoken words and creating shadows by performing before and behind the screen. They exit when the trio appears. The men stay tightly together, alternating solo work and high jumps--virtuoso dancing, but it lacked a strong connection to the Stravinsky rhythms. The choreography on the whole was made with a wink to Kylian.

Led by its new director, Thierry Fisher, the Nederlands Ballet Orchestra accompanied the two programs.