Stuttgart Ballet. - Staatstheater, Stuttgart, Germany - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, March, 1997 by Horst Koegler

Within the first hundred days of his newly established Stuttgart reign, Reid Anderson had (a) threatened to resign because of budget cuts (which is why he had resigned as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada); (b) been appointed Intendant of Stuttgart Ballet, a position that combines the roles of general manager and artistic director (only John Neumeier in Hamburg and William Forsythe in Frankfurt enjoy the same status in Germany); and (c) presented three highly acclaimed productions.

The first was a revival of John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, the company's signature ballet. The second was a quadruple bill consisting of revised productions of Les Sylphides, Cranko's Opus 1, and Glen Tetley's Voluntaries, plus the premiere of Uwe Scholz's Notations I-IV, a stunning solo for Vladimir Malakhov, who was afterward branded spectre du nucleaire.

In between, having withdrawn--after complicated negotiations--his threatened resignation, Anderson offered his first all-new program on December 5. This started with an excellent production of Balanchine's The Four Temperaments, staged by Joysanne Sidimus. It was performed in meticulous fashion, with Krzysztof Nowagrodzki leading "Melancholic," Sue Jin Kang and Roland Vogel "Sanguinic," the brilliant Robert Tewsley "Phelgmatic," and Julia Kramer "Choleric." The successful result was the more astonishing as the company has little to no experience with Balanchine (former chief Marcia Haydee never pretended to have any sympathies for Mr. B).

The Four Temperaments was followed by Frederick Ashton's Monotones, not exactly the Stuttgarters' cup of tea, though decently performed by Bridget Breiner, Delphine Seignolle, and Thomas Lempertz in the opening "Gnossiennes" section, and by Celia Verignon, Roland Vogel, and Ivan Cavallari in the subsequent "Gymnopedies." Next came Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, a stunning display piece for Margaret Illmann (looking almost like a younger sister of Violette Verdy) and Malakhov, whose fixed peasant grin marks such a striking contrast to his noble bearing and polished footwork.

The one brand-new work was Kazimir's Colours, set to Shostakovich's bubbling concerto for piano and trumpet and choreographed by the thirty-six-year-old Roman, Mauro Bigonzetti. This is a swift and sparkling work, sandwiched somewhere between Balanchine and Forsythe. It's vastly overchoreographed and not very musically structured, but it is infectiously performed by a cast of twenty headed by the indefatigable Illmann and Tewsley, definitely Stuttgart's hit couple. The title refers to the Russian suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich, whose glaring colors inspired the funny costumes designed by Lucia Socci.

Kazimir's Colours is one of those tailor-made pieces for the Stuttgart, which, with its high-voltage energy level, lustfully seduces the audience--and there is nothing that Stuttgart audiences enjoy more than being seduced by their highly popular dancers.