I have few quibbles with George Balanchine's exquisite A Midsummer Night's Dream (see my posts of May 29, 2016 and May 29, 2017) except that the second act is too short, cut somewhat from the 1962 premiere, presumably, as Arlene Croce has written, "to pacify restless Nutcracker-prone audiences." Croce goes on to say "So much of the choreography [in the second act] is a condensation to begin with; in condensed and abstracted form, it continues the first act's story of love and folly." (The New Yorker, March 23 1981, reprinted in Going to the Dance.). I was not surprised that my eight-year-old daughter preferred the first act ("because of its story") though she did appreciate the complex and beautiful choreography of the second act, with the divertissement danced by Megan Fairchild and Tyler Angle.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is another one of the Balanchine ballets that seemed neglected by Peter Martins and now has refurbished costumes and scenery. The first act follows the Shakespeare play and replaces Shakespeare's poetry with expressive dancing and some mime. In the first act Joseph Gordon was Oberon and Miriam Miller was Titania, both forceful and elegant. The children from The School of American Ballet were rehearsed and supervised by Dana Abergel and Arch Higgins and were all terrific. The second act is ostensibly abstract but, as usual in Balanchine's "abstract" ballets it is about many things, including the love that exists after all the quarrels in the first act. I was also pleased with how wonderful the corps was, in both technique and attack.
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