Friday’s opening night performance of “Don Quixote” found the Richmond Ballet possibly in need of another rehearsal. Along with some minor costume and prop issues, there were timing and technique issues.
A large lance slipped from its resting place, narrowly missing Don Quixote’s head; a fallen robe tripped up a dancer, who gracefully caught himself; and some of the hooks at the top of the back of the principal female’s costume came undone.
The three female soloists had trouble staying in sync. The lead soloist fell out of a short series of fouette turns, and never seemed to regain her confidence. She also never fully completed a basic double pirouette turn.
Combining ballet, character and Latin dance, “Don Quixote” tells the story of Kitri, a young woman in love with the handsome and virile Basilio, even though her parents would have her betrothed to the farcical and wealthy buffoon Gamache.
The company brought in Argentinian dancers Silvina Perillo and Alejandro Parente of the Teatro Colon Ballet, Buenos Aires, for the lead roles of Kitri and Basilio. Their technique was more solid than the Richmond company’s, but still not overly impressive.
Perillo and Parente had good chemistry, and authentic sassy Latin sensuality. They had excellent balance and turns, though Perillo’s leaps weren’t quite up to typical Kitri standards.
It was a refreshing change from the usual company line-up, but perhaps the company’s money would have been better spent on more hours in the classroom, or a new dance teacher.
Another expense was the sets and costumes. Borrowed from the National Ballet of Canada, the sets and costumes were vibrant, lavish and colorful. A swarm of jewel-toned, black-laced and multi-tiered Spanish skirts filled the stage.
When all the corps’ dancers moved in unison, it was very impressive. They seemed to have their timing down better than the three female soloists.
For most of the show, though, the corps did different dances around the edges of the stage, which proved too much to take in all at once. With all the bright colors and movement, the stage was too busy to concentrate on any one thing.
Act 2 was exuberant, sexy and energetic. The corps was dressed as pirates and gypsies, and the setting is a tavern. The men exude the sensuality that should have been present throughout the Spanish-themed show as they shimmy their torsos, crack whips and bend over backward.
The “grand pas de deux” of the principal couple is at the very end. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Leslie Brown made this scene famous in the 1977 dancing flick, “The Turning Point.”
The show-off moment is when Basilio lifts Kitri above his head with one fully stretched arm as she tilts sideways and lifts her leg from the side to be pointing to the ceiling.
The show ran for only three nights at the Landmark Theater, a change from the company’s typical two-weekend stint when they use that space. Shorter runs of smaller, shorter shows usually occur in the company’s studio theater space.
Created by Marius Petipa in 1869, a time before ADHD, the ballet’s three acts and two intermissions proved too long for some theater-goers. Many people left at the intermissions.
Clocking in at around two hours and thirty minutes, the ballet was about half an hour too long. With a growing trend in the performing arts community for short-to-medium length intermission-free works, this performance seemed dated and increasingly tedious.
It is unfortunate that the audience began to grow tired of the ballet toward the end, because that is the most impressive part.