To Bee or Not to Bee

Although the calamity-plagued Spiderman musical grabs most of the news coverage, ballet has its own costume malfunctions and stage mishaps to contend with. Haglund, who attended the official premiere of ABT's Nutcracker last night at ABT, reports on an incident involving a pistil-packin' mama and a buzzing suitor:



One of the Bumble Bees attempted to pollinate one of the Flowers and their costumes became attached. One of the costumes ripped open baring the chest of . . . the Bumble Bee. They struggled with each other for a moment while everyone else continued to dance. When it became apparent that they would either have to dance forever attached or leave the stage, the Bumble Bee made a quick-thinking theatrical motion to wings, and the two ran off. A few bars later, the Bumble Bee buzzed back on stage and subsequently the Flower blossomed once again from wings...



Good thing they didn't equip the bee costumes with stingers because who knows where one of them might get stuck?

It was a different pair of principals from the preview performance, bringing a different tempo and temperature.



Clara, the Princess, and the Nutcracker Prince were Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg. Tonight was decidedly different than last night. It was much cooler and much more traditional in feeling than the glorious, at times wild, energy of Part and Gomes the night before. While Murphy's and Hallberg's lines and pirouettes may have been cleaner and conservative, their dancing didn?t really connect them to the younger Clara and the Nutcracker Boy. Many will prefer the calmer, more traditional approach, but Haglund was so overwhelmed by Part and Gomes? take on the whole story that tonight was a bit of a let-down. No one can really legitimately voice any complaints about the technique, though; it was pristine. Murphy and Hallberg approached the Grigorovich lift differently. She releved and he just picked her up and walked forward. There was a little bit of a bauble in her extended leg but there was never any threat of the pose dismantling. Hopefully one of the principal couples will find the courage to execute this lift in the true spirit of Grigorovich.



"Glorious, at times wild, energy"--yes, I believe that's what my intermission oracle meant when he said of Veronika's Act One dancing, "She really turned that mother out."

Again, I apologize for using technical ballet terminology seldom heard outside the Vaganova Academy, but such is the language I speak and breathe.

Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/12/to-bee-or-not-to-bee.html

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