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REVIEW: Tulsa Ballet "Don Quixote"
Published: 9/20/2008 11:56 PM
Last Modified: 9/20/2008 11:56 PM

The ballet version of “Don Quixote” — itself a story more than 400 years old — goes back to 1869. But the way Tulsa Ballet performed this classic story ballet made it seem as fresh and invigorating and startling as one of the company’s world premiere creations.
It’s not just that Tulsa Ballet performed this ballet well. They tore into “Don Quixote” as if this ballet was going to be the last thing they would every do in their lives, and they were going to make it something those who got to see would never forget. Doing this ballet well — doing it to the fullest of their individual and collective abilities — was the most important thing in the world for these dancers Friday night at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.
Tulsa Ballet has for the last decade been a dance company that has gone from strength to strength, triumph to triumph. Tulsa audiences have come to expect excellence from this troupe — maybe even become a little jaded about what this city has in Tulsa Ballet.
Marcello Angelini, the company’s artistic director, credits the company’s recent tour of South Korea for this new attitude. Tulsa Ballet’s performances in Seoul were the highlight of the international dance expo in which the company participated, better than any of the other companies involved.
“To get that kind of recognition, to make that kind of impression on a new audience, gave the company a new sense of confidence,” Angelini said. “And that comes across on the stage. They know they are good — they’ve proven that to themselves, by the reception they got in Korea.”
Well, they received a similar reception in Tulsa Friday, as Tulsa Ballet fans enthusiastically — and vociferously — reacted to the opening night performance of “Don Quixote.”
The stage practically crackled with energy from the ballet’s start to the full-company encore of the final celebratory wedding dance. In fact, the speed and vigor with which the company went at the ballet’s first act made one wonder if they would have the energy to make it through to the final curtain. But they did, maintaining that level of energy without sacrificing the technical precision and sense of character a ballet like “Don Quixote” demands.
It made Friday’s performance — for this viewer, at least — one of those rare times in the theater where one spends the evening smiling constantly. Not just because there is a lot of humor in “Don Quixote” — which there is; it’s one of the few classic ballets that knows the value of making people laugh — but because the pure and simple joy of watching artists do difficult things superbly.
Principal dancers Alfonso Martin and Karina Gonzalez, as the young lovers Basilio and Kitri, continue to be a dynamic duo.
Gonzalez’s maturation as a ballerina has been a fascinating process to behold, and here she demonstrated exceptional poise and confidence in one of the more physically demanding roles in the classical repertoire.
There’s a lot of jumping, a lot of multiple pirouettes and fouettes, pointe work that requires toes of steel and gyroscopic balance — all while portraying the growth of a girl from coquettish flirt to a young woman committed to following her heart. Gonzalez brings off the technical aspects of the role without seeming the break a sweat, spinning off multiple turns and executing soaring leaps with grace and speed.
Martin also seems perfectly at home in “Don Quixote’s” mix of classical rigor and devil-may-care expressiveness. His dancing here is bold and risky, with last-second fillips at the height of every leap or turn. These moves, however, seem perfectly in character, and are executed with the proper classical cleanness. It’s dazzling, any way you look at it.
And that same level of commitment in evident down through the company’s ranks. Ma Cong leads a quartet of matadors (Ke Da, Mugen Kazama, Rupert Edwards, Masahiro Momose) with all the macho swagger and sharp athleticism you could want. Conversely, Ashley Blade-Martin and Hanae Seki embody the ethereal qualities of the Queen of the Dryads and Amour in Don Quixote’s dream in Act Two. The hand-clapping, heel-stomping men’s number at the start of Act Three is a near-show stopper.
Ricardo Graziano camps it up as the outrageously foppish Gamache, counterbalanced by Alberto Montesso’s more earthy Sancho Panza and Sarkis Kaltakchian’s stalwart Don Quixote.
Nathan Fifield, the ballet company's music director, led the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra in a most spirited performance of the Ludwig Minkus score. The tempo of some passages seemed a trifle fast, but not to the point that dancers had to struggle to keep pace.
“Don Quixote” will have two more performances, 8 p.m. Saturday (that’s tonight) and 3 p.m. Sunday. Friday’s cast will perform on Sunday; guest artist Michele Wiles from American Ballet Theatre will dance the role of Kitri, with Tulsa Ballet principal Wang Yi as Basilio, Saturday night. Tickets are available by calling 596-7111, or online at www.tulsaworld.com/mytix.


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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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