December 12–19, 1996

critical mass|dance

Russian Ballet Theater of Delaware

Playhouse Theater in Wilmington, Dec. 6-7.

The Russian Ballet Theater offered a wide-ranging program last weekend in the elegant 85-year-old Playhouse Theater in Wilmington's Hotel du Pont.

There were revivals of two Balanchine pieces, taught to the company (as required by the Balanchine Trust when it grants permission to perform works) by Trust Repetiteur and former Balanchine student Sandy Jennings. There was a little Tchaikovksy: choreographer Vainonen's The Nutcracker Grand Pas de Deux , complete with the Sugar Plum Fairy. There was stunning modern work — two pieces — by a guest duo from the Harlem Dance Theatre. There was even some Frank Sinatra: Come Dance with Frank , eight short pieces choreographed by guest artist Daniel Baudendistel.

There was also a little something missing.

The RBT dancers can't be faulted: they are gracious and skilled crowd pleasers. If a few company members are showing some age — Valery Gontcharov, a former medal winner in the Ukraine International Ballet competition, struggled in the Nutcracker piece — the technique doesn't suffer. Pirouettes are whipped off three and four at a crack; the men have the requisite hang time in their grand jetes; the women work en pointe (or in high heels, as in the Sinatra piece) with precision and ease, a nonchalance that is thrilling to see.

And no wonder. RBT is mostly comprised of Russian dancers trained at the world's best classical ballet academies: The Kirov School of Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and the Kiev Ballet School among them. RBT was assembled largely out of Donetsk Ballet, whose American management company went bankrupt in 1991, stranding the company mid-tour in the United States; Wilmington began raising money to adopt the company, which gave its first performance as RBT in 1994.

What the company lacks is a modern edge to its classical prowess. Even when RBT performs more contemporary works, company directors (Anya Patton Ward is artistic director; Marsha Zuzt Borin, executive director) are playing it safe: they stay with hits such as the Sinatra pieces, or Pointer Sisters en Pointe . The pressure to do so is probably financial; at last weekend's performance, RBT was raffling off a Lexus ($1,000 per ticket) as a fundraiser.

Yet, without more daring work, RBT relegates itself to less-than- first-rate status. A better sound system — or (pipe dream) live music — and more inspired costumes than designer Bonnie Zickefoose's predictably garnished tutus would also raise the calibre of the performance to that of the dancers.

Guest artists Christina Johnson and Donald Williams of the Harlem Dance Theatre stole the evening, performing two beautiful duets: Ave Maria , choreographed by Dwight Rhoden, and Dialogues , choreographed by Glen Tetley. A decidedly modern sensuality and intimacy pervaded each piece, which mixed both classical ballet and modern dance elements. Ave Maria finished with the two folded together on the floor, arms and legs opening and shutting like a double row of petals on a flower, one dancer indistinguishable from the other.

— Lisa Coffman