Coached by Anthony Dowell, the original Oberon, Marcelino Sambé was a revelation in “The Dream,” spinning in dazzling turns, unfolding smoothly into plunging arabesques, combining speed and legato control in a way that seemed to expand time and space. Watching this choreography for Oberon (also beautifully performed by Muntagirov, by William Bracewell and Calvin Richardson), it was clear how Ashton extended the possibilities of male classical dancing here, incorporating pliant, elongated lines and steps more often associated with female dancers.
As Titania, Queen of the Fairies, Francesca Hayward, Yasmine Naghdi and Natalia Osipova all embodied the character with marvelous plasticity, although Osipova took top honors in the tempestuous category. And only she and Bracewell conveyed the strange erotic charge of the reconciliation duet, perhaps the most beautiful pas de deux Ashton created.
In “Rhapsody,” Ashton used Baryshnikov as an exemplar of Russian bravura versus the demure English classicism of the ballerina Lesley Collier, and an ensemble of six women. Of the casts I saw, the soloist Sae Maeda gave a notably accomplished and musical rendition of the ballerina role. But while the men, Luca Acri and Taisuke Nakao, managed the role’s Soviet-style virtuosic demands, they looked slightly, if understandably, stressed rather than insouciant. A little too English in fact.
In a second program, a number of shorter, rarely performed works — “Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan” (1976), “Hamlet and Ophelia” (1977), “The Walk to the Paradise Garden” (1972) — were more a reminder of Ashton’s stylistic range than revelations of ballets we should see more often.
Still, it was terrific to see these works, book ended by “The Dream” and “Rhapsody,” as part of Ashton’s personal trajectory and a balletic lineage.
