Balanchine rocks

Houston Ballet's precious Jewels is a real gem

In "Emeralds" section of the Balanchine ballet, Karina Gonzalez, from left,Joseph Walsh and Nozomi Iijima are "Jewels"
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
Melissa Hough and Connor Walsh in "Rubies," a section of the Houston Balletproduction of "Jewels"
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
Jun Shuang Huang and Mireille Hassenboehler in the third-act, "Diamonds"
Photo by Amitava Sarkar

Bling isn't really my thing. In fact you might even say I'm ornamentally challenged. But when the curtain lifted like the lid of a fine jewelry box, revealing an arrangement of Houston Ballet's glittering "Emeralds," my inner Material Girl was tickled pink. Without hesitation, I accepted all three acts of George Balanchine's precious Jewels.

Considered the first "evening-length, plotless ballet" and a crowned bijou of Mr. B's repertoire, Jewels is a timelessly chic gift with all the significance of an heirloom. Former dancers from the Balanchine fountainhead New York City Ballet, Elyse Borne and Maria Calegari, staged the ballet and coached HB's dancers who have been cutting their chops on other Balanchine works in preparation for this unveiling. These efforts have paid off. The company was polished and ready for the showcase by opening night.

Ivory drapes adorn a bare stage to spectacular effect for the three-act ballet, divided into sections of "Emeralds," "Rubies," and "Diamonds." Nothing more is needed to ooh, aah, and ogle the sumptuous feast of color or this choreographic gem.

Jewels is an ode to three eras of ballet, three locales where Balanchine worked and lived, three distinct musical moods, and three flavors of women. With little surprises embedded among the jewels, there's something for everyone in this multifaceted display.

With flourishes of gesture and earthy calls of a French horn, "Emeralds" captures the rural ambience of the Romantic ballet. Its female inhabitants are the girl-next-door type. Melody Herrera glows with the dreamy innocence of a young maiden. Amy Fote's turn as ingénue is less wistful, she’s actively seeking love. Her "walking" duet seems a bit fragile but she shines elsewhere with a leggy brilliance. Joseph Walsh is perfectly cast, an elegant suitor for the nymph-like mesdemoiselles on each arm. In this act, the geometry of Balanchine's design is striking as the creatures count down to twilight.

"Rubies" grabs the audience with its first sciatic swivel. Balanchine's choreography playfully interacts with Stravinsky's brash and jazzy Capriccio for piano and orchestra in this sultry New York-style showstopper. Connor Walsh and Houston Ballet newbie, Melissa Hough, make a sassy pair in their sultry duet and Kelly Myernick looks especially statuesque as she is manipulated by (or is she manipulating?) four strapping lads. There is no wonder why this centerpiece is an audience favorite and the company looks good wearing it.

Where "Rubies"is a pique-lover's dream, thrusting dancers around the stage with this power turn, the "Diamonds" enchantress, Mireille Hassenboehler, chaines dizzyingly to Tchaikovsky's familiar cascading flute. This is classical Russian ballet, full of aloof passion and processional glory. Audiences know where to clap. They get the pas de deux and the wintery landscape, offset here with a rich Wedgewood blue backdrop. They get to watch Jun Shuang Huang fly around the stage in a traditional managès. And the sheer number of dancers is a fantastic reminder that one can never have too many diamonds.

Speaking of which, husbands, boyfriends, and lovers may sigh with relief to know that Jewels “rocks” as a night out but, if your main squeeze is of the ornamentally aware variety, don't skip the anniversary gem.

Nichelle Strzepek writes about dance education on her blog, DanceAdvantage.net

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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