SUZANNE FARRELL'S BALANCHINE IN D.C. IS MUSIC MADE VISIBLE

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on November 23, 2005.

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Suzanne Farrell, George Balanchine's last and arguably most potent muse, now stages some of the most luminous renditions of the master choreographer's works.

Excluded from using her gifts at the New York City Ballet -- where Peter Martins likes to tend the master's legacy at the home base -- she formed her own company. Now in its sixth year, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet opened at Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater last night in an all- Balanchine program that provided continual reminders of the choreographer's original intentions.

(It's worth noting that the date coincided with the opening night of the New York City Ballet's winter season, where there was no Balanchine on the bill.)

Music lay at the heart of Balanchine's choreography and Farrell's dancing. ``La Source,'' created in 1968 to a deliquescent Delibes score, seems to make music visible.

In the SFB's new production of the piece, the performers appear to be impelled by music, riding the air the way a surfer rides the waves, and phrasing their movement as if in a many-faceted dialogue with the orchestra.

Granted, the eight-woman ensemble enchants more than the three principals. Because she can provide only intermittent employment, Farrell must make do with people who are good dancers at best, not great ones. Though she works wonders with them, none of her regulars has all that it takes to be a star.

Decadent Horror

The same limitation was evident in the company's premiere of the 1951 ``La Valse,'' Balanchine's death-and- the-maiden response to Ravel. Yet the production did convey, thrillingly, the ballet's haunted atmosphere, its chic, and its decadent horror. The wildness and desperation that climax in the hectic final scene were, rightly, suggested from the very beginning.

Much of the effect is due to Farrell's perpetually urging her dancers to give everything they have to the present moment, a tactic for which she herself was celebrated. Her reconstruction of the ``Contrapuntal Blues'' pas de deux from Balanchine's 1964 ``Clarinade'' proved to be the evening's surprise hit.

Marathon Dancing

Set to Morton Gould's jazz concerto for clarinet, the ballet was the first work Balanchine created after the NYCB's move to Lincoln Center, but quickly judged to be disposable. With Erin Mahoney-Du in Farrell's role, this segment of it looks sexy, witty and filled with invention, including a choreographic riff on lap dancing.

Ostensibly an evocation of the marathon-dancing craze, the duet combines the low-end hoofer style of ``Slaughter on Tenth Avenue'' with the high-end Japanese erotic-print stuff of ``Bugaku.'' Mahoney-Du, the most Farrellesque of the SFB women, provided just the right combination of plasticity and rakish angles, coolness and heat.

The SFB's earlier production of the 1972 ``Duo Concertante'' completed the program. Throughout the evening, the music was beautifully rendered.

Farrell's enterprise, despite its merits, remains an ad hoc company. It grew out of a series of master classes that Kennedy Center invited her to give in 1993 and that remains an annual event.

Ad Hoc

In 1999 Farrell expanded her efforts into staging ballets with a pick-up group of professional dancers, some little more than advanced students, others veterans past their prime.

Though Farrell initially resisted the idea of running a company, in 2002 the group officially became The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. From its base at Kennedy Center, it began to tour.

The SFB's most ambitious achievement to date was the revival, earlier this year, of Balanchine's ``Don Quixote,'' a rich, uneven program-length work. Created for Farrell in 1965, and seemingly dependent on her luminous portrayal of Dulcinea, it hadn't been performed for a quarter century.

Balanchine Legacy

At every turn, the production proved Farrell's immense gift for staging Balanchine. It also revealed her desperate need for a company that is not merely a sometime thing. Only an established institution can offer her the continuity needed to attract and develop first-class dancers and preserve stagings essential to the Balanchine legacy.

Farrell has had great good fortune in the support of two men with remarkable administrative gifts. First, James Wolfensohn, when he chaired the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, then Michael Kaiser, president of Kennedy Center, whose skills in programming and financial management are legendary.

Now the question remains, can Kaiser enable Farrell to take the next step? Farrell celebrated her 60th birthday in August. Ballet is a tragically evanescent art. The time is now.

© 2005 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.