Much Ado

By John T. Elson

Between its strong permanent roster of principals and its growing array of dazzling guest artists, American Ballet Theater can put together superstar casts that no company in the world can match. Consider last week's second world premiere, John Neumeier's Hamlet Connotations. Hamlet was played by Mikhail Baryshnikov, who with every performance is proving himself not only a wonderful classical dancer but also a superb actor. Ophelia was his frequent partner, the elfin Gelsey Kirkland. Gertrude was danced by Marcia Haydee, prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, who is appearing for the first time with A.B.T. this season. Denmark's Erik Bruhn, in his prime a great danseur noble, was Claudius.

It is a pity that A.B.T. did not give this extraordinary galaxy of talents something more interesting to do. Milwaukee-born Neumeier, 33, was a disciple of John Cranko, the late artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet. Cranko's tender Romeo and Juliet and rollicking The Taming of the Shrew showed that good ballets can be based on Shakespeare's plays. Hamlet Connotations proves that choreographers can make bad ones as well. Set to a trio of astringent pieces by Aaron Copland, Neumeier's stripped-down, expressionistic dance is simplistically Oedipal: Mother Gertrude seems as much in love with her angst-ridden son as he is with her. The pseudomodern choreography is a pastiche of familiar gambits -- with a lot of rolling around on the floor, body contractions and angular flexing of arms.

Danced by a second-rate cast, Hamlet Connotations would seem much ado about very little. But the opening-night A.B.T. quartet made it worth watching -- such is the strength and dynamism of these dancers' stage personalities. Bare to the waist and clad only in white tights, Baryshnikov offered a tortured Hamlet rather than a brooding one, all quicksilver passion. Kirkland's Ophelia was an innocent, ethereal waif -- bruised and bewildered. In a pas de deux with Baryshnikov, their bodies seemed perfectly attuned, suggesting that incandescent union of talents and temperaments they have displayed as partners in better works. Bruhn's Claudius was a cold, imperious, lecherous king. It is to Neumeier's credit that his choreography asks Bruhn to do more demanding dancing than anything he has attempted since coming out of retirement last year. As for Haydee -- perhaps ballet's reigning actress-dancer -- her Gertrude was a startlingly erotic embodiment of lust. Seeing her wrapped sensuously about Baryshnikov, one can believe that some of the most startling love positions in the Kama Sutra are, after all, humanly possible.

John T. Elson

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