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Both Feijoo and Tan were blessed with able partners, attentive, exact, framing them with care and solicitude.

Karapetyan warmed slowly to his role, coming to grips with the emotion only towards the end. Of line, strength and placement on stage he lacks little, every inch the elegant prince, if more remote than necessary from the courtiers and folk he has grown up around. He and Feijoo have yet to mesh in partnership in the “you lift and I hook” statement Danilova made to Franklin when that partnership first began.

Thanks to prior experience, Helimets was an entirely believable Siegfried. A feeling of simple pleasure wafted across the footlights giving the sense this was a very nice guy in royal garments. I never had a moment’s doubt regarding his belief, involvement, command or technique.
 

The Feijoo/Karapetyan cast included Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun, Pascal Molat and Vanessa Zahorian in the Act I pas de trois; the Tan/Helimets program garnered Elizabeth Miner, Nicholas Blanc and Frances Chung. Pipit-Suksun is an Odette/Odile waiting in the wings, her elegance, warmth and exactitude sheer pleasure to watch. Molat and Blanc distinguished themselves with elevation, phrasing and, most of all, their presentation. Zahorian cheered us through as did Miner and Chung - a trio of fine, demi-charactere dancers who connect with the audience in such a way technical difficulties are minimized. Despite her sunny delivery, Chung, however, allowed the the dance to reveal itself, as Miner also demonstrated in Mark Morris’ Sylvia.

One surprise in the Feijoo/Karapetyan cast was Jonathan Mangosing assuming the male half of the Neapolitan Dance, first with Elizabeth Miner who danced opening night with Pascal Molat; in the Tan/Helimets performance he was paired with Frances Chung. Mangosing’s longer legs were seen advantageously in tours and jetes. The tempo demands compactness in delivery; he seemed en route to mastering the challenge in the second performance, and he clearly loved dancing it.

For Elena Altman in the Spanish Dance, the difference between her first and third performance was akin to turning on a light bulb at twilight: if not brilliance, illumination, and, further, within the style of the gathering.

Moises Martin’s Von Rothbart flamed with pride, haughtiness and raw energy; his exchanges with Odile were clear and aware. Unable to subdue Odette, Von Rothbart’s demise took on some bull ring death throes, jerking, flaying.

Pierre-Francois Vilanoba is more practiced when it comes to villains. His Von Rothbart provided the unblinking eye of a bird alert to prey, accustomed to carrion; in the ballroom his eyes glittered with near madness; smiling with a twisted sinister charm at The Queen Mother, a preening male version of “my daughter.” The triumphant snarl in his posture added to the disaster, culminating with the physical tumult in his attempt to thwart the love of Siegfried and Odette. In size and emotion he brought Tan’s calculating Odile support and dimension. Anyone who has seen Tan dance the Esmeralda pas de deux know her teasing strengths; Vilanoba framed their potency.

If Feijoo was warm and sensual, Tan was cool and remote. Both Feijoo and Tan could profit with coaching; Feijoo in certain details; Tan in emotional motivation, for the latter is still out in the lake. Both Feijoo and Tan were low on their passes in the Act II variation, the tempo adding to the difficulty.

Something I failed to mention which was quite winning in Helimet's portrayal of Siegfried. Sitting close and to the side (the only seat available in the popularity of the program), the elation exhibited with receipt of the crossbow was palpable, and the decision of use it for hunting before the market display at the ball equally affecting. His interaction with the courtiers while the folk were dancing was another indication of his humanity, articularly with Kiril Vassilkovsky. I even wondered if the comments were exchanged in Russian.