MCB Recent Review

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Recent Review

'Spartacus’ dancers fight the good fight

Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2008

By Punch Shaw
Special to DFW.COM

FORT WORTH – You wouldn’t think a slave revolt could be so entertaining.

Arlington’s Metropolitan Classical Ballet raised sword and shield at Bass Hall on Monday night to fight the good fight in a performance of Aram Khachaturian’s Spartacus.

This 1956 work is one of those "story ballets" that we seldom see because it can be so expensive to build and present.

But Metropolitan Ballet co-artistic director Alexander Vetrov found a way around that by creating a truncated version of the original that features fewer dancers (about 17 instead of several dozen) in scenes from two of the ballet’s three acts.

This version may have shortened the plot, but it did not scrimp on quality. The dancing was superb throughout. And Vetrov’s presentation of Yuri Grigorovich’s choreography, coupled with highly effective sets, costumes, scrims and lighting, was often visually — as well as athletically — stunning.

Shea Johnson in Spartacus
Photo by Marty Sohl

The piece rode easily on the broad shoulders of Shea Johnson in the title role. Even while displaying an utter contempt for the laws of gravity, Johnson never lost touch with his character.

The audience of 1,325 had to be awed by his mighty leaps and spins, but he also made sure they felt Spartacus’ pain and triumph.

But while Johnson may have been the dominating presence in this work, he was certainly not working alone. Andrey Prikhodko, as the Roman heavy Crassus, was his near equal. The pair’s sword fight (how many ballets have two really good sword fights?) was especially gripping. And ballerinas Olga Pavlova and Marina Goshko added some female grace to the muscular, masculine proceedings.

The other work on Monday’s bill was Eight By Adler, a piece chorographed by Metropolitan Classical Ballet co-artistic director Paul Mejia to music by Richard Adler, the composer of such immortal musicals as Damn Yankees! and The Pajama Game.

Pavlova was the prettiest girl at the dance in this smartly staged collection of show tunes (OK, she was the only girl at the dance, but that was only a technicality in this case). She was in the spotlight for seven of the eight numbers which were predominantly classical in style but also incorporated some popular moves. Hey There, for example, had several Fred and Ginger-like moments.

But mainly the piece was a showcase for a myriad of dancing personalities. And whether the tune called for sexy, sassy or classy, Pavlova answered the call beautifully.

All of this incredible movement was guided by consistently outstanding work from a live orchestra conducted by Bernard Rubenstein that started in the pit for Spartacus and moved to the stage, in the form of a big band, for Eight by Adler.

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