I remember one afternoon during the run of the amazing production called On the Edge in April of 1992 that I popped on the green line after a Celtics Sunday afternoon game to catch the end of the ballet. I tried to pay for a ticket but the box-office was empty. It was first intermission so I got to see a the last two pieces of that extraordinary assemblage of pieces (after giving my friends in the audience the details of the Celt's game.) Each show in On the Edge ended with either Twla Tharp's Upper Room or her Brief Fling. What a contrast: the mystical voyage through minimalism and mists of Upper Room and the hilarious, sweet, tough Brief Fling both filled me with joy. Eliza Monte's Seven for Eight was abstract yet so evocative. Monica Levy's Sanctuary starred Trini and Patrick.

Looking back over the years of delicious dance in BOston, I recall amazing productions of Swan Lake especially with Patrick and Trini, meltingly, achingly tender in the white act, so sharp and perfect in the black. And Daniel Meja in the super virtuoso Jester r�le.

So many great Giselles and Giselle partnerships, starting with Trini and Patrick: Trini's mad scene when intead of her hair being clumsily undone by the mother, just a single lock escaped from her bun and fell across her face. It was heart-stopping. The unbelievable lightness of the supported hops across the back of the stage like gossamer tumbling in the wind.

Here's a video I stumbled across from the old days with Jennifer Geland and Daniel Meja in the the Peasant pas de deux. Also this site with other videos featuring that spectacular dancer, Daniel Meja.

Then there was the Paul and Adriana in their almost too perfect Giselle partnership that just amazed. Then the best performances of Yuri's career and Arthur Leith with such gravitas and authority with a morally authoritative gesture blocking him during the mad scene.

So many Romeo and Juliets first in the excelent Choo San Goh version,and most recently with Cranko's, Patrick and Polly, Devon Carney and Deirdre Miles, Devon and Yuri as Tybalts, Carlos Santos as Benvolio, Daniel Meja as Mercutio.

Don Qs: Jennifer Gelfand and Daniel Meja.

Sleeping Beauty. Larissa's very first entry slipping and plopping splat on the floor and then just doing it and doing it just beautifully for almost two decades. Most recently Adiarys Almeida's spectacular Aurora.

Le Corsaire. We worked hard on the costumes and LOVED our great production which has now gone all over the world. But Our performances were so special. There was the day that word came that the NYT critic was coming to review the production and the tour guide of the day, Deborah Field, entering through the stage door as we used to do in those days, saw the cast changes and called the fan network. We raced out and saw the dream team of Rob Wallace and Adriana with Patrick as Ali. The NYT Headline was Boston's Bench is Deep. ANd it was!

Waterbaby Bagatelles with Paul Thrussel and Larissa Ponomarenko in the amazing duet and Jennifer Gelfand and Patrick with their dueling exstacies of dance.

The fabulous performances Cranko's Onegin with Laszlo Berdo and Larissa Ponomarenko, with Olivier Wexsteen and Natasha Akhmarova, Devon Carney, Victor Plotnikov and Adriana Suarez, Patrick and Pollyanna Ribeiro, Rob Wallace and Jennifer Gelfand, Devon and Arthur Leith as Gremin. what a total ballet experience and

Cranko's Taming of the Shrew with the hilarious main r�les and then the rejected suitors, the combination of comedic timing and dance full of pratfalls AND virtuosity! What performances by Patrick and Pollyanna Ribeiro!

The new ballets one after another by Daniel Pelzig the super Nine Lives with the fabulous performances by Devon Carney and Pollyanna, The Pricess and the Pea with Larissa Ponomarenko as the spunky ecological Princess and darling Paul Thrussel as the bubble blowing prince. Pelzig's evocative Passage to brass music and ritualistic poses thaat called out for explication... and many came.

Lila York did two GREAT pieces for us: Celts with Rob Wallace in the amazing main r�le and Olivier and Devon in the tall r�le. Her Ode to Joy was such a social statement and Zachary Hench joy itself. Dancers at every level added depth and complexity to every production, Kyra Stasberg, Karen Scalzitti, Laszlo Berdo, Carlos Santos, Nadia Thomson, Chris Budzinsky, Alexis Kochis, Tara and Zachary Hench, Karla Kovatch, Reagan Messer, Michael Johnson, Howard Merlin, Arthur Leeth, Adrina Devitry, Jennifer Glaze, Sarah Wroth, Rachel Cossar, Sylvia Deaton, Lauren Herfindahl.

Lauren Herfindahl in Nutcracker,
unfazed by the sheep.

Back to the top of the page.
Back To the Ballet page
Back to Home Page