The “perfect couple” may only look perfect. David Hallberg and Polina Semionova were stunningly beautiful in Monday’s “Swan Lake” but had the combined warmth of a glacier.
Bolshoi-trained — the youngest principal ever at Berlin State Ballet — Semionova is now a principal at American Ballet Theatre. She’s gorgeous, as much egret as swan. Her legs go on for days, tipped with feet like grappling hooks. The pure line of her arabesque might have been drawn by a draftsman’s pen.
But she danced to the well-known Tchaikovsky score on geologic time like continental drift. You could practically hear the orchestra put on the brakes.
Hallberg has the same extended physique and beautiful sustained turns, but he’s less pokey. He’s best with a more emotional partner.
The ballerina plays a dual role, and Semionova gave Hallberg’s Prince Siegfried more to work with as the evil Odile than the good Odette — destroying him with confidence as she cranked her leg sky-high to the side and pivoted it to the back like precision machinery.
The role of the malevolent Von Rothbart has always been an anachronism in this production, but Marcelo Gomes decided to go for all-out irony, turning him into a pelvis-pumping, scene-chewing villain: Snidely Whiplash moonlighting as an Elvis impersonator. It actually worked. He flicked his cape, glanced knowingly at the audience and seduced another princess.
Other promising swans lie ahead, including guest artist Maria Kochetkova on Friday. Who knows? This old bird may yet fly.