Gusto galore from Boston Ballet

Those who lament sluggishness in contemporary stagings of Balanchine’s ballets — and those who are responsible for it — should have seen and learnt from Boston Ballet last week. Forget the funereal tempi we, in the old world, are forced to accept because of the killjoy aesthetics favoured by artistically challenged ballet directors and teachers. Boston Ballet’s Serenade had all one would wish for: quick, sparkling tempi, a splendid use of the space, majestic flow and gusto galore. It’s true that precision might have gone astray now and then, but never in a major way; besides, real artistry has always had little to do with precision.

What I particularly enjoyed was the way the brilliant dancing highlighted in full the subtle nuances and shadings that underscore the ballet. The carefully balanced mixture of joy and impending doom — there are references to the Angel of Death, and the final image is of a flight towards a better world — came fully to the fore, eliciting a well-deserved thunderous ovation at the end.