An incredible season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center continued with an inspired and profoundly emotional rendering of the Russian classic by Leo Tolstoy.
By John Lavitt
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 06-29-2024
A bold and refreshing dance season was continued at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with The Joffrey Ballet’s award-winning rendering of Leo Tolstoy’s epic Russian masterpiece. It isn’t easy to distill a massive novel of nearly nine hundred pages into a wordless dance. However, as part of the 2024 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, The Joffrey Ballet reveals a vibrant methodology that turns what seems impossible into an inspired reality.
Under the brilliant choreography of Yuri Possokhov, the dancers command the stage from the very start, skillfully capturing the intricacies of the storyline. The powerful music of Ilya Demutsky, reminiscent of the time of the Czars and the Russian aristocracy, envelops the audience. Complemented by a libretto by Valeriy Pecheykin based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, the music serves as a driving force, providing a rich backdrop of sound for the dancers to navigate the story’s complex emotions.
As Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center, expresses, “Works about strong, dynamic women are at the essence of our current dance season; Anna Karenina, as the alluring protagonist of this visually stunning ballet, is icing on the cake. Her torrid yet tragic love affair and the choreography of this incredible piece will leave Angelenos breathless and wanting more.”
While the entire company delivers a fantastic performance, the three principal dancers embody the heart and soul of the show. Victoria Jaiani, in the role of Anna, immediately captivates the audience with her aristocratic beauty and emotive vulnerability. She is a treasure to behold.
Her dancing, a breathtaking display of skill and emotion, vividly captures the wild range of emotions experienced by Anna as she navigates her tumultuous journey. From the highest to the lowest points experienced by the character, Jaiani provides access to undeniable emotional integrity. Indeed, as she suffers from fevers and hallucinations, you feel deeply connected to her pain.
As her charismatic lover, Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, Alberto Velasquez is wonderfully self-involved. Although he loves Anna and cherishes her beauty, he ultimately loves himself most. His vainglorious sense of honor is captured in a remarkable horse race on the beach, where his desire to win leads to catastrophe. His romantic moments with Anna are intense and sensual, and there is no doubt that they are made to love each other.
However, Anna’s older and more powerful husband, Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, denies their love. He expects Anna to fall into place with his design for proper living and punishes her for failing to comply. As Karenin, Dylan Gutierrez is a powerhouse on stage. Unlike Velasquez’s sensual and sophisticated movements, his dancing is determined and decisive. Whether Anna lives or dies, there is a sense that Karenin will triumph by keeping power and controlling their son’s destiny. The story is a tragedy from which there is no escape.
From the horse race to Anna’s feverish dreams, the special effects used in the performance are subtle and effective. The projection design by Finn Ross takes the performance to the next stage of excellence. The horse race on the beach is particularly inspired as the horses are represented by running hooves in a projection rising over the actors dancing the race on stage. However, the special effects never overwhelm the music or the dance, allowing the principals to be the show’s stars. Although the story is tragic, they shine with an awe-inspiring radiance.
Photos by Cheryl Mann
