Dance Review by Clive Barnes

ABT CELEBRATES 60TH B - DAY WITH NEW TWYLA

American Ballet Theatre has become a sprightly... sexagenarian, and it is celebrating that rite of passage with its current eight - week Metropolitan Opera House season. Monday night brought a special gala performance, ending with the New York debut of a new ballet by Twyla Tharp, Variations on a Theme by Haydn.

Despite the birthday tributes, the stage was far from being washed with nostalgia. There were a few gung-ho speeches, including one by the evening’s chairperson, Tipper Gore, a brief retrospective glance by Donald Saddler, one of the company’s original members, and a quiet yet effectively imperious appearance by another - Cuban ballerina and ABT legend Alicia Alonso. At the end, the company’s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, said a few appropriately affectionate words while introducing company members past and present. But for the most part, McKenzie obviously prefers deeds to words, and stressing the troupe’s illustrious present rather than its past. While the company’s co-founder and virtual mother, Lucia Chase, would have flown in stars from all corners of the known firmament - McKenzie scheduled no guest artists, relying instead on his company’s own remarkable star power.

In the first part of the program, the ABT stars... mounted a series of old but high - powered balletic war-horses and rode them as if emulating the Charge of the Light Brigade. A case can be made for these dancers, perhaps more the men than the women, being classic ballet’s current pick of the crop. Yet, despite incredible displays of male bravura from Julio Bocca, Angel Corella, Vladimir Malakhov and Jose Manuel Carreno, who danced the Diana and Acteon pas de deux... the biggest applause still went to a woman.