Dance Review by Clive Barnes

A NEW TCHAIKOVSKY - "SNOW KIDDING"

...On Friday night at the Metropolitan Opera House, American Ballet Theater gave the company premiere of Ben Stevenson’s The Snow Maiden, a joint production with Stevenson’s own Houston Ballet, which presented the world premiere of the ballet earlier this year in Houston. And, yes, it has a new Tchaikovsky score. Well, nearly.

The music is unquestionably Tchaikovsky, and some of it - not all that much - was written in 1873 as incidental music to Alexander Ostrovsky’s fairy - tale play The Snow Maiden, which itself was later turned into an opera by Rimsky - Korsakov.

The story is of the Snow Maiden, a child of Winter and Spring, who falls in love with a mortal, Misgir, and, with the warmth of love in her heart and the rising sun, she literally melts away. It has been used for ballet before, notably by Vladimir Bourmeister for the English National Ballet...

Stevenson’s version for ABT runs 123 minutes, with two intermissions. Both the narrative and, almost inevitably, the choreography prove repetitive...

All the same... the choreography has definite charms... and it provides the dancers dangerous challenges in style and technical virtuosity.

It also looks eve-spellingly beautiful. Desmond Heeley’s rich costumes and gorgeous series of ice-palace settings make this one of the most glamorously designed classics in the international repertory.

And, not unexpectedly, it proves spectacularly well-danced. The role of the Snow Maiden was specifically created for Nina Ananiashvili, who danced it, both in Houston and here. giving it with beguiling charm, a wide-eyed air of enchantment and a brilliance stylishly buffed into an opulent impression of carefree ease...