DANCE REVIEW : Ferri Sleepwalks Through ‘Bruch Violin Concerto’

La Sonnambula found her way into Clark Tippet’s “Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1” Thursday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. In American Ballet Theatre’s second performance of the brand-new piece, Alessandra Ferri offered a dreamy, abstracted edition of the midnight-blue-tutu role first performed Tuesday by Susan Jaffe.

In contrast with Jaffe’s exquisitely calibrated control, Ferri seemed both listless and impassive, prone to blurring movement that looks better in crisp outline. There was but one distinctive moment: a very slow, bell-shaped tracery of the arms at the end of the second movement.

Ferri’s partner, Ethan Brown, looked a little frantic as he turned her in their final pas de deux, as if rebuffed by static from her secret wavelength.

Also on the program were “Pillar of Fire,” with Wednesday’s cast, and “Donizetti Variations,” led by the familiar duo--individually perky but non-igniting as a couple--of Cheryl Yeager and Julio Bocca.

Charles Barker conducted, and violin soloist Lawrence Shapiro again produced honeyed clarity of tone in “Bruch.”