Ballet Review : Browne and Bustamante in ‘Swan Lake’ Matinee

There’s a unique chemistry to nearly any American Ballet Theatre performance in which Leslie Browne dances with Ricardo Bustamante. Whether the ballet is dramatic (Tudor’s “Pillar of Fire”) or abstract (Tippet’s “Bruch Violin Concerto”), something beyond skillful execution occurs: something unmistakably elemental.

Sunday afternoon, Browne and Bustamante assumed the leading roles in the company’s new “Swan Lake” and their rapport again proved extraordinary. His remarkable calm and reliability as a partner seemed to free her to be daringly spontaneous. In return, her passion appeared to call from him a deep, instinctual response. (Can there be a more sweetly protective Siegfried in the White Swan pas de deux?)

Browne’s emotionalism sometimes verged on the neurotic--especially in the ballroom adagio, where her hot, willful characterization clashed with the music. She proved more artful as Odette, emphasizing hopeless suffering and an intense but steady flow of movement. The solo seemed to perplex her but otherwise she managed to motivate and energize all of the role without distorting its formal beauty. Not a majestic Swan Queen, perhaps, but a highly individual and convincing one.

From his princely bearing to his nobly phrased, effortlessly produced solos, Bustamante made an ideal Siegfried. Occasionally, arm positions looked rushed or perfunctory, but this was clearly a performance conceived in the grandest danseur noble tradition.

The matinee cast also offered the brasher bravura of Danilo Radojevic (Benno), Gil Boggs and John Gardner (Neapolitan Dance), along with the informed conducting of Emil De Cou.