DANCE REVIEW : Graffin, Jaffe in ABT ‘Don Quixote’

The American Ballet Theatre “Don Quixote” seemed full of happy surprises on Thursday--starting with the Don himself.

On this third night of the company’s seven-performance engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Victor Barbee brought to the title role enough emotional power to give the prologue a purpose, the dream scene a focus and those endless gestural declarations of love for Kitri a limitless depth of soul.

Moreover, this memorable mime of la Mancha met in Gil Boggs a Sancho with a brilliant knack for knockabout comedy--though not always the ability to make sense of the character’s antic interplay with the corps.

Although Susan Jaffe’s portrayal of Kitri boasted greater spontaneity in the previous, Baryshnikov staging of the ballet, she danced the role Thursday with all her old authority and technical sheen. She attained maximum sharpness and vivacity, of course, in the fan solo of the wedding pas de deux, but her meticulously sculpted lyricism in the dream scene may have been her most individual achievement.

Guillaume Graffin had never before attempted the virtuoso challenge of Basil, and his inexperience showed both in rough partnering and in chancy bravura. Nevertheless his charm and sensuality helped give all the character’s teasing byplay with Kitri genuine electricity--especially in the Tavern Scene, where for once Graffin looked utterly free of strain.

Dancing opposite the previously reviewed Christina Fagundes, a bold and unabashedly all-American Ethan Brown seemed to be enjoying himself enormously as Espada. His use of the toreador’s cape, however, occasionally proved awkward and, in one passage of mass cape-hurling, Brown’s slid off the stage into the orchestra pit.

Conductor Charles Barker appeared unfazed by this UFO, leading a generally propulsive and cohesive account of the patchwork (mostly Minkus) score.