Dance Review : Retro Fun in PDT’s ‘La Fille Mal Gardee’

“La Fille Mal Gardee” is not the oldest ballet in the world, as advertised by the newly professional Pasadena Dance Theatre. There are other contenders for this honor, but why worry about age when PDT has a smart, funny new version that fits nicely onto the smallish stage of the Moorish San Gabriel Civic Auditorium?

What connects the work to dance history are its characters and plot, best known to today’s audiences through Frederick Ashton’s successful 1960 version. PDT artistic director Charles Maple uses many familiar devices and makes some pleasant additions.

One of Maple’s strengths is comedy, and he starts this rural tale with smiles by using children as baby chicks (adults always look silly in the barnyard roles). A sharply comic quintet shows the lovers Lise and Colas (Gilma Bustillo and Antonio Lopez) evading the clucking Widow Simone (Philip Fuller), who wants to marry Lise to the hapless but rich Alain (Steve Montgomery). Maple adds Chantal (Chelsea Hackett), a love interest for Alain that works well.

Unfortunately, you can hear cuts in the well-recorded taped score (the John Lanchbery orchestration of many danceable but forgettable melodies); but a tightened plot line is worth it. The bright and technically able corps shines in several springy peasant dances that replace Ashton’s Maypole dance.

Ribbons as a metaphor for ties that bind occasionally appear, but the intricate intertwinings of Ashton’s lovers are much missed. Maple’s weakest point is the romantic duet, a fact not helped by Lopez’s tentative partnering and rushed phrasing.

On the other hand, the success of this “Unchaperoned Daughter” owes much to Bustillo’s Lise. On Sunday afternoon, she charmed from start to finish with her sweetly clear classical line and consummate acting skills that breathed life into Lise’s old-fashioned daydreaming-of-the-future scene. With ballet mime a dying (and often boring) art, it--like much of this “Fille”--was a rare bit of retro fun.