DANCE REVIEW : Crowded Stage Hinders Troupe

An orchestra, let it be known, is not the ideal scenic backdrop for a story ballet. Yet David Wilcox, artistic director of Los Angeles Classical Ballet, put a full complement of musicians on the Pasadena Civic Auditorium stage Friday night, while dancers for the second act of “Coppelia” and “Romeo and Juliet Suite” were wedged into the edge of stage left over.

Overcrowding wasn’t the only problem: There was the curious phenomenon of “dueling mime.” While dancers told stories with an abundance of gracious ballet gesture, there were violin and cello bows slicing through air behind them, musicians’ bodies swaying, and the subtle bobs and leans of conductor Roger Hickman. Sometimes the face of a curious flute player, also watching Juliet fret, caught the eye.

It was nice to have the orchestra so near. Instead of drifting up from the pit, the first cheerful mazurka of Coppelia seemed to enter the bloodstream directly. But this moment was nearly ruined by the extended, bombastic voice-over that announced it, promoting the evening in the oozing, hyperbolic style of a shampoo commercial. Something about how French horns sound like a misty sunrise, ballet generates feelings, requires a lot of skill and is--really--a universal language. Honest.

Eventually there was dancing, but not a lot. Wilcox’s doll-shop scene from “Coppelia” was mostly the kind of broad physical comedy that makes kids laugh (especially Wilcox as the hapless Dr. Coppelius). Then, “Romeo and Juliet Suite” moved so briskly (to Prokofiev’s condensed version of his score), the whole affair seemed more like a one-night stand. There was no time for lingering love in this Anton Labuschagne staging of choreography by Wilcox and Helena Ross.

As Romeo, Edward Cueto was eager, but Mayumi Hanabusa’s Juliet provided the only fully realized technical and dramatic performance of the evening. It couldn’t have been easy; after all, how intimate can first love get with a full orchestra playing so close to the bed?