Word: aroldingen
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...composition "a little potpourri," a description that can only be regarded as Teutonic irony. In the first and final movements particularly, the music is a swift series of sharp, irregular beats and accents, a current of almost uncontained energy. Balanchine has set it for two couples, Karin von Aroldingen and Sean Lavery, Colleen Neary and Adam Luders, and, for the first time in over a decade, a corps of eight male dancers. In the fast sections, Balanchine uses sprung rhythms. Karin may start a staccato move just a little ahead of Colleen, or lead by an entire intricate pattern...
...young dancers. At times they look tense, as if trying too hard to make difficult new roles look easy. The women are, frankly, the largest in the company. As usual, Balanchine has managed to enhance their special attributes. In a few caressing gestures of Lavery's hand. Von Aroldingen shows an intimate, womanly quality; in a brief sequence when she looks like a participant in a walking race, Neary makes cheerful fun of herself...
...Scots clans and one all-girl Canadian regiment strut forth for a radiant massing of the colors. Rouben Ter-Arutunian's kilts are ravishing in their tartan greens, blues, yellows, scarlets and burgundies. At first the clans, led by such soloists as Jacques d'Amboise, Karin von Aroldingen and Suzanne Farrell, yield the floor to each other for classical ballet variations on the reel, jig and sword dance. But what Balanchine weaves at the end is a counterpart in motion for the plaid costumes. As 70 dancers-the largest ensemble Balanchine has ever used -march past one another...
...with last-minute baggage scramble) there is a series of typically flowing Balanchine duets for three couples, vaguely identified as young marrieds, two hippies and a brace of space-age jet-setters. By far the best is an earthy, bluesy number for Frank Ohman and German-born Karin von Aroldingen, a leggy, dramatically athletic beauty who is dressed (if that is the word) in a skimpy blue bikini and a see-through fringed-suede...
...somehow blend into a consistent display of Balanchine's mastery of forms. Who Cares?, in fact, is practically an anthology in action of his knowledge of dance. Male Lead Jacques D'Amboise has separate pas de deux with three different ballerinas (Marnee Morris, Patricia McBride, Karin von Aroldingen). The mood of each dance is bittersweet romantic; yet they are wholly different in shape, tempo and feeling. And Balanchine's leaping, exactingly athletic solo for D'Amboise, in Liza, should forever dispel the snide rumor that he does not choreograph well for male dancers...