Word: neumeier
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Between its strong permanent roster of principals and its growing array of dazzling guest artists, American Ballet Theater can put together superstar casts that no company in the world can match. Consider last week's second world premiere, John Neumeier's Hamlet Connotations. Hamlet was played by Mikhail Baryshnikov, who with every performance is proving himself not only a wonderful classical dancer but also a superb actor. Ophelia was his frequent partner, the elfin Gelsey Kirkland. Gertrude was danced by Marcia Haydee, prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, who is appearing for the first time with A.B.T. this...
...pity that A.B.T. did not give this extraordinary galaxy of talents something more interesting to do. Milwaukee-born Neumeier, 33, was a disciple of John Cranko, the late artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet. Cranko's tender Romeo and Juliet and rollicking The Taming of the Shrew showed that good ballets can be based on Shakespeare's plays. Hamlet Connotations proves that choreographers can make bad ones as well. Set to a trio of astringent pieces by Aaron Copland, Neumeier's stripped-down, expressionistic dance is simplistically Oedipal: Mother Gertrude seems as much in love with...
...Jeune Homme et la Mort, which he flew to Paris to learn from Choreographer Petit. In the summer he will add Shadowplay, which Antony Tudor is reworking especially for him. Such innovators as Twyla Tharp and Alvin Ailey are also working on new ballets for him. John Neumeier, director of the Hamburg Opera Ballet, will stage Hamlet for him-probably next winter...