Sarasota News Leader

03/08/2013

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Sarasota News Leader March 8, 2013 gazing at one another for a split second; couples entering and leaving the scene at intervals, filling out the social world of the main characters. But it was Victoria Hulland's controlled performance that communicated the emotional center of the ballet as her seemingly boneless body swooned into an arched back bend, or when she transformed a simplistic recurring gesture of an arm reaching out to her former lover into a desperate need to hold on to love, and then in a final act of despair, hurled herself from corner to corner of the stage before accepting her fate. David Tlayie was correctly formal and stiff with a proprietary air as the Man She Must Marry, especially as he tucked his future bride's arm under his own and walked slowly with her at the end of the ballet. Ricardo Graziano could have shown more ardor as the lover left behind, but a forlorn Danielle Brown was well cast as the forgotten woman. And through grace and the ease of true artistry, Hulland joined the group of extraordinary ballerinas who have inhabited Tudor's world of deep, hidden emotions since Lilac Garden (Jardin aux Lilas) was first performed in Kate Honea is lifted high in a scene from Les Rendezvous. Photo by Frank Atura Page 89 (From left) Victoria Hulland, Saneyuki Kawashima and Danielle Brown perform a scene from the 2008 Sarasota Ballet production of Lilac Garden. Photo by Frank Atura 1936. Donald Mahler, who set the ballet on the company, must have been pleased. Another highlight of the evening was the surprise breakout performance by Juan Gil in Dominic Walsh's lively ballet I Napoletani, which is set to a group of popular, toe-tapping, Neapolitan songs from the late 1800s. The ballet offered an opportunity for some exuberant dancing by the entire cast, but it was Gil's surprisingly deft, magical dancing in his solo that was the biggest surprise. In the series of flirtatious vignettes set in a café, a charming Sara Scherer exuberantly showed off as she tried unsuccessfully to tempt a coffee-drinking Ricardo Graziano; Logan Learned, as a baggy-kneed Charlie Chaplin character, chased after an indifferent Victoria Hulland; and Ricki Bertoni swaggered nonchalantly as a quartet of girls followed him, hoping for his attention, before Danielle Brown appeared and it was Bertoni's turn to run after a dream.

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