The start of the next ballet, “Pièce d’Occasion,” was even more wobbly. After some speeches and a film tribute to Makarova, the curtain did not quite rise on a horde of students from the American Ballet Theater Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, members of the ABT Studio Company, and four ABT apprentices. The curtain then lowered and tried to rise again several times. The poor children’s lower legs could be seen scrambling around. One kid fell (or maybe sat?) down in the confusion. Conductor Charles Barker stopped the music, the curtain issue was sorted, and the ballet commenced for real. Some of the students said afterwards that they were laughing and that it helped them relax for their performance. I’m glad if it helped them, for they had very difficult things to do (like double en dedans pencil turns into fouettés). Further interruptions occurred when a bold usher strolled up and down the orchestra aisles yelling at people not to take pictures (there were likely lots of parents in attendance). It was a bit of a train wreck from the house. 

This student medley was a lot like “Etudes” and not much easier. ABT JKO principal teacher Rubén Martín, apprentice Brady Farrar, and Caridad Martinez shared choreographic duties, using various pieces of music by Georges Bizet.  YeonSeo Choi and Kayke Carvalho led the excellent student and pre-professional body, and there was a clear through line from their tasks to the demands made on the principals later in the program. (One has to start practicing partnered pirouette paddling early, I suppose! Chloe Misseldine and Aran Bell, phenomenal dancers, mistimed the finish of one of their extended paddlings later in the “Sylvia Pas de Deux.”) Throughout “Pièce,” I kept thinking about how oddly militant this dance was, as the students executed their challenges in regimented formations to snare drums and brasses. But drumrolls were a recurrent gala theme; I guess I hadn’t noticed before how integral they are to the company’s rep. “Pièce” had a lot going on: à la seconde pirouettes commenced upstage while fouettés were still wrapping up downstage. It was as exciting and overwhelming as a three-ring circus.

That was the last time audience members had to use their peripheral vision, however. Seven duet excerpts followed in quick succession, blending into each other. There was another blip of a group dance as wunderkind Jake Roxander thrillingly led the Mazurka from “Etudes,” then the show concluded with one final pas de deux excerpt. Nothing lasted long enough to establish a real mood, and the questionable lighting design didn’t help. The cyclorama rotated through garish 80s prom colors: purple, teal, fuchsia. There were no sets, and the curtain never dropped again until the end of the show. No set or lighting designers were credited in the playbill, and I can see why.