After the break, Masaya Yamamoto performed as the Youth in Roland Petit’s 1946  “Le Jeune Homme et la Mort” alongside Hannah O’Neill as Death personified. The production famously gathers the shadows of depressive, artistic ennui to a final apex of tragedy. But while early interpretations of the work emphasised the femme fatale stereotype of Death, Yamamoto and O’Neill skillfully joined the ranks of more contemporary stagings.

French poet Jean Cocteau wrote the story as a subversion of “La spectre de la rose,” Michel Fokine’s romantic, 1911 one-act that Nijinsky made famous, where a young girl dances with love personified as a rose. O’Neill, a guest dancer and étoile with the Paris Opera Ballet interprets Death with a decided lack of seduction or temptation. This frigid juxtaposition to the heat of Yamamoto, as the young artist grappling with too much emotion, fits our zeitgeist perfectly. 

Yamamoto lives—and dies—the Youth with hyperbolic passion. He throws himself (literally) into Petit’s acrobatic, defiant choreography while somehow retaining exact physical control. His style epitomizes the unleashed aggression and man-child weakness of towering passions. Juxtaposed with Yamamoto’s precision, it was impressive dancing. O’Neill’s nonchalant extensions and indifferent poise exhaust the Youth, who accepts Death’s bidding with authentic resignation.  

From camp to glamour to high tragedy, this year’s Selections topped it.