Victor Caixeta – Landgraf on Dance

“Callirhoe”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
October 19, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The title of Martin Schläpfer’s farewell choreography, Pathétique, summarized the condition of the Vienna State Ballet he left behind after five years as its artistic director. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, restructured the company. Some dancers left, and others joined, some of whom were returnees. Last weekend, she presented the first premiere under her reign, Alexei Ratmansky’s Callirhoe (which he choreographed for ABT in 2020 under the title Of Love and Rage). It felt like the rebirth of the company. I cannot remember when I last saw the Vienna State Ballet perform with such force. Congratulations! Continue reading “Reborn”

“Four Temperaments” (“The Four Temperaments” / “The Chairman Dances” / “Frank Bridge Variations” / Full Frontal” / extra: “After the Rain”)

Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Opera & Ballet
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
September 17, 2023 (matinee)

It’s unclear whether the Dutch National Ballet’s new mixed bill “Four Temperaments” took its title from one of the pieces – George Balanchine’s “The Four Temperaments” – or alludes to the different personalities of all choreographers involved. Next to Balanchine are the company’s artistic director Ted Brandsen, doyen Hans van Manen, and the Spaniard Juanjo Arqués, a regular contributor to the repertory. Let’s disclose later, why Christopher Wheeldon’s “After the Rain” was added as an extra to the matinee.

Balanchine’s “The Four Temperaments” relates to the Hippocratic medical concept of humourism that four bodily fluids (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and mucus) affect human personality traits and behaviors. Depending on which fluid dominates, an individual is melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic, or choleric. For what would become his first piece for Ballet Society (the predecessor of New York City Ballet) in 1946, Balanchine commissioned a half-hour score by Paul Hindemith. Continue reading “Other than Bright”