Ballerina bids adieu to New York

Nina Ananiashvili was at the top of nearly everyone`s favourite list.

New York, June 30: Ballet fans tend to choose favorites among dancers, debating their attributes ad nauseam. But during Nina Ananiashvili`s 16 years with American Ballet Theatre, there was little debate. She was at the top of nearly everyone`s list. At 46, with a young daughter and a ballet company to run back home in Tbilisi, Georgia, Ananiashvili had decided this season would be her last with ABT. So it was with excitement and melancholy that her many fans packed a sold-out Metropolitan Opera House on Saturday night for her final hurrah: one last "Swan Lake."

The ballerina did not disappoint. Her Odette, the mournful White Swan, was lyrical and vulnerable, with those famously fluttering arms at their full power. Her Black Swan, Odile, was strong and triumphant, casting a vixenish spell over poor Prince Siegfried (danced elegantly as ever by Angel Corella). The audience ate it up, bringing Ananiashvili out for repeated bows early in the performance, and giving her and Corella a rare mid-performance standing ovation after the celebrated Black Swan pas de deux. But the crowd was merely waiting for the curtain calls to explode with affection. Despite the occasion, Ananiashvili had no desire to be overly serious. In what seemed an endless — but exceedingly enjoyable — series of ovations, the ballerina laughed with the crowd, did a few swanlike glides across the floor, and caught bouquets one-handed as they flew over her head. She did a deep curtsey with her 5-year-old daughter, Helene, before the little girl sprinted offstage in her party dress and Mary Janes. And she treated the crowd to a little surprise, apparently plotted beforehand. Out in front of the curtain for their bows, Marcelo Gomes, who had danced a dashingly evil Von Rothbart, suddenly hoisted Ananiashvili high into the air, whereupon she hurled herself headfirst in a fish dive into Corella`s waiting arms. The crowd roared. Ananiashvili now plans to focus on the State Ballet of Georgia, where she serves as artistic director, and on parenthood. Meanwhile, the ABT season continues for two more weeks without her. Across Lincoln Center plaza, though, New York City Ballet`s season has just ended, closing with a much-loved summer classic, George Balanchine`s "A Midsummer Night`s Dream," appearing in NYCB repertory for the first time since 2006. The children in "Midsummer," School of American Ballet students who flit about the stage as glorious butterflies and summer insects, are always a treat. But a highlight of this year`s run was a set of debuts in the adult roles. As Titania, the long-limbed Teresa Reichlen was a natural queen of the fairies, regal yet sweet, giving the role a warm appeal. And in the second act, with the action moving from the forest to the court of Theseus in Athens, Janie Taylor and Tyler Angle put on a masterly pas de deux. The pale, fair-haired Taylor in particular was stunning in the way her every movement had precision and purpose. Troy Schumacher was an entertaining last-minute addition in the role of Puck, the imp whose magic-making malfunctions with hilarious results. And even a real-life malfunction — with the wires that are supposed to lift Puck toward the heavens — didn`t dampen the nearly half-century-old ballet`s charm. Bureau Report