Headlining the recent concert by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra entitled "Ballet Masterpieces With Young Thai Master" was Natnaree "Ommi" Pipit-Suksun, a home-grown ballerina who has forged a reputation for herself on the world stage. The concert marked the birthday anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen.
Now a principal dancer with Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, Ommi is the only Thai ballet dancer to have achieved such eminence, and is therefore a role model for all aspiring young Thai ballet students in a country where this art form offers no career opportunities other than teaching.
This performance was therefore more significant than just having two world-class dancers on the Thai stage; it was a performance to the home crowd, and the hall at the Thailand Cultural Centre was packed with ballet lovers, classical music aficionados as well as young ballet students who were there to watch their idol on stage.
Ommi was partnered by Rudy Candia, a ballet dancer from Cuba who has been with Ballet San Jose since 2006, and is currently a soloist there, partnering Ommi since she joined in 2012.
Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Martin Andre, performed well-loved ballet pieces starting with Prokofiev's Romeo And Juliet Suite 1 No.6 (Balcony Scene). This is arguably one of the most famous love themes in the ballet repertoire, melodies rising and falling with the waves of passion that it exudes. To start off with such an emotionally demanding piece was perhaps a drawback because audience expectations were high, waiting to be drawn into the swirling vortex of rhapsody of young, illicit yet innocent love that the balcony scene presents, but not quite feeling it.
This was followed by another world favourite -- Tchaikovsky's White Swan Pas De Deux from Swan Lake, the ultimate in the classical ballet repertoire. Ommi showed technical precision, and was credible in the role of a princess turned by black magic into a swan, and emoting the sad and tragic aspects of the dance dialogue with her prince.
BSO then performed Tchaikovsky's Romeo And Juliet Overture, a beautifully moving piece that continued in the tragic vein from the previous number and helped build up our anticipation for the next ballet.
The duo then presented another classical piece, the Pas d'Andante And Strette-Galop from Sylvia by Delibes, choreographed by Balanchine. This was truly technically demanding, but both dancers conveyed a sense of joy and ease. They were faced with limitations in the form of sharing a stage with an entire orchestra, and Candia, particularly, had to keep his movements to a minimum during his saute de basque to move within half a stage. As such, he wasn't able to show his individual technicality.
After an intermission, the pair returned with Massenet's Meditation De Thais, choreographed by Karen Gabay, the artistic associate for Ballet San Jose. In terms of musicality, this piece highlights the violin solo, played by Siripong Tiptan. He was overshadowed, however, by the love pas de deux, with Ommi in the role of Thais, the courtesan devoted to Venus. The romantic piece was more uplifting than erotic as it was touted to be, and it seems Ommi was most at home in this neoclassical piece, since it offered a lot more freedom of movement than the more rigid classics.
The orchestra continued with Ravel's Pavanne Pour Une Infante Defunte, and Faure's Pavane In F-sharp Minor, Op.50. There was a surreal interlude when a cat darted across the stage, eliciting amused laughter from the audience to the surprise of Maestro Andre. The feline's movements were almost balletic, legs stretched and toes pointed in the elongated gallop into the wings.
To round off the ballet pieces for the evening, Ommi and Candia performed Bizet's Carmen Suite. Ommi said this dance was the most challenging of the evening's selection because the character of Carmen, the free-spirited gypsy girl, is so unlike her. Her technicality was perfect without a doubt, though her Carmen exuded a little more kittenish sensuality than seductive prowess. However, the audience loved her, and offered up a round of applause after every movement.
The orchestra then closed the concert with Prokofiew's Romeo And Juliet Suite 2 No.1 (The Montagues and The Capulets), a rousing piece that provided a fitting end to a beautiful performance.
