A modern-day classic, Les Patineurs (The Skaters) by Sir Frederick Ashton, transported the audience to a small English village skating party, where the dancers swooshed and sashayed to a Meyerbeer score familiar to ice-skating audiences the world over. Although the corps lacked its usual precision, the soloists cheerfully carried the day. Racheal Hummel-Nole and Zeb Nole performed the White Pas de Deux with sweetness, and Jared Hunt as the Blue Boy mugged and hot-dogged to great effect, demonstrating that characterization and precise technique are a powerful combination. As for the Blue Girls, apprentice Krista Charnea Baker's secure balances and trainee Victoria Zures' amazing turn sequence foreshadowed great things to come from these two young dancers.
Val Caniparoli's Lambarena closed the evening on a powerful note. African rhythms and melodies underscored music by Bach, providing the accompaniment to the combined energies of West African dance styles and classical ballet steps. The ballet began with a lone woman, danced on opening night by a luminous and expressive Yoomi Lee, who has forged a powerful connection with the Las Vegas audience, in part because she never forgets that her face is as much a part of her body as her feet. In the sections that followed, dancers leaped and wandered in and out of the action, flowing seamlessly into separate groupings and solos. Although the movements for the women were vivacious and playful, like girlfriends hanging around Starbucks and chatting about last night's great party, the sections for the men were more introspective and dreamlike. Grigori Arakelyan and Zeb Nole captured the necessary fluidity to express the connections among the village men, and Racheal Hummel-Nole and David Ligon danced a tender look at romantic love.
Lambarena ended with a rollicking party in celebration of the pure pleasure of living. The audience responded with whoops, hollers and a true standing ovation.