Theater review: ‘Carmen’ seduces and delights

Seduction, desire, rejection, jealousy and rage. Another TV reality show? No, it's Manassas Ballet Theatre's May 17 original adaptation of "Carmen."

Set in Seville, Spain, circa 1830, to the music of Georges Bizet, "Carmen" tells the story of an alluring gypsy with a fiery temper, who toys with the affections of Don Jose, a young soldier, only to later reject him. Don Jose, the smitten, then spurned lover, seeks revenge on the flirtatious Carmen. His obsession with her ultimately drives him to murder.

As with other MBT productions, namely "The Nutcracker" and "Stars and Stripes Forever," Saturday's performance featured the beautiful choreography of Dina Fadeyeva. Fadeyeva's expertise in showcasing the talents and athleticism of the dancers while effortlessly blending their movements with the storyline and music was evident throughout the performance.

The Manassas Ballet Theatre Orchestra, under the direction of Christopher Hite, played beautifully and thoroughly captured the spirit of Bizet's score.

The very strong cast further enhanced the performance. Amy Grant Wolfe played Carmen with the right amount of intensity and emotion to invoke both our hatred and pity of her. Vadim Burciu's Don Jose was expressive, passionate, and especially engaging to watch. Vadim Slatvitskiy and Leanne Mizzoni, in supporting roles, both provided the perfect complements to the other dancers.

However, Manassas Ballet Theatre's true strength is in its corps of dancers. Aleksey Kudrin, Alexandru Glusacov, and Denis Vezetiu exhibited their artistry in a number of featured dances. Though their timing was off in places, they seemed to fly around the stage in a flurry of impressive leaps and jumps. Their obvious chemistry proved to be a powerful factor in their cohe-sive and consistent dancing. The women's corps, occasionally combined with the promising younger dancers of the Manassas Ballet Academy, exhibited grace and agility. Their carefree attitude and whimsical dancing was reminiscent of group of friends having the time of their life.

One standout is Sara Gaydash, who easily draws eyes even when she dances in the back. Gay-dash exhibits that presence, that flair, that panache that makes a good dancer a great dancer. She is truly a rising star at Manassas Ballet Theatre and hopefully will be featured more promi-nently in future productions.

At the performance, Mark Wolfe, MBT executive director, announced the 2008-2009 season (with performances of "Frankenstein" and "Sleeping Beauty") and the upcom-ing move to the Performing Arts Center at George Mason University's Prince William Cam-pus in March 2010, with a full-length production of "Anna Karenina." If the most re-cent performance of "Carmen" is any indication of MBT's potential, the future looks promising.

Lisa Lambrecht works for Manassas Ballet Theatre and has attended MBT productions for more than 10 years.