A Nymph's Tale

After the July 11 matinee of Frederick Ashton's "Sylvia" at American Ballet Theatre, with Devon Teuscher débuting as Sylvia, a huntress nymph devoted to the goddess Diana. Thomas Forster was Aminta, the languid shepherd who loves her, and Cy Doherty was the evil hunter Orion, a parody of a Bolshoi-style villain à la Abderakhman in Raymonda. The whole ballet is gently parodic—of the grand French style, of mythological ballets, of swashbuckling capers set in exotic locales—and at the same time it bubbles with charm, wit, melodiousness. Not to mention, full of references to Petipa's "Sleeping Beauty." The dances for the peasants are delicious and full of detail; that's where you get the famous "Fred Step," served up several ways. But then with the third act pas de deux the mood shifts to one of glowing expansiveness. This is where Teuscher came into her own. It is a ballet I'm always glad to see.