Deborah Jowitt on Opus 19/The Dreamer:
"Robbins clearly wanted to explore Baryshnikov's chameleon-like aptitude for unfamiliar styles and his ability to suggest emotional depths, as well as his formidable technique. Opus 19/The Dreamer, shows a man searching for something in a shifting world. [...] The woman (Patricia McBride) who invades his world--for all her mysterious appearances and disappearances--is no wispy ideal.
"The woman makes her entrance dancing in teh women's ensemble. It takes a while for the watching man (and the audience) to realize that she is more important than the others; it's almost a shock when she throws herself against him. The dancing of the two is slightly dissonant, although she echoes his gestures--amplifying them as she bourrées around his stationary reaching figure. Robbins devises a magical effect to make the dream woman recede. The pair stand at the head of a line of people that stretches from teh front of the stage toward the rear, and he begins gently pushing her to the rear. Helped by the others, she braids her way backward through the line until when the group re-forms, she's again anonymous."
--Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance by Deborah Jowitt.
Photos by Martha Swope, 1979. Mikhail Baryshnikov & Patricia McBride
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