New York City Ballet's Winter Season Off to a Splendid Start

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 24 January 2011 10:12

Written by Jack Angstreich

The winter season of New York City Ballet opened splendidly on Tuesday evening, January 18th, 2011, with an extraordinary program devoted to the great George Balanchine.

The first work presented was the glorious Balanchine masterpiece, the Walpurgisnacht Ballet, set to the wondrously ballet music from Charles Gounod's opera, Faust. What the corps lacked in discipline, they compensated for in dynamism -- indeed, the entire company seemed to radiate an exceptional degree of energy throughout the evening.

Of the featured dancers, the most impressive in Walpurgisnacht was the fine principal, Wendy Whelan, who performed with her customary and admirable precision -- despite one stumble -- even if her dancing here may have fallen short of the sublime.

If Walpurgisnacht instantiates the retrospectively classicist half of Balanchine's genius, the next work on the program, the Duo Concertant, set to an appealing chamber score by Igor Stravinsky, represents the prospective modernism of the master.

The lithe Sterling Hyltin, one of the stronger female principals in the company, achieved some thrilling moments. Her partner, Robert Fairchild, looking noticeably thinner after what seemed a long absence, exceeded all expectations with his sensational solo in the penultimate movement.

The mesmerizing Valse-Fantasie, set to delightful music by Mikhail Glinka, is another apotheosis of classical ballet. The charming Ashley Bouder was at her best here; Andrew Veyette, her partner, occasionally dazzled with his characteristic athleticism.

Balanchine's masterful, The Four Temperaments (set to one of Paul Hindemith's strongest scores), one of the choreographer's most inventive and innovative works, closed the program magnificently. If the arresting ensemble work of the corps de ballet often outshone the featured dancers in this piece, Ask la Cour nonetheless surpassed himself in the third variation while principal dancer Teresa Reichlen's technical accomplishment was typically impressive in the fourth.

New York City Ballet
January 18, 2011
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023
212-870-5640

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