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Dance Review: Mostly Balanchine at New York City Ballet
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 12 October 2011 16:00
- Written by Jack Angstreich
New York City Ballet's program on October 1st, 2010 opened with George Balanchine's excellent Concerto Barocco, set to J.S. Bach's glorious Double Violin Concerto in D Minor. The modernity of Balanchine's choreography here, even as he employs a classical language, is the basis for an exhilarating symbiosis with Bach's expression of the spirit of an aristocratic age -- Bach's music has never sounded more modern than in this ballet. Given the enormous ambition -- in terms of the number of works presented -- of every City Ballet season, it's not surprising that there should be infelicities with regard to timing, synchronization, etc. At this performance, some in the corps could have been more rigorously rehearsed -- indeed, there were such weaknesses in all the ballets in this program in which the corps appeared -- but, overall, these dancers were not lacking in energy, which made for an exciting experience. The featured performers were not especially distinguished in commanding attention nor did they always avoid some clunkiness in execution. But, as a whole, Concerto Barocco was a success: Balanchine's vision here is so strong that the formalism of this dance -- its abstract poetry -- proved enchanting and, in the slow movement pas de deux, oddly moving.
Concerto Barocco repeats in the spring; I look forward to revisiting it.
Equally impressive as choreography -- although conceived in a different register -- and performed with a greater confidence and precision was Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, set to the original music for the pas de deux in Act III of Swan Lake. Although there were some imperfections, both of the dancers here danced thrillingly: Joaquin De Luz, with breathtaking athleticism, and Megan Fairchild more graceful and assured here than elsewhere, of late.
After an intermission, the company presented Benjamin Millepied's Why am I not where you are, choreographed to a surprisingly effective and memorable score by Thierry Escaich and featuring a set designed by renowned architect, Santiago Calatrava, who served as an artist-in-residence for City Ballet last season, when this piece received its premiere. The presiding genius influencing this work appears to be Jerome Robbins but I find the choreography here compelling, not derivative, even if there is a certain, easily disregarded, banality in its theme. The dancers brought the requisite enthusiasm to this ballet although lead dancer, Sean Suozzi, was outshone by Janie Taylor and -- here, unexpectedly strong -- Amar Ramessar. However, the greatest performance was certainly that of Sara Mearns, who can be an astonishing dancer.
The program closed with the Balanchine masterpiece, Chaconne, set to Christoph Willibald Gluck's glorious ballet music for the opera, Orfeo ed Euridice. The two principal dancers, Wendy Whelan and Sébastien Marcovici were effective in the second "Pas de Deux" but I was also very impressed with Erica Pereira in the first "Pas de Deux" and with Stephanie Zungre in the "Pas de Cinq".
I was pleased to see Chaconne repeated on the October 3rd program with the same cast. It was followed by Balanchine's Momentum Pro Gesualdo, choreographed to Igor Stravinsky's hommage to the great 16th century composer -- and murderer! -- Don Carlo Gesualdo, himself the subject of a classic novel written by the great Giovanni Verga (and translated into English by D. H. Lawrence). Stravinsky's music modernizes the late Renaissance structures appropriated from Gesualdo and Balanchine here found a correlative style suspended austerely between an antique classicism and a bold modernism. The excellent principal dancer, Teresa Reichlen, was memorable here.
More modernist, both musically and choreographically, is Balanchine's Movements for Piano and Orchestra, which followed, also scored to Stravinsky, here in the serialist mode which he embraced, under the influence of Robert Craft, in the last phase of his career. The outstanding soloist, Rebecca Krohn, was the highlight at this performance.
Both Stravinsky ballets repeat in the spring.
Also repeated on this program was Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, although this time featuring Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette, with the accomplished Bouder a standout here.
The program closed with an expanded version of the long-unseen and delightful, The Magic Flute, a classic story-ballet winningly choreographed by Peter Martins -- indeed, it is one of his most satisfying achievements -- to a charming, tuneful score by the 19th-century ballet composer, Riccardo Drigo. The lead role was beautifully performed by one of the best male dancers in the company, the energetic and athletic Joaquin de Luz, but he was outshone in every duet by his partner, the exquisite Tiler Peck. One episode featured an outstanding quartet of dancers in the corps: Stephanie Zungre, Alina Dronova, Maya Collins, and Lauren King.
The Magic Flute will be reprised in February and I greatly look forward to revisiting it.
New York City Ballet Program
Concerto Barocco Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, B.W.V. 1043 composed by Johann Sebastian Bach Choreographed by George Balanchine
Tschaikovsky's Pas de Deux Excerpt from Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act III
composed by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky
Choreographed by George Balanchine
Why am I not where you are
The Lost Dancer composed by Thierry Escaich
Choreographed by Benjamin Millepied
Chaconne Ballet music from the opera Orfeo ed Euridice composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck Choreographed by George Balanchine
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY 10023
Call: 212-870-5570
