by Leigh Witchel
Winding down the fall season, New York City Ballet put two Balanchine masterworks next to one by Cunningham. Even though “Serenade” is legendarily Balanchine’s first American ballet, its free sweep sets it apart in the repertory. At this performance it had the rewarding look of being properly rehearsed. The dancers weren’t hung up on the steps but were showing them as if they had them under their skins. In a passing conversation at intermission, Artistic Director Jon Stafford credited Rosemary Dunleavy with rehearsing the corps and Lisa Jackson with coaching the principals. They instilled a middle ground between steps and perfume.
Erica Pereira suspended her opening movements just enough to get value from them, then attacked the Tema Russo with a small precise spring. She looked her best. Megan LeCrone gave a taut, angular performance as the Dark Angel, with long but controlled arabesques and clean landings in a part that can get overstretched and wonky.
Sterling Hyltin entered alone for the waltz: a soloist, but still acknowledging the corps. As she took her spot, she turned around to look at her sisters, see where they were, what they were doing and make sure she fit in. It said something small but important in a company where sisterhood has taken a bad hit in the past few years.
She showed off crisp sissonnes when she danced with Ask la Cour. Preston Chamblee had a rough time with an infamously tricky partnering move with LeCrone. He rotated her by gripping her supporting thigh, and it was very hard for him to tell if she was on balance – and she wasn’t. There was nothing she could do either but hope for the best.
Once upon a time in the final moments of the ballet, Darci Kistler used to meet the three men who lift her up and carry her off with full-on Marie-Antoinette-ascending-the-scaffold drama. If it was over the top, it was also pretty fabulous. Keeping with a middle ground performance, Hyltin didn’t go that far, but the heroism implicit was there.
The State Theater isn’t a congenial home for “Summerspace.” The stage is so high and deep that Cunningham’s dance almost disappears into Robert Rauschenberg’s dappled backdrop. NYCB does a very balletic “Summerspace,” danced in soft slippers instead of barefoot and with a light, hinge-like feel of the leg extensions. Everyone hit every balance but was that what “Summerspace” is about?
Adrian Danchig-Waring performed Cunningham’s part precisely, moving accurately from tight chaîné turns or from chassé to a precise retiré into pirouettes. Abi Stafford traveled the stage with a low dip and rotated in arabesque with her arms crossed in front of her, jumped and neatly transitioned to a side extension, or licked into a sharp turning phrase. The cast’s precision transformed the steps into across-the-floor combinations from ballet class.
In Remy Charlip’s part, Andrew Veyette wasn’t trying to be pretty. He came out for a brief but memorable jumping solo, with a table-top arabesque, then he kicked his supporting foot up to his knee and THUD crumpled, jumping forward. Then he did it again. For all the times in classical ballet that he has sacrificed line for force, somehow Veyette charging on like an unsteady buffalo and slamming himself around off-balance was the most interesting thing on stage among all the exquisite shapes. At the end, the whole cast left with their arms rustling up and down quickly as if they were casting spells.
The company played Sudoku and swapped Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns’ scheduled outings in “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2.” The ballet featured new costumes by Mark Happel in shades of blue – blue chiffon for the women, men’s tunics in shades of blue from light to dark. The fine detail looks better in the photos than it read from the house: the men’s color-blocked vests made them look like waiters.
The secondary ballerina role went to Lauren King. She was beaming on her first entrance but when she raced around the corps it felt dainty. It was a passing thing; she gained attack as she went on. As imperial as the roots of the ballet are, it still needs a little wildness.
Bouder made her mark in this ballet years ago, working up from the second ballerina to the lead. She was imperious on her entry, brushing aside the corps as she wove through them. Russell Janzen looked a lot like Jon Stafford did when he danced the role: tall and lanky. Janzen rounded his arms into soft curves that set the tone for a romantic hero, but that’s a fine line. On his first entry, he came in and looked up and out at nothing in particular, which looks odd when so much is around you. The sensible choice would be to ignore your surroundings, rather than not noticing them.
Both Janzen and Bouder were emoting; after whirring through piqués, Bouder served lots of face with a side of arabesque. But she made short work of her solo that went back and forth, turning and jumping on a tight diagonal. She whipped right into fouetté turns and a balance.
Technically, that’s all in a day’s work for Bouder. Still, she’s made some details coarse. The ballerina is supposed to gauge her momentum in the infamous swivel turns to coast to a stop. Bouder used her toe to brake the turns, and that’s a shortcut. But, like Miranda Weese, another dancer who held this role as an arrow in her quiver, Bouder performs best at high speeds.
copyright © 2019 by Leigh Witchel
“Serenade,” “Summerspace,” “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2” – New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
October 10, 2019
Cover: Ashley Bouder in “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2.” Photo credit © Paul Kolnik.
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