by Leigh Witchel
There wasn’t much of a cast change between the two casts of the All-Robbins program at New York City Ballet. Injuries and switches meant people had to take more than one for the team.
Sebastián Villarini-Vélez did the third sailor again instead of Jovani Furlan, and Daniel Ulbricht had to do his outings as the first sailor as well as Roman Mejia’s. Along with Joseph Gordon, who did the pas de deux with Alexa Maxwell, this crew of sailors was accidental, but they worked cohesively. Gordon has charm and charisma, and he won our sympathy as he stared in wonderment at the imaginary cityscape while the other two held him suspended.
Andrew Litton’s tempos were once again brisk, urging the men to rip through the stage business as well as spinning through turns, but the performance wasn’t as punchy as the prior week. A few days to get back in the swing must have helped.
Tone is crucial in Fancy Free. It’s the Baby, It’s Cold Outside of ballets, and it needs a very light touch to work for a generation without any context for the societal norms of eight decades ago. Still, Mary Thomas MacKinnon was note-perfect as the first passer-by. She played it like musical comedy: lightly humorous, ready for a night out and delighted with her evening.
Wagging her finger or strolling past the sailors, her concern when they carried her up was that she knocked one of them to the ground, but hey, gimme my purse! She peeled Villarini-Vélez’ hands off her arm, shook her head at him and slinked off. She never worried about herself, so you never worried about her. She was never more than annoyed, most of the time she was amused.
Though MacKinnon hit a bullseye, don’t sleep on Maxwell’s lovely work as the second passer-by. Both of them understood the nice girl mixed with street smarts that makes the ballet work. Maxwell had a lithe, feline quality, shimmying with Gordon, but always moving his hand away. The one off moment was at the end of the pas de deux when Gordon really went in for a kiss. It didn’t work because he was trying to claim her too early; there was a whole contest about to happen.
Maxwell and MacKinnon were better together than apart. Again, they got the tone needed, making it clear they were enjoying the men’s attention, and even the competition. Until it got out of hand, it was a great evening, and when they left, they pointed their fingers to their next destination, presumably a better bar.
The women may have helped regulate the men, because even their fights seemed lighter in tone. Villarini-Vélez’ sharp attack looked better on second viewing. It felt less stiff and more like a character.
In the Night had a few new faces in the cast. Has NYCB decided to cast the first duet tall man/short woman because of all the lifting? All the same, Alec Knight and Olivia MacKinnon, who had made New York debuts the prior week, had a quicksilver elegance.
Emilie Gerrity made more of an impression this time, appearing alongside Tyler Angle (who went in again for Aarón Sanz) with an imperious stillness. The lift where she was swept upside down moment seemed more like a statement than a punch line.
Andrew Veyette partnered Unity Phelan very well in the tempestuous final duet. Phelan didn’t have much of a storm in her demeanor, but she lit some fire in the speed and fast bourrées. Robbins would have likely not wanted anyone to ACT, but it doesn’t hurt the ballet to act. And she did in the final moments, when all three couples returned to the stage. There was a small shocked moment when she turned and noticed the others before a moment of social niceties from the full cast that quickly was abandoned again in favor of intimacy.
Winter in The Four Seasons just was not the right part for Ashley Hod. It’s a quick role usually given to a much shorter dancer and it made Hod look raw and gangly. losing her line at the speed, and almost missing turns.
On her first entry in Spring, Sara Mearns took a pose before starting and looked right at us. “Yeah. I’m the ballerina.” She gave the same look to each of the men in the quartet as she took their hands, like Carlotta in Follies being nice to the chorus boys.
Mearns has also been fighting off injury this season, and she may have decided to go for a good offense. Spontaneity and risk is her brand, but she overpowered the part, crumpling off pointe and nearly wiping out. She didn’t – but Spring’s not Fall where that risk would be appropriate. Chun Wai Chan was her opposite: clean and technical.
Mearns made the coda big and expansive; she can make something out of anything, but her springtime was a bacchanal. Mearns is gonna Mearns, and she took an ingenue part and made it into a Big Ballerina Star turn.
If Mearns was all over the place, Tiler Peck was bang-on in Fall, in complete control of every balance. She was confident and prepared without seeming too planned. Veyette had to go in for Mejia as well as his own performances, and Veyette’s gonna Veyette, especially when he’s overworked. He bashed through it again, but made it, saving a tour and going into wobbly turns.
That many substitutions felt surprising early in the NYCB season, but it turned out to be how things went the whole time. Some dancers got big breaks because of it, others ran out of gas. Stay tuned.
copyright © 2024 by Leigh Witchel
Fancy Free, In the Night, The Four Seasons – New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
January 30, 2024
Cover: Alexa Maxwell and Joseph Gordon in Fancy Free. Photo © Erin Baiano.
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