by Leigh Witchel
What’s not to like in a classic quartet of Balanchine and Robbins’ Greatest Hits? Well, some say I’ve made that my job, so to live up to your expectations, I have a few small quibbles, outweighed by many more high points, and a standout.
In the late Balanchine-early Martins era, “Divertimento No. 15” was usually cast two ways: tall or short. This cast was a mix, some of it by necessity. Several dancers made their debuts, including Indiana Woodward in the speed demon role originated by Patricia Wilde. Woodward is heir apparent to the virtuoso roles, and with Ashley Bouder out needed to take on one technical role after another. Woodward’s speed and turning ability in the part are both natural. The challenge is making sure she’s a ballerina as well.
ZOOM. She whirred through her opening phrases. Footwork is a cinch for Woodward. Because she’s short, she had to slow some things down instead of pushing to go her fastest. She held some extensions slightly to give the solo color; if she had just blasted through it she would have barely registered.
Of the three male leads, only Daniel Applebaum was a vet, and his timing was slightly faster than the other two. He came out of a tour jeté a hair earlier than the other men and nearly ran into Joseph Gordon. Sebastían Villarini-Velez and Applebaum danced the two side men, but didn’t look matched when together. Villarini-Velez is a Force dancer; Applebaum’s a Line dancer. Villarini-Velez attacked the beats in his opening solo as if he were trying to reach escape velocity. Gordon looked great in the lead and danced well, but everything was punched on the end of the phrase. That’s one of the changes that has crept into “Balanchine” that isn’t Balanchine. Not every pose is emphatically on the last count.
In the women’s variations, Sara Adams could have been juicier in her first solo, but she also had to make her debut a day early, going in for Brittany Pollack. Erica Pereira made her miserably hard fouettés without letting us know they were miserably hard. And how lovely to see her take her time in the beats and échappés. Long and glamorous, Unity Phelan was a natural for the third solo. Still, she seemed too caught up in the moment, exaggerating the épaulement so her neck broke her line. Later on in her duet, Emilie Gerrity got the same excitable look. It was her first outing though; she had to push through the repeated rises on to pointe in her variation.
By her duet with Applebaum, Adams had been in the ballet long enough to relax; Pereira and Villarini-Velez also had a leisurely duet. Gordon had more trouble finding Phelan’s balance in their long duet. He had her way off her leg twice. In the coda, instead of buzzing through her soutenus, Woodward slowed them down slightly so she lingered front at each turn. The better to see you, my dear.
In fact, more than in most other ballets, Balanchine shows you every dancer in “Divert.” The corps doesn’t just work as a corps; the Minuet is broken into four duets. Even in the coda he reprised that structure; the corps once again does short duets to enter and the ballerinas again do short solos. For a ballet that feels so satisfying and familiar, there are several things Balanchine approached differently than usual.
As much as he could, Adrian Danchig-Waring played down his final arch into the floor in “Afternoon of a Faun.” He wasn’t comfortable with the piece as written. For good reason. This wasn’t felicitous casting. His debut came 20 years too late. Robbin’s version, inspired by young students, is about the beginning of sexual awakening. Danchig-Waring and Sterling Hyltin are both senior principals (Hyltin’s already announced her retirement at the end of this year). The older you get, the harder it is to pull off, even if you dance it well. It’s hard to conjure that kind of innocence.
Still, Danchig-Waring’s lines were elegantly baroque as he contracted and stared at himself in an imaginary mirror. Hyltin stalked her way onto the stage with teased hair, looking amusingly like a long-lost member of Bananarama. Better still (if you’re a bad person), when she flopped her mane over, it stuck to her face and she had to discreetly pry it off, which, if you’re a bad person, was fabulous.
There was plenty of good casting in “The Four Temperaments.” Aaron Sanz and Alexa Maxwell looked great in the third theme. His romantic air seemed matched to her focused, dark-eyed intensity. The dynamic was vibrant; she seemed to be checking on him as he pivoted and folded her. It was like watching an adventurer seek the Sphinx.
Kennard Henson and Mimi Staker had to sub in for Adams and Devin Alberda in the second theme and did it very staccato, with a million little steps and runs. Villarini-Velez, again a Force dancer more than a Line dancer, made Melancholic more about the jumps than the backbends.
Peter Walker and Ashley Hod both had a slight rawness that worked in Sanguinic. Here, attack mattered as she braced away from Walker, crab-walking on point before allowing him to take her round the space. Her long legs showed the beats in her small solo, and she zipped through her turns.
Amar Ramasar sculpted each of Phlegmatic’s positions, now flexed, now bent, with a precision that felt almost machine-like. It happened moment to moment but formed into a whole. In Choleric, Emily Kikta went all out for Force. She ran in with urgency and tore into the steps, at the edge of her ability to stop herself, but stayed in control.
If you only have one shot to see Tiler Peck in anything, make it “Allegro Brillante.” The role is a Peck special, she excels in what it calls for: balance, turns, and control. She’s so sure-footed it feels in the moment rather than meticulously planned.
Is #Peckjia a hashtag? It should be. She and Roman Mejia were very comfortable with one another onstage; she shot recklessly through turns opening out into attitude to the back. She varied them in speed and trajectory; the thrill was that she trusted him enough to make him catch her, and he did.
Mejia has held back slightly before in a ballet’s opening moments. He doesn’t dance tentatively, but more measured; here he shadowed Peck, almost imitating her rubato. It’s almost as if he was trying to take the room’s temperature to figure out how much to push. He’s balancing the roles of virtuoso soloist and considerate partner.
Like Peck, he’s a turner. She did the unsupported turns at the ballet’s apex as doubles to triples to both sides. He started to loosen up when he threw down multiple pirouettes with the certainty of a gambler holding a royal flush. By the last reprise, when Mejia knew he had gotten through everything he slammed the pedal to the floor. He beamed a smile of satisfaction and there were hair flips on every phrase. What the heck, he earned it. Both did, they had delivered a Performance.
#Peckjia is approaching the Platonic ideal of ballet partnership; they look better together than apart. I’d totally ship them.
copyright © 2022 by Leigh Witchel
“Divertimento No. 15,” “Afternoon of a Faun,” “Allegro Brillante,” “The Four Temperaments” – New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
April 23, 2022
Cover: Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia in “Allegro Brillante.” Photo credit © Erin Baiano.
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