by Leigh Witchel
One of New York City Ballet’s newest soloists was groomed towards one of the most stylish roles in Balanchine’s male repertory. Alongside Indiana Woodward, David Gabriel made his first debut as a soloist, in Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée.’ With his beautiful technique, the role originated by another beautiful technician, Helgi Tomasson, was right up his alley.
Baiser is a strange ballet. Most Balanchine ballets endure because of the solidity of their musicality and construction. Not this one. The build is fragmented, and Stravinsky’s brassy score sounds like milk that’s just starting to go off. It’s likely persisted because of the solo parts originally for Tomasson and Patricia McBride.
Gabriel’s youth helped here. In the original libretto, only the atmosphere of which remains in this abstract suite of dances, the hero is a young man’s role. Gabriel attacked the part like a young man, with an impetuous, unaffected beauty. He flew round the stage in his solo like leaves in the wind, and his turns were mercurial in attack but solid in placement.
Partnering was his bugbear, not a surprise given his age and physique. When complex supported balances and promenades appeared, he looked green, with moments where his expression telegraphed, “Where am I, and why is her leg over there?” He flubbed a promenade at the end of the coda because he couldn’t sense Woodward’s balance. He couldn’t have a better partner than her, though. She’s the right height for him and reliable. Lord knows he didn’t need to keep her on her leg.
Woodward nailed all the birdlike pointe work with precision and musical timing, rippling past Gabriel with gorgeous bourrées. To close, she whirled through a tight, tough diagonal of turns, then a different one in the coda after the corps bolted out for the finale. In another debut, Alston Macgill took one of the demi-solo parts opposite Mary-Elizabeth Sell. Your eye went right to Macgill, with her sharp legs and fast footwork as she exploded in sissonnes.
Despite the partnering stammers, the debut was more evidence just how promising Gabriel is. His technique is exceptional, and it would be more of a surprise if Gabriel doesn’t get better as a partner than if he does. He just needs more practice as well as to fill out a little, and that’s going to happen with time. He’s more comfortable solo at the moment, so this is exactly what he needs to be trying.
The middle of the program contained two short duets. Lar Lubovitch’s Each In Their Own Time was originally made for the Fall for Dance Festival in 2021, and it was transferred to New York City Ballet with one member of its original cast, Adrian Danchig-Waring. Taylor Stanley took the other role in a debut.
The music was Brahms, played by Susan Walters. Her piano was placed at the back in the middle of the stage, separating the two men. Wearing simple shirts and light-colored pants, they stood quietly looking at one another as she played a short prelude.
The next piece began and they ran to each another and did slow balancés, around and under like waves, before moving into solos. Stanley’s solo, originally made on Joseph Gordon, linked to what we had just seen Gabriel dance, echoing coincidentally the long reaches and hesitations in Baiser. Stanley looked marvelous, looping fluidly through steps like calligraphy.
The work moved into a second short solo for Danchig-Waring, then Stanley joined back in. Unlike, say, Sanguinic in The Four Temperaments, Lubovitch didn’t create a contemporary grand pas de deux with entrées, variations and a coda; this was more of a fluid dialogue. And though it was a same-sex duet, and that was important, the piece felt more about men dancing then men dancing. There wasn’t a ton of partnering, which was good, as what there was was a little shaky for Stanley because of the height difference.
Danchig-Waring started a solo with similar reaching quality. Stanley, with his exquisite line, picked up the phrase. The two moved into a sweeping allegro, which gave the dance a watery quality, marked by constant waves of motion. The short duet ended with Stanley caught by the foot by Danchig-Waring.
Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle danced a reprise of Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth. Mearns has always had the intensity of focus so that when she steps out onstage, you feel as if she knows why she’s there and what she’s doing. Maybe she’s like a cat: she might be running around like crazy, but it still looks as if she knows why. Mearns always seems to have a purpose. Opposite her, Angle gave everyone a partnering lesson. That’s partly a function of age. It takes time, and strength gained over time, to learn to plant yourself so your partner can put weight on you without having to hold back.
The main scheduled debut in The Four Seasons, Isabella LaFreniere in Spring, didn’t happen; Olivia MacKinnon took her place with Chun Wai Chan. Chan is very much a known quantity now, and this was another role where his reliability both in technique and performance made him valuable. MacKinnon is still in the process of revealing herself to us. Is she more of a Robbins dancer? Spring looked good on her; she had the sweep for the role, but not quite the technical steadiness of Kyra Nichols, Darci Kistler or Jenifer Ringer, who all made their marks in the part. But this is another step in the right direction; let’s see what unfolds. It will be interesting to see where (and who) she is by next summer.
Winter and Summer always feel like rest stops on the way to Spring and Fall. In Winter, Erica Pereira didn’t seem to start the part until the main theme; she did the acting, but didn’t connect the dots that the reason she was dancing was to keep warm. In Summer, Ashley Laracey can make a movement go on forever, and in a debut as her partner, Davide Riccardo seemed to be getting back in form.
Pushing Summer away and bringing on Fall, KJ Takahashi barely needs to think about parts like this, and sure enough, everything went smoothly. Little pyrotechnical fireplug roles seem to be his purgatory, but he did it with brio. And then there was Andrew Veyette. When he showed off by pressing Unity Phelan overhead with one hand, then got her skirt caught on his head on the way down, it seemed to be a metaphor for the whole shebang. He was often slightly behind, suddenly putting his arms out to partner Phelan as if he were taken by surprise by the whole affair.
Phelan, as usual, was a lot more prepared. Veyette almost bought the farm barreling through a tour to the knee in his solo, but at this point, that kind of careening, impromptu riskiness is just how the model comes. After 25 years with the company, these final seasons until spring are Veyette’s victory lap, and from the looks of it, it’s going to be Bro-tastic: equal parts affable swagger, risky pyrotechnics, and hot mess.
copyright © 2024 by Leigh Witchel
Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée,’ Each in Their Own Time, This Bitter Earth, The Four Seasons – New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
September 21, 2024
Cover: Indiana Woodward and David Gabriel in Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée.’ Photo © Erin Baiano.
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