by Leigh Witchel
The temperature dropped a few degrees when the alternate cast took the stage at New York City Ballet for the Robbins/Ratmansky/Balanchine triple bill in a cooler performance.
Solitude looked different with this cast, but all that took was putting Adrian Danchig-Waring and Joseph Gordon in the same part. The two are practically opposite in temperament.
To open, Danchig-Waring knelt above Felix Valedon, the School of American Ballet student playing his child, as the drums hammered to begin Mahler’s Funeral March. With activity swirling past him, Danchig-Waring remained motionless for the whole movement.
The corps struggled on from the side, led by Isabella LaFreniere and Andrew Veyette, in a procession until the women collapsed on a diagonal. Mahler used a folk melody, and the men lugged the women, moving their partners like marionettes.
LaFreniere was tossed into Veyette’s arms, and later jumped into him. Giving him a frustrated look, she repeated herself. It was good to see a moment of acting from her. Veyette finally pushed her off the stage as the others crawled offstage.
Unity Phelan arrived with Veyette and Davide Riccardo. They took Valedon and slowly walked with him. Danchig-Waring did not move as Valedon walked among the crowd. Everyone left slowly and finally Devin Alberda slashed his way off to clear the space.
Solitude, dedicated to the children victimized by the war in Ukraine, tackles a subject that has chosen Ratmansky as much as he has chosen it. The second half of the ballet, to the Adagietto from Mahler’s fifth symphony, centered around the anguish of the man, and was a landmark role for Joseph Gordon. Suffering speaks eloquently at top volume or in a whisper, so the lead role could work for a more restrained dancer. How would it fit Danchig-Waring?
He rose, slowly yearning, then collapsed quietly as the others reentered and swirled around him, as if returning to their homes after the earth had been scorched. Walking among them, two women brought him his child. He and the boy did an adagio together that was both protective and instructive, as if there were hope of something to be passed on.
Finally, Danchig-Waring covered the stage, racing round in huge jumps until the sky flashed white. Valedon collapsed, and everyone fled in confusion. Danchig-Waring and the boy were back exactly as they started on the dying notes.
Gordon was all about swagger, but in Solitude that was transformed into a demonstration of grief. Danchig-Waring was working hard, and all the steps were happening, but with little projection. It took him falling to the ground and thrashing to see some anguish. There was more as he went on and was carried along by ballet’s build, but he got to where he should have started by the end. Solitude needed Gordon, Danchig-Waring needs Solitude.
Because Tiler Peck remained out after a minor injury, Symphony in Three Movements was danced by its other cast. The tempos Andrews Sill conducted at were speedy; the five demi-soloist couples were flailing to keep up. Both KJ Takahashi and Emma Von Enck were neat jumpers as the first of three main couples, with Von Enck kicking her head when she threw her leg up in an extension. But he almost lost her in a moment when she was braced, pulling away from him. Hopefully that was just a glitch; she’s tiny and he’s got to be able to handle her. For all the technique he has, Takahashi has a recessive presence, and he’s loath to call attention to himself. There are plenty of times one could be grateful for that, but there’s also a balance. Von Enck’s precision looks best when she’s leading a group, as in the final movement. You can zero in on her and pinpoint the steps.
Sill was moving quickly enough that Ashley Laracey was was abbreviating some of the port de bras in the first movement; but Sebastían Villarini-Vélez (who is definitely not introverted on stage) made his double cabrioles, and Emilie Gerrity, always smiling, repeated turns before everyone returned.
The central pas de deux is one of Taylor Stanley’s best parts and as before, thay turned it into an exercise in ornament, with exquisite curling of serpentine arms and decorative poses.
Stanley is not a ham, and tends to underplay, but thay still have an electric tension on stage. Thay almost stalked Laracey, then scuffed round her. Both of them looked like dolls, but the artifice of the duet was the point. She drifted round as if sightless before they arrived side by side to fold in and out, to the final pose, choosing to touch each other finger to palm before racing off. They’re right next to one another, yet things seemed so mannered in construction it was as if they were at arm’s length.
Anthony Huxley speaks with his body; he always has. A few days prior, he made his debut in Opus 19/The Dreamer, accompanying Alexa Maxwell on her stint on Promote or Kill, which this season was more like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Once again she had to take Tiler Peck’s performances as well as her own.
Is Opus 19 meant for an introvert? It’s an interesting question: the originator was Mikhail Baryshnikov, and he certainly wasn’t. But he was always looking for challenge and a change, and this would have been one. Then by the early 1980s (the ballet was made in 1979) Robbins cast dancers who were quite poetic in the part.
Huxley began with a very sharp arm movement to the side, then became adagio, his arms floating. Maxwell was a complete contrast, taking the part full-tilt, all exaggerated curves and curls. It’s how Wendy Whelan did it, a woman determined to break the shell of the man.
At the start of next movement Huxley echoed his opening arms. Maxwell drifted back in, baroque curlicues to his classical ones, to back out and disappear before he moved to the back to close the movement.
If you think of the standard baroque concerto’s tempos (fast, slow, fast), Prokofiev’s violin concerto is a fakeout. There’s a scherzo only a few minutes in, and it sounds, and at first looks, like a finale. But that’s the start of the central movement, and there is a slow, drifting final movement to come. Robbins ignored the convention of a big pas de deux, which likely made sense for Baryshnikov.
In the allegro, if Huxley was seamless, Maxwell was an expostulation. They both were at full tilt, but his flame burned blue and hers was bright orange. She took the stage, and for all the energy, the details were there in how she curled an arm or flew her legs apart.
Opus 19 is about the meeting of opposites, and particularly so with this partnership. Huxley has worked very hard at partnering, but his chemistry with Maxwell seemed lab-grown.
Promotions are most likely to arrive at the close of the spring season; if Maxwell isn’t on the list it’s going to be a surprise. Opus 19 is a role Huxley’s going to have to fight for. Towards the end he whirled to the front and stopped before spasming. His pangs were beautiful, but they were movement, not emotion. Yet earlier he suspended the end of an en dedans turn and floated it to a beautiful close. If that isn’t emotion, isn’t it still poetry?
copyright © 2024 by Leigh Witchel
Opus 19/The Dreamer, Solitude, Symphony in Three Movements – New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
February 28, 2024
Cover: Adrian Danchig-Waring in Solitude. Photo © Erin Baiano.
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