by Leigh Witchel
After all those years of being greeted by Arlene Shuler on the opening night of the Fall for Dance Festival, a different but familiar face stepped out from the curtain at City Center to greet us: Wendy Whelan. She explained that all three choreographers on the first program, Alexei Ratmansky, Tiler Peck and Andrea Miller, had a connection to New York City Ballet. In some cases on this concise triple bill, the connection was closer than others.
Wartime Elegy was made by Ratmansky in 2022 not for NYCB, but Pacific Northwest Ballet. Here, it was danced here by the National Ballet of Ukraine, the company that understands the subject better than any other. By this performance, the war between Russia and Ukraine was over 900 days old. It was a reminder of how long it has dragged on.
Even at NYCB, Ratmansky has ruminated on the war in his homeland, but this piece was less dark than Solitude. Wartime Elegy was not message-heavy; it relied more on its pensive atmosphere. Three couples lay down on the stage to open. To legato music by Valentyn Silvestrov, another man joined, helping each woman into arabesque and also breaking the symmetry. But shortly, the man brought in another woman to restabilize the couplings. A twilit stage had projections above.
The work continued with swirling encounters in the half-light. Even with the quiet, Wartime Elegy had Ratmansky’s usual activity: phrase after phrase after slow rush, lift and turn. At the end of the first movement, one couple was left, but Ratmansky faked us out. They walked round as if they might go to center for the inevitable Big Pas de Deux, but instead they left.
They backdrop slowly went green, a different drawing was projected, and a jovial voice speaking Ukrainian entreated musicians to play and folks to dance. The four men came out, now in white shirts with bright embroidered belts dancing to folk music. With walks, bright little changements and rivoltades, Ratmansky was reversing the usual process and making folk dance from academic steps. It was Ratmansky, so of course the mood was lightly goofy. The men linked hands to rise and fall like a watermill, a nifty trick Mark Morris also did last year in A minor Dance. The men fell out of the structure and wound up in a pile, then crawled off, exhausted.
After a similar interlude, the women, now wearing flowered headdresses, danced their folk number, which was even more classical: small runs and lots of piqués and pointe work. Three men joined them, then the fourth, but all had changed into black long sleeved leotards.
The backdrop was drained of color to gray for a slow, melancholy adagio. One man rushed forward, stopped, turned and fell; the others helped him up. All raced across and down to the floor to reach to the other side to close the piece.
Ratmansky’s tactic in the relatively brief work was to keep Ukraine in sight and not out of mind. Still, you could see how the war has affected the company. A short program note remembered those from the company who fell and those still on the front lines. You could see it in the bodies as well, the men especially have more to think about – or maintain – than perfect turnout.
Tiler Peck’s Piano Songs made its debut in Vail last month. It was made on Aran Bell, who encored it at City Center, and it’s a flattering glamour solo for a principal male dancer. Interesting to see Peck choreograph for a male virtuoso. For her, it’s not as far a reach as you might think; the bridge of being a virtuoso herself gives her insight.
The stage was set with two pianos, playing three works by Meredith Monk. Bell stood there, in a simple dark shirt and pants, and then walked forward. Peck has shown in her earlier work that she thinks like a dance maker, but even so, you can still see how she moves in how she choreographs, particularly her timing. She had Bell transition from very syrupy, slow motion to quick steps, and the speed was almost bisected as if by a waterline, slow arms above, quick legs below.
It feels as if Dances at a Gathering, particularly the moment touching the earth, is a touchstone for this generation of ballet choreographers. Peck referenced it here, then Bell’s long, meandering phrases escalated to turns and beats before he came back to the piano.
Derek Young had been playing Ellis Island, now Joel Wenhardt began a slow piece, Paris, for a fluid, again pensive, solo, that ended with Bell sitting on the floor by the piano to finish. For Folkdance, Young began as Wenhardt clapped and encouraged, “Hey!” Bell joined in on the clapping, with echoes of flamenco.
As a choreographer, Peck has been formed by the repertory she was steeped in – you could sense Other Dances, Duo Concertant, all the works in NYCB’s repertory that look at the relationship of dancers to musicians. But Peck took a more irreverent view of this as Bell looked over the pianist’s shoulder, or mimed while dancing for the pianist to play more softly. After a final air turn, Bell lay down on the floor with clenched fists to end.
There’s a lot in Piano Songs that tells us about Peck and NYCB, but the staffing and the music choices hint at Peck looking beyond her four walls. It was also good to see Peck looking beyond the horizon of her dancing career to what might come after.
Andrea Miller’s connection to New York City Ballet is tenuous at best. She made sky to hold for it in 2021, and the commission brought out little from her or the company. Hopefully it was just a fluke, but it would be little surprise if she had little inclination to work with the company again any time soon.
SAMA was originally made in 2019 for Rambert2 and The Julliard School. Even though in many ways it didn’t look like the theater-dance she makes on her own company, GALLIM, the abstract juggernaut of a finale was strong and useful enough to be transferred to it.
To thumping musical selections, the dancers came forward by groups, grooving, pounding into the floor, then disappearing into the wings. This deployment of the troops was largely the structure of the entire piece, and if that’s what you’re planning, the energy needs to be dialed to 11. It was.
The men spun or dove into barrel turns, the women rode or stood atop the men as a recurring motif. The whole thing slammed and didn’t stop its kinetic assault. The work moved into a second, slower pulsing score, with plenty of smoke and lights, but still extended the choreographic idea by having a woman stand on a man’s back as he crawled forward. Then Miller elevated the thought, literally. A man walked across the back on stilts as if this were a carnival.
Improbably, he came forward to dance, still on stilts, more improbably, another (less comfortable) man joined him. It worked even though the second guy looked less certain of the wisdom of it.
SAMA moved to a jumping, pounding, finale to visceral music. The dancers all returned to the stage, forming squads and slapping. They worked their way to a diagonal, then lines, finally flopping on their backs. There was a jump with a grunt and lights out.
If SAMA didn’t make you think, it really made you move. It was a perfect fit for the festival’s formula and what it always wants in every program: a bang-up closer. It was also a reminder: sometimes, there’s only so far from your home base you should go.
copyright © 2024 by Leigh Witchel
Fall For Dance Festival, Program 1
Wartime Elegy, Piano Songs, SAMA – National Ballet of Ukraine, Aran Bell, GALLIM
New York City Center, New York, NY
September 18, 2024
Cover: GALLIM in SAMA. Photo © Rachel Papo.
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