by Leigh Witchel
Everyone’s hyper at the beginning of New York City Ballet’s season. There’s anticipation, There’s nerves, there’s debuts . . . There’s dancers wound up a crank or two too tight. The All-Robbins program on the second night of the winter season was no exception; it was a very punchy performance.
Fancy Free began with Andrew Litton’s brisk tempos, and all three sailors exploded out of the gate with the hysteria of green boys on shore leave in a big city they had never seen before. These kids had no cool, not even an attempt at it.
Lauren Collett, long and spiky with her red purse as the first passer-by, played the part more vulnerable than some others, but not so much that we felt she was in danger. In her debut as the second woman, Jacqueline Bologna had to rein in Harrison Coll, and she showed off neat legs slicing apart as Coll carried her round himself. A little more cool from him as well would make his partnering go more easily.
Daniel Ulbricht, who’s done the first sailor since the dawn of civilization, played it very broadly. In the first solo, Ulbricht opened by slamming from a tour into a split at top speed, and Coll slid across the stage in his solo. Everything top volume, but unmodulated.
You could see it most in the improvised interludes. Sebastián Villarini-Vélez confronted Coll before he danced, and looked as if he was spoiling to land a punch. And you’d think he would swivel his hips in the Danzon, but everything was sharp and tight. The coiled anger Villarini-Vélez channeled so well in Love Letter (on shuffle) is of our time. To pull Fancy Free off, it needs to stay light.
In the Night also felt off. Joseph Gordon and Indiana Woodward moved from calm to tempestuous in staccato poses and lifts that froze at the apex. That first couple of the three is the hardest to pin down, but the emotions Woodward and Gordon chose to highlight made them feel less differentiated from the angst-ridden third couple.
The temperature dropped for the stately second duet. Emilie Gerrity made her New York debut with an unscheduled partner; Tyler Angle stepped in for Aarón Sanz. But again, mood was off, the audience was fooled by the timing and abruptness when Angle swept Gerrity upside down into thinking that lift was done for laughs. And unfortunately, the turn before the final lift went pear-shaped briefly before they got it back on track.
It’s harder to overdo the third duet; it’s supposed to be overwrought. But Gilbert Bolden III made his debut with Tiler Peck and not only was the tone right, but his partnering showed why he had been promoted to soloist. This duet is a bear, and he nailed everything, including the dangerous moment where he has to pull Peck briefly along the floor while walking over her. It went smooth as silk, and many is the time a partner has been stepped on, not over.
The Four Seasons gives big opportunities to dancers, both in the virtuoso Fall section and the more verdant Spring. Olivia MacKinnon and Jovani Furlan both made their debuts in Spring, and for MacKinnon, who hasn’t really shown herself yet as a soloist, the role could make her into one. The part enlarged her as she expanded and lingered in the phrases. She flitted through the quicksilver changes of direction without overplaying it and the dewy air of the number didn’t feel manufactured. Furlan was cushy in the big jumps and closed out his solo with a rangy circuit that he kept in control.
Was the male quartet as yellow as they are now, weren’t they more green sprouts? Even so, their variation was the vegetarian equivalent of the four little swans. MacKinnon met the simple but oh-so-easy-to-fail challenge of the finale: take three walks and make them into something enchanting. This was an assignment she’s needed.
Ashley Laracey was central to core repertory all last season. Summer is a brief interlude that is a backslide for her into supporting roles. It felt like one; she looked more like the angular soloist she was rather than the more dimensional ballerina she’s shown herself to be. But again, it’s early in the season, and she loosened up by the end.
Adrian Danchig-Waring and she formed another partnership of happenstance as he went in for Sanz and again, he looked surprised. He muffed a shoulder sit at the end.
In Fall, Unity Phelan has the technical chops for her rank, but she flickers in and out as a ballerina. She looked good and she’s got both the lines and the competence, and she did interesting fouettés through the music in the coda. Still, like MacKinnon, we’re waiting for her to reveal more. There were glimmers of more last season in La Sonnambula when she was coached by Allegra Kent, but Phelan hasn’t shown herself to be a just-add-water ballerina. She needs guidance to gain a perfume.
Andrew Veyette, well . . . besides an unfortunate costume malfunction (his headband kept slipping down around his eyes) Veyette gonna Veyette. He bashed through the part as usual, but also as usual, he made it. Cainan Weber made a debut in the puck-like soloist role, and like the rest of the performance, it was hearty and punchy.
So, a typical, excitable beginning to the season. Don’t worry, they’ll settle down. They always do.
copyright © 2024 by Leigh Witchel
Fancy Free, In the Night, The Four Seasons – New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
January 24, 2024
Cover: Gilbert Bolden III and Tiler Peck in In the Night. Photo © Erin Baiano.
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