by Leigh Witchel
Was New York City Ballet experiencing Balanchine fatigue by the fifth of the all-Balanchine programs? Each of the dances felt as if it had a little bit missing.
Stravinsky’s score for “Orpheus,” with its beautiful opening motif in the harp of notes descending like tears falling, set the restrained but lachrymose tone of the ballet. Adrian Danchig-Waring, making his debut along with the other two leads in the ballet, felt as if emotion didn’t play into his portrayal. When in the underworld, after prodding from Davide Riccardo as the Dark Angel, Danchig-Waring did an arabesque, an attitude and made a port de bras. But he didn’t play music from his lyre.
As Eurydice, when reunited with her husband by Pluto, Brittany Pollack at least seemed surprised to see him again. But as she traveled upwards with him to return to earth, leaning her head on his shoulder was tentative.
Their duet felt like a pas de deux, not a narrative. You could see Orpheus avoid Eurydice, but barely react when she broke away and he didn’t know where she was. Danchig-Waring made small arm gestures, but nothing happened in his body.
Riccardo’s portrayal of the Dark Angel was also more pictorial than Peter Walker’s. Rather than struggling downwards to start the descent into the underworld, he made a slow, beautiful gesture with his hand. Still, his dark, intense focus gave his performance the quality of a Mannerist painting.
Unfortunately, the story isn’t the Dark Angel’s (he leaves before the ascent) and this was a lukewarm cast. When Danchig-Waring took off his mask and Pollack fell dead, nothing registered in his body. There wasn’t much connection and you didn’t feel the story.
Finally, he curled up in grief after she vanished, but that level of feeling is where things should have started. His Orpheus, like his Apollo, did steps, not actions.
Megan Fairchild went in for Tiler Peck in “Theme and Variations,” but her pas de deux with Joseph Gordon didn’t look like a last-minute swap. She was super-reliable throughout, with her Unbudgeable Axis of Doom in turns, this her wheelhouse and always has been. She nailed every turn in her first variation.
Joseph Gordon was also Mannerist throwing himself back off his axis in the opening. He did everything in his first variation: beats fast as a blur, quick turns that returned to the front in a snap, recalling the way Michael Powell filmed Moira Shearer in “The Red Shoes.” But his last turn had about three spots.
The second variation, with its closing chain of air turns right into pirouettes, was even crazier. Gordon worked with an impromptu force that recalled Damian Woetzel, but Woetzel had more muscle behind his. Gordon may have finished slightly early; he was driving that sports car awfully fast on some twisty roads, but he didn’t go off the rails. He wasn’t about reliability but that made his pairing with Fairchild more interesting.
Unity Phelan made her New York debut in “Serenade.” She was lush in the waltz, flicking her legs high and back when in Danchig-Waring’s arms. Her positions were beautiful and she was musical, intelligent, and technical. What felt missing was scale. You didn’t feel her presence for longer than she was there; she doesn’t yet leave a wake.
Pereira cracked out a multiple pirouette in the opening when she was onstage with Emilie Gerrity, then wound forward in soutenus with a rising breath and sustained pose; her chain of movement didn’t stop. She did her mysterious fall in the opening like a fainting spell, and in the section she led came center, delightedly picking up her points, throwing her legs back or scissoring them out to the side. Russian Girl is the least dramatic of the three female leads, but Pereira filled it out.
Gerrity was a lovely, smiling, benign Dark Angel, but is that the part? When Christopher Grant turned her by the thigh in the Élegie, her leg couldn’t manage above 90°; probably because he had trouble knowing where she was. She got on balance at the end and cranked her leg high.
Grant also had a little trouble with Pereira, not releasing her when he balanced her on his back, but managed quite well a flip and roll with Phelan that has dogged other partners. He did it smoothly in a single move.
Now that Phelan and Gerrity are being placed at the center of the repertory, the bar has been raised for them from being promising soloists. They pair a little too well together; they’re hard to tell apart because there has been too little contrast.
From everything we’ve seen onstage; Gerrity is by nature sunny. It may be asking the wrong thing of her to suppress that. Phelan has shown a wider range, but as yet, no extremes. Still, when she reached in desperation for Grant as he walked away, or steeled herself by avoiding the gaze of the men who would bring her aloft, you could see her making choices.
Phelan needs this part, but “Serenade” gives all the women leading it a chance to breathe and develop. Conquering it could be the jump from principal dancer to ballerina.
copyright © 2023 by Leigh Witchel
“Serenade,” “Orpheus,” “Theme and Variations” – New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
October 12, 2023
Cover: Adrian Danchig-Waring and Brittany Pollack in “Orpheus.” Photo © Erin Baiano.
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