New York City Ballet: So Far

New York City Ballet
New York State Theater

Spring 2008
Notes on the Season So Far

Thursday May 1, 2008
"Bernstein Collaborations"
Fancy Free
Dybbuk
West Side Story Suite

First time back for me since February; a Jerome Robbins Celebration evening. Perhaps taking a cue from the Wheeldon company, the Robbins evenings begin with short footage of him rehearsing one of the ballets for the evening. These clips are usually instructive and also bittersweet; so much gone! This evening had JR rehearsing Damien Woetzel in the Fancy Free variation he was just about to perform (the smack, step, arms up, pirouette combination). Fancy Free looked good, with Joaquin De Luz (he seemed to have a lot of nervous energy) and Ethan Stiefel, whose characterization seemed a little colorless; and Woetzel, who looked great—really great; it seemed like the music was coming out of him. The two main women, Amanda Hankes and Tiler Peck, gave very strong performances. Peck is especially expressive and shows what a talented dancer she is.

Dybbuk with Janie Taylor substituting for Rachel Rutherford, and Benjamin Millepied. Not an easy role for the woman; she brings a strong and focused force to the ballet, but there isn’t much she can do here. Looking good in the variations: Adrian Danching-Waring; Amar Ramasar, who is looking very sharp this season. [Didn’t stay for WSSS.]

Wednesday May 7 and Tuesday May 13, 2008

"Symphonic Balanchine"
Symphony in C
Symphony in Three Movements
Western Symphony

Unfortunately I was unable to see the first cast of Symphony in C; I hate to say that the first two movements (Ana-Sophia Scheller and Jared Angle; Wendy Whelan and Philip Neale) look a little stale, but they do. Whelan seems to be struggling in some performances with her allegro, and she is either overcompensating with her arms or using them too much for momentum. The third (Megan Fairchild and Millepied) and fourth (Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle) movements, however, are much stronger. Something (good) has happened to Megan Fairchild this season; she looks less tense and both she and Millepied flew through the third movement. Tiler Peck whips off all these beautiful turns where so much is going on the audience seems stunned by it all; the ladies sitting behind me see and show their appreciation.

Symphony in Three Movements got a really sharp performance from the entire company on the 13th; particular standouts were Sterling Hyltin and Adam Hendrickson as the first couple, and Ramasar and Abi Stafford in the pas de deux.

Western Symphony also crackled and popped today, with Teresa Reichlin and Woetzel doing their thing in the third movement.

Saturday May 10, 2008

"World Tour"
Bugaku
An American in Paris
Valse Triste
The Chairman Dances
Russian Seasons

It was startling to see Whelan as the princess bride in Bugaku but she turned in a thoughtful and interesting performance. She was able to convey vulnerability with a steely glint underneath. What also makes her so wonderful to watch (here is some assistance for Mr. Macaulay) is her ingenious ability to show Balanchine’s choreography so cleanly and so clearly. She showed the shape of the pas de deux in a way that I hadn’t seen Kistler or Kowroski (the only other ballerinas I’ve seen dance it) do.

This program has a nice symmetry with Whelan and Albert Evans as bridal figures in the first and last pieces (Russian Seasons). Although Valse Triste and Chairman Dances are charming, their addition to the program makes for a long evening. The Ratmansky piece needs the audience’s focus and concentration, and by the end of the night I could barely keep my eyes open and I felt like I was cheating the final ballet. It wants savoring, and you can’t savor it at the end like that. It’s also kind of a downer and shouldn’t be a closing ballet. I hope it’s not getting so that the choreography is at the service of the marketing department. I wish they would just go back to presenting the ballets in a way that makes sense for the ballets. Wheeldon’s An American in Paris looked like a better ballet than it usually does tonight (maybe because it looks better from the third ring than from the fourth [thank you, Myra!]).