NYCB - Winter Season Opening Night 1/17

NYCB closed its Christmas season of The Nutcracker only to open the Winter Season last evening with a big Christmas tree on stage surrounded by children's presents and soldiers.  The Steadfast Tin Soldier was a nice segue to what promises to be six weeks of diverse programing that will include gems like Donizetti Variations, Firebird, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Russian Seasons, and Allegro Brilliante. 

Megan Fairchild and Daniel Ulbricht portrayed the paper doll and tin soldier in Steadfast who found love among the Christmas trimmings – without succumbing to acute cuteness or over-reaching for sweetness.  It was all well-danced and the dancers' spontaneity tickled giggles out of the audience.  Ulbricht's tin soldier's slow falls to his knee landed just within reach of the paper doll's hand which he then tenderly kissed.  Fairchild's doll erupted into applause when the soldier performed his tricks that included neat double tours with perfect finishes.  After dancing joyously, the paper doll opened the window to let in fresh air which promptly blew her around before whisking her into the flames of the fireplace.  The soldier retrieved the doll's heart from the ashes, but his own was now broken.

Le Tombeau de Couperin for eight corps couples to Ravel's Baroque-inspired music may not be a reason on its own to buy a ticket, but it is always a welcomed sight to see these corps dancers seize the stage and demonstrate with their beautiful formations and patterns that they are the true heart and soul of this company, and who, on any given night, can engage and captivate the audience without so much as a single soloist level or principal dancer leading them. 

Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux received a mostly superb performance from Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette.  Ashley inserted into the choreography a coupe tombe sur la tushy at the beginning of her variation which caused the audience to gasp but she recovered to finish the performance with confident balances and fleet footwork.  Let's talk about Veyette!  He had the strongest performance that Haglund has seen from him in a long time.  There is still that problem with his front arabesque arm that is perennially too high; even when he throws his head to the ceiling, the arm is still too high to achieve any sense of parallel with his profile.  But the guy's turns and leaps and beats were terrific - not thrown together with reckless force as sometimes we have seen, but assembled with controlled energy and coordination.  Veyette was relaxed and confident, looked rested, and was a pleasure to watch.  His catches of Bouder's fishdives with her extended arms crossed at the hands were thrilling.

Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild in The Man I Love PdD from Who Cares? set to Gershwin songs were the highlight of the evening.  Talk about romance and glamour.  Talk about showbiz.  Talk about sweeping the audience right into your dream.  The chemistry between the two was as grand as that of Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly.  Beautiful sweeping lifts that were cinematic in scope combined with exquisite solo work from each made this a truly wondrous performance.

Peter Martins decided to feature corps dancer Emily Kikta in the center of the pink demi-soloists section which afforded her the opportunity to step out for a few steps on her own.  However, she stood out for her broad-based statuesque size more than for her dancing which was in places plodding and unclear.  Performing in a line with the quicksilver feet and flexibility of the much smaller Amanda Hankes, Faye Arthurs, Rebecca Krohn, and Ashley Laracey, she had trouble keeping up.  She is an eyecatcher, however, and it will be good to see her dancing along side dancers closer to her size, like Kaitlyn Gilliland and Savannah Lowry.  While Ms. Gilliland still appears on the NYCB website's roster as of this moment, her name was missing from the corps listing in last night's Playbill. 

Sara Mearns and Teresa Reichlen in solos to Gershwin's to Paradise and My One and Only were also fine, but the evening belonged to Peck and Fairchild as does the modern vintage Pump Bump Award by Gucci:

Comments

[Catchip]

Hi Haglund,
Happy to report that I was able to enjoy all the above from a 4th Ring Society seat...in the front row of the 4th Ring! Though the late availability of so many seats is perhaps not such a good thing.

Deborah Broide (who works for the Jerome Robbins foundation) reported on Twitter that sadly Kaitlyn Gilliland's final performance with NYCB was on 12/31. She is apparently going to Columbia University, and the best of luck to her, although I'm disappointed not to be able to see her dance again. Deborah also tweeted that Maya Collins left NYCB for Miami City Ballet after the fall season.

[Haglund]

Hi, Catchip! Thanks for the update, although I am quite sorry to hear that Kaitlyn has left NYCB.

Curious about the forthrightness of the administration of the 4th Ring Society seats. I have tried on occasion to get a seat and was told that a date I wanted was "blacked out" and then subsequently after a few days when I tried again, I was told that they were all "sold out." Also, when trying by phone close to 10am on a Monday for the next opened week, I was told that there were very few left. How can that be?

Last night from my vantage point on the sucky extreme side of the orchestra, I could see that there were a few people in the basic 4th ring (C & above) but there were hundreds of seats available. NYCB is really biting the hands that feed it. I'm not going to sit in a sucky side seat ("SSS") again.

[Catchip]

I agree that it is the uncertainty arising from the mysterious new policy that is annoying - I 'won' last night by calling earlier the same day, but on another night the 4th ring may not be open, the Society allocation sold out or unavailable, and I will be assigned a $30 "SSS" in the second ring (as happened once in the fall). Hoping that by sharing experiences we can get a better idea of when and how to succeed in the seat lottery...