It was not the most enjoyable evening at The Koch last night. The selection of choreography for this All Balanchine evening was, to be polite, pedestrian. While the master's canon is not known for flashy lifts, turns, leaps or for heaven's sake turning leaps, he did on occasion throw them in some choreography for variety.
The opening offering was Chaconne featuring Maria Kowroski and Sebastien Marcovici. She was glorious. He was in over his head. Maria's sense of responsibility for her performance seems to transcend the choreography. Her gift is her ability to exploit the Balanchine choreography without offending it. Jennie Somogyi has this as well, and sometimes peppers it with a delicious rebellion.
It's hard to look at anyone else when Maria is on stage. Her beauty, sense of style, unbelievable length of legs, and space-devouring technique are at a level all their own these days. She infuses sensual romance and fun into Chaconne unlike any of the other principals Haglund has seen in this role in the past decade.
Marcovici danced like he was hanging on for dear life. Terrible feet. Just awful, terrible, stiff feet. Haglund cringed every time he looked at them.
Of the 27 dancers in this piece, only one, Kowroski, was able to cross her/his beats. Everybody else offered these pathetic little taps that looked like they were marking classroom steps. Look, this is New York. Cross your beats or go home.
The Four Temperaments suffered last night for lack of principal level dancers. The corps seemed frantic, less concerned with dancing and more concerned with "get there". Is that how this piece is rehearsed these days? "Get there." "Get there." "Get there." Not a good showing for anyone, but Ask La Cour was okay in Phlegmatic.
Vienna Waltzes - the ultimate pedestrian ballet - looked in very good shape, well rehearsed, but it is boring - even with all the mirrors.
Haglund apologizes if this was too much ranting. He awards this little "Nightmare" pump bump for the poor programing and mostly uninspired dancing.
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