NYCB – Peter Martins' Mirage – 6/23

Get on over to the Koch on Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening to see one of the final performances of Peter Martins' new work Mirage set to an original score composed and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen with a set sculpture by Santiago Calatrava, and violin solo by Leila Josefowicz.  Ignore the New York Times' review.  Macaulay either has to complain irrationally about a dance or gush irrationally about a dance, because just saying something is okay or nice or perhaps worth taking a look at doesn't inspire reading the newspaper or buying it.  Okay is not news that's fit to print. 

 

The composite experience of the music, choreography, scenery and the fantastic Jennie Somogyi makes Mirage a pleasant and interesting middle to the evening's program.  The Martins cliches are ever present; however, there is plenty of new and inventive material to ponder.  And if it's not new material, it looks new because of the interpretive powers of Somogyi.

 

Blessed with the absolute lowest center (Haglund knows that's modern dance-speak) of any ballet dancer anywhere, Somogyi's slinking, grounded style deals uncommon strength to her torso and hips.  When her powerful legs extend, one can almost see and feel the path of the energy as it travels through the limbs and out the end of her feet.  When Somogyi's leg flies up in a battement, one sees the energy arc as it is drawn with her pointe.  All of her movement emerges from her lower core, and it is truly beautiful to watch the power, control, and freedom that gives her.

The Calatrava set is stunning.  Industrial art meets the stage.  Here's a picture of it opened up but much of the time its halves, which resemble big combs of steel, are closed together is one form or another:

It slowly turns and twists its shape throughout the music - which is part of the choreography by Martins.  It divides and assembles.  It raises and lowers.  Steel silver for most of the ballet, it takes on colors at the end.  It's fascinating. Haglund thought that it was cool the way the backs of the costumes of Somogyi and her partner Jared Angle had vertical combs that connected the viewer's eye to the sculpture.

The music, clearly "new music," is much more than a violin solo for Josefowicz and doesn't strive to hurt the ears the way some new music does.  It has depth and passion and melody and drama.  But as with most new music, Haglund cannot recall 8 counts of it to hum.

NYCB's whole concept of the season's Architecture of Dance was a really good one, and Haglund hopes the company repeats it utilizing other architects or visual artists and more new musical compositions.  But next time, let there be more actual collaboration among the artists - particularly the composers and choreographers.

Sunday is Darci Kistler's last dance.  It will mark the passing of an era as the last Balanchine-trained dancer leaves the company.  The symbolism of this retirement has been underestimated instead of underscored, but it will be honestly felt come Sunday afternoon. 

Haglund bestows this Calatrava-inspired Pump Bump Award to Jennie Somogyi for her lovely performance in Mirage: