NYCB was the place to be on Friday night.
The evening opened with Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia in Donizetti Variations. Boy, it's been a while since NYCB had a ballerina with Tiler's degree of musicality – possibly not since Kyra Nichols. Last evening she pulled the musical phrases like they were cotton candy. So beautiful to watch. Her virtuosity was effortless and un-showy, and was done simply to please us. Gonzalo was a fine and attentive partner but didn't have his turns with him last night - or a reasonable 3/4 releve. His stationary beats looked wonderful, however. Haglund had an uneasy feeling that he was watching a dancer struggling to perform with an injury – hope that wasn't the case. The corps dancers, but for some wayward arms, were very tidy. Devin Alberda was outstanding in both the partnering and ensemble dancing - this man brought his pirouettes with him last night, that's for sure. They were pretty, pretty, pretty.
Ratmansky's Russian Seasons had the exact same cast as Thursday night when most of them debuted. These were not dancers "finding their ways" in new roles. All of the performances were solid and the dancers' ensemble work was terrific. Abi Stafford and Adrian Danchig-Waring as the soloists wearing green were quite wonderful. Georgina Pazcoguin, who danced in every ballet of the evening, was once again dramatically outstanding as the soloist in the red dress. As in last evening's performance, her pirouettes were spot on and generous in the number of revolutions; her jumps darted horizontally with a sense of sharpness; and her energy seemed to explode from her core strength. Rebecca Krohn and Robert Fairchild in the lead roles repeated their extraordinary performances of the previous evening.
The final offering on the program was Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3. The first three movements are basically big hair movements: all about the women running around with their long hair flowing and usually in bare feet. It has its appeal for some, but Haglund always finds that the hair distracts from the dancing. As noted in the Playbill, three ladies debuted as the principals in the first three sections. Teresa Reichlen danced with Ask la Cour in the Elegie movement; Rebecca Krohn danced with Jared Angle in the Valse Melancolique; and Erica Pereira danced with Daniel Ulbricht in the Scherzo movement. All lovely and there was nothing to complain about – except that we were all sitting in our seats patiently waiting for Theme and Variations (Tema con Variazioni in the Playbill).
Finally that moment arrived and there were Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette standing in fifth position with a glistening corps de ballet behind them - every dancer ready to knock the socks off the audience. First, let's talk about Veyette who seems to take his dancing to a much higher level every time he dances with Bouder. His legs and feet looked fantastic in the white tights and shoes. All of his turning was exceptional last night as if Bouder was in the wings channeling her own center to him. At the conclusion of his series of double tour, double pirouette, double tour, single pirouette combination, a man behind Haglund said aloud, "A+!" Yes, indeed, Veyette had a superb performance last night. And, of course, so did Ashley. Haglund always loves to see her make child's play out of the allegro, but last night, the adagio was his favorite part. The exact favorite part came during the PdD when Ashley did successive battement fouettes and calmly held one of them at its very peak. It was such a pretty picture. Hag hopes to see that again from her in a little while this afternoon.
The T&V corps and demi soloists were tops. We just have to see Lauren King and Brittany Pollack dance more in tutus. Lovely lines, lovely port de bras, lovely smiles.
It was tough deciding who should get the Pump Bump Award for last night's performance, because there were so many fabulous moments by so many of Haglund's favorite dancers. But the Pump Bump, Gianvito Rossi's gold stiletto, goes to the guy who brought up his game last night big-time and delivered his best dancing of the season: Andrew Veyette.
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