NYCB's Galas often serve as trial balloons for new choreography or new collaborations with more commercial than artistic appeal. The events rarely please the core audience but usually raise a lot of money from the infrequent audience which the company then uses to present its more serious side throughout the year. With proper attitude adjustment and moderation of expectations, the poor core audience and the rich infrequent audience can get along and have a good time for a few hours before returning to which ever of the Two New Yorks they call home. (Local political reference.)
Thursday evening's gala seemed less sparkly and elegant than last fall when fashion icon Valentino contributed the costumes. Haglund loved seeing those beautiful dresses on stage because he has never had the opportunity, and probably never will have the opportunity, to sit in on a real Valentino fashion show. Two New Yorks.
The evening opened with the New York City Ballet Orchestra's featured performance of John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine, a 1986 composition that displays Adams' energetic, post-minimalist style – a style that describes much of NYCB's traditional dance product as well. It was a good choice, conducted with zip by Andrews Sill, and it had an energizing effect on the audience. If this brief composition were longer, we probably would have seen it with choreography a long time ago.
Up first on the dance card was Justin Peck's Capricious Maneuvers to music by Lukas Foss and with costumes by Prabal Gurung. Ashly Isaacs, Brittany Pollack, Kristen Segin, Taylor Stanley, and Andrew Veyette romped in fine form and made every arabesque, throw, slide, and extension gorgeous. As expected, and as probably should still be the case in this young dancemaker's work, the choreography looked like an academic assignment from an exceptional student. Fundamentals were clear and organized. There was a youthful sense of fun and joy throughout. Intense energy output. There was a sense that the choreography was being thrown out at the audience as opposed to luring us into what was happening on the stage.
Neverwhere by Benjamin Millepied to Drones and Viola by Nico Muhly and with costumes by Iris Van Herpen did, at times, lure the audience into the ballet with its more sophisticated response to music. Emilie Gerrity, Sterling Hyltin, Lauren Lovette, Joseph Gordon, Tyler Angle, and Craig Hall were not always able to overcome the nonsensical costumes of black plastic which obscured artistic lines and movement instead of illuminating them. Haglund kept thinking throughout this piece how fabulous it would have looked with the ladies in black leotards and sheer black tights instead of clunky, noisy plasticware.
The ballet included a lovely PdD for Lauren Lovette and Craig Hall during which you could sense the communication between them without really knowing what it was all about. Something was going on and you wanted to listen in on it. The lighting design by Mark Stanley contributed much to the atmosphere of the piece, particularly the use of overhead lights on a darkened stage and was similar to that used in other choreography by Millepied.
The overall sense from Neverwhere was that Millepied is continuing to develop as a choreographer even though not so long ago – after a few really dreadful pieces – we may have written him off.
The final premiere of the evening was Angelin Preljocaj's Spectral Evidence to music by John Cage and with costumes by Olivier Theyskens. It was the most compelling new work of the evening by the most mature and experienced of the three choreographers who were presenting premieres. Choreography, music, costumes, set, and lighting were skillfully blended. Preljocaj's inspiration for the dance came while listening to the Cage score which uses vocal sounds including whispers, exhaling, and sucking in air. It made him think of the Salem witch trials.
Haglund was fascinated by Spectral Evidence. Preljocaj brilliantly captured the mass hysteria of the time when women were accused of being witches, convicted, and hanged based on testimony that their spirits had invaded the dreams of townsmen and harmed them.
Tightly buttoned up religious men – Robert Fairchild, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Chase Finlay, and Amar Ramasar – wove mindlessly in perfect unison as they executed severe movements with abrupt authority. The women – Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Gretchen Smith – were clothed in fragile, flowing white fabric and bore blood-red patches on their bodies signifying their marked status and possibly abuse. They, too, moved in unison as victims.
A PdD for Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild and an extended solo for Fairchild that followed was some of the most creative new story choreography that we have seen on that stage in thirty years. When Peck threw her arm forward to the sound of whooshing air, you were convinced that she was a witch. When Fairchild tore about the stage crazily while miming the words of the Cage music, he seemed possessed and dangerous.
The end seemed to have the convicted witches burned to death although in Salem they were all hanged. That's just an observation, not a criticism. Recall that Agnes de Mille convicted Lizzie Borden in her ballet when in reality Borden was found innocent.
Maybe Preljocaj could expand this ballet into a full length piece for his own company. There is so much more historical material, and there were, afterall, 19 witches with 19 stories – at least.
The evening concluded with the happily spirited 4th Movement & Finale of Balanchine's Western Symphony led by Maria Kowroski and Zachary Catazaro. Where else but on a New York stage could the burning of witches be immediately followed by a hoedown?
The H.H. Gala Pump Bump Award, a little leather witchcraft from Kobi Levi, is bestowed upon Angelin Preljocaj for his riveting new Spectral Evidence.
