NYCB – A Night for Fine Art 1/20

NYCB's Art Series got off to a fine start tonight. The exhibit by Dustin Yellin is fantastic. Large glass cases contain marvelous sculptures made out of trash and other stuff you might see in a subway maintenance professional's collection instrument. Dustin apparently creates from the dustbin. But it is extraordinary.

Here is what the installation looks like from the tiers. Click on each picture to enlarge:

There are no name plaques in the exhibit; so, as yet, we don't know the name of each piece of art or what inspired the artist to create it. It would be helpful if NYCB would create an information handout that patrons can pick up when they mingle about on the promenade.

We're sure that this is a dancer:

Here's a close up of the dancer's abdomen:

Our complete guess is that this one was inspired by Kastchei and his sidekicks from Firebird:

Haglund's favorite:

The center of his stomach:

Totally trash and very cool.

Thought you might want to see the back of Ulyana Lopatkina's head as she was ordering a drink from the bar tonight. Wow, what a beauty. She was decked out in a chic Odile black outfit. We're sure that she enjoyed the program tonight.

The evening's all-Balanchine program included Serenade, Agon, and Symphony in C.

Erica Pereira made an impressive debut as the Russian Girl in Serenade. She had the swiftness of limbs, the joyous energy, and as always, the pristine technique that made highly complex matters like those fast single tour jetes that change directions look like play. The constant vague sniping about her by newspaper critics is really unwarranted. She might not be their cup of tea, but she is an accomplished, reliable soloist who is a joy to watch and whose artistry grows every time she lands on stage.

Sterling Hyltin and Teresa Reichlen performed the Waltz and Dark Angel roles. This isn't my favorite role for Sterling, and tonight it didn't look like it was her favorite either. She looked a bit fatigued. Tess had more energy, held her arabeques beautifully, and danced with her accustomed abandon. Robert Fairchild looked in good dance shape having recently returned from Paris where he performed in Christopher Wheeldon's new American in Paris. Previews open in New York on March 13th. You better believe that Haglund will be there. Wherever Fairchild was taking class while in Paris, it was a good one and seems to have lengthened his upper leg lines. The feet, however, were still floppy. Ask la Cour completed the cast and also seemed to be in great shape. His grand jete exit from the stage was huge.

The corps de ballet danced with glorious energy and abandon. For the most part, these were women who have been with the company for a while which made for an especially cohesive and confident performance.

Agon received a very strong reading this evening from everyone, but the standout performance came from Megan LeCrone who sliced through the choreography as sharply as Chef Morimoto slices through fish at the Chelsea Market. Maria Kowroski, Amar Ramasar, Andrew Veyette, Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Devon Alberda, and Daniel Applebaum completed the cast.

The thrills in Symphony in C were delivered by Ashley Bouder in her debut in the First Movement with Chase Finlay who was fully focused on partnering Ashley but may have been a little unfocused on his own variations during which some of the pirouettes came unraveled. Otherwise, Chase looked great. But Ashley Bouder was phenomenal. Never mind the perfect technique, she found so much room in the music to shape the phrases distinctively that it was hard to believe that this was her debut in the section. She and Tiler Peck own the First Movement of this ballet. These two dancers are the only ones who accent the thrilling Fourth Movement combination that includes a single fouette so the working leg gets to second position on the beat instead of swimming up through the count to second position.

Sara Mearns and Jared Angle were stunning in the Second Movement although some of us wish her tutu could be tacked down so that the ballerina's ass doesn't moon the audience when she goes for the deep penche arabesque. The partnering was wonderfully secure and allowed Sara a great deal of freedom to push the movement as far as she wanted to take it. The speed of the finale was a bit of a problem for her, though.

The Third Movement, danced by Lauren Lovette (a debut) and Gonzalo Garcia, got off to a slippery start when Lauren skidded on the stage but luckily she saved herself from a disaster. Both performed well; Gonzalo's diagonal of saute grande ronde de jambe was quite nice.

Brittany Pollack and Adrian Danchig-Waring breezed through the Fourth Movement. Her traveling diagnonal of turns was fast and clean.

The evening's Pump Bump Award, a Christian Louboutin eco-trash stiletto worn by Beyonce, is bestowed upon Dustin Yellin and Ashley Bouder for providing the finest art of the evening.

Comments

[Deborah Broide]

I also saw the gorgeous Ulyana Lopatkina and the very tall Andrei Yermakov on the Promenade last night (they were sitting several rows in front of my in the orchestra, too). It made the evening even more special (love "Opening Night" at NYCB!).

[Haglund]

Hi, Deborah.

I was wondering who that tall guy was. Yermakov was an excellent Von Rothbart in the opening night of Swan Lake – what a death scene after having his wing torn off!

[cat]

Thank you for the excellent photos.

[Haglund]

You're very welcome. Thanks for stopping by H.H.