When New York City Ballet announced in 2014 that it would import its first 19th Century story ballet, Bournonville’s La Sylphide, there were cries among some of the long-faithful that the company was meandering down the balletic path to some horrific state of syncretism. “You’re trying to mix religions,” they cried without realizing that the spiritual paths of Bournonville and Balanchine had already crossed many times throughout the company’s history.
Well, it proved to be a tremendous idea, and the current program on display which pairs La Sylphide with Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 delivers a premium evening of ballet. There are only three evenings left and Haglund expects to be there for two of them. He’d be there for all three except for the fact that Dmitri Hvorostovsky is in recital at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night. The great baritone has had a very challenging year, humbled by a brain tumor, and has had to face all of the uncertainties that come with the diagnosis. Haglund is disappointed to miss so many important NYCB debuts on Wednesday, including Lauren King’s first crack at the turning ballerina role in the Tschaikovsky, but he’ll be there for the second performance on the next night.
Saturday evening saw the minting of a promising new Sylph, Indiana Woodward, opposite the brilliant James danced by Anthony Huxley. There is a lightness and sparkle in Indiana’s expression that makes her a natural for this role. It took all of ten seconds to become convinced that she was an elf — an endearing one with a proclivity for mischief. Her variations included the deep, lengthy plies and clear footwork that one looks for in this ballet. There was a problem with the plie arabesque fouette on an exit, and the distinctive shape of the Bournonville arms in second position for grand jetes was muddied, but otherwise, most of the elements were glistening.
With theatrical authority and blistering allegro, Anthony Huxley commanded the evening like he was born to the role of James. The pleasure of watching this young man’s rise has been great, and we are tremendously excited to see what his future will bring. We were wowed by Huxley's debut last year, but this year his confidence is in full bloom, and he looked like he was thoroughly enjoying every minute as James. Where last year he appeared to be reading his mime, this year he was speaking it. The only thing missing from Saturday night’s performance was one double tour to the left in the Act II variation. Come on, now. Three sets of echappe battu with double tours to the right simply isn’t as exciting as sandwiching a left turn in the middle. We know that there is internet evidence of a high profiled person doing this, but it was when he was with the Ukrainian company in 1991, not the Royal Danish Ballet. We want our James to aspire to this from 1988 (Hübbe) or this from 2000 (Cornejo).
Sunday evening Tiler Peck was our Sylph to Andrew Veyette's James. Tiler's Sylph was more knowing and sophisticated than Indiana's. She mined musicality from the phrases like few other dancers today do while paying keen attention to stylistic details. Her James dropped his head to peer down at his feet on every assemble and rumbled through the variations without much respect for Bournonville.
Joseph Gordon (Saturday) and Troy Schumacher (Sunday) had just the right sunny dispositions for Gurn and tackled the allegro admirably.
Megan LeCrone (Saturday) and Lauren King (Sunday) as Effie, the young innocent who gets left behind by James but manages to find true happiness with Gurn, were each refreshing. Their mime seemed spontaneous and heartfelt, and their Act I character solos were lively.
Marika Anderson (Saturday) and Gwyneth Muller (Sunday) were superb as Madge, the witch who sets up everyone's fates. On Sunday night, Gwyneth's masterful final scene wherein she gloated over the slumped body of James brought the darkness of this story to full light.
The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Anthony Huxley for his brilliant James on Saturday evening. Let's hope that he and the rest of the company are getting hooked on story ballets.
Coming tonight, Haglund. Just saw Nikolaj Hubbe's version in Copenhagen last week and when the the gods killed my connection home to CA in DC, last night, I decided to make a quick detour to NY to do the compare and contrast on productions.
Posted by: Sharon Mandell | February 16, 2016 at 04:25 PM
Great Sharon. You'll be seeing Anthony Huxley and Indiana Woodward. It should be a treat.
Posted by: Haglund | February 16, 2016 at 05:09 PM
Andrew Vedette filled in for Joaqun de Luz as James last night at the Kennedy Center's performance of La Sylphide. I thought he and Sterling Hyltin were lovely together. Vedette even performed his variation with a double tour to the left as you recommended!
Posted by: Jennifer | March 04, 2016 at 06:27 AM
Good to hear, but I'm sorry that you missed De Luz's James.
Posted by: Haglund | March 04, 2016 at 07:01 AM