Halloween is one of those unofficial holidays when people pretend to be something they are not. It’s very big in New York – as is St. Patrick’s Day when everyone pretends to be Irish in order to celebrate the Irish. Nobody complains to Horst McSchmidt that he's not really Irish on March 17th; it wouldn’t be in the spirit of the holiday to do so. Besides, Horst just might know a little more about what it means to be Irish than those with authentic green in the family tree.
This all really doesn’t have much to do with last night's opening performance of New York City Center’s grand celebration of Balanchine in conjunction with its marking of the center’s 75th anniversary – well maybe a little.
Balanchine and the New York City Ballet were in residence at New York City Center from 1948 until the company moved to Lincoln Center in 1964. Many of his most famous works were created during this period. Almost immediately following NYCB’s move to Lincoln Center, the Joffrey Ballet moved into City Center where they stayed for the next 30 years before decamping to Chicago. While it doesn’t seem that City Center, which is run by former Joffrey Ballet dancer Arlene Shuler, will be offering many remembrances or postcards from the past Joffrey residency (other than a Studio 5 discussion in April), the Joffrey Ballet will make a pilgrimage back to the old Mecca Temple to perform Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments three times over this weekend.
Getting back to last night’s opening performance which included some spectacular dancing within the overall good performances - it also included spectacular music. The New York City Ballet Orchestra, which is playing for all performances, was energetically conducted by Andrews Sill and Clotilde Otranto.
Miami City Ballet presented a neat, academic Serenade except that in addition to the two scheduled falls in the choreography, there was a third unscheduled fall. Everyone seemed okay afterward, though. Much of the corps de ballet danced with the joyless, sometimes nervous sternness that Haglund recalls in Lourdes Lopez’s own dancing many years ago. Simone Messmer as the Waltz Girl danced exquisitely and forcefully, but had a demeanor of Myrta throughout much of the ballet. Emily Bromberg’s Dark Angel possessed just the spirit that one wants to see in the role. Her stationary rotating arabesques on pointe began to turn immediately upon hitting the pique arabesque which was lovely to see. Jeanette Delgado as the Russian Girl was the soul of this Serenade. It seemed like she simply could not contain her explosive energy or stop herself from devouring every inch of the stage. She danced as though she dearly wanted to jeté over the orchestra pit and into the audience.
The Mariinsky Ballet’s Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim gave a knock-out performance of the Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux at high speed. We simply don’t have anyone in either of New York’s companies who can dance like that. Sad to say, but true. Of course, the Mariinsky doesn’t have a lot of other dancers who can fly like Kim or charge with the grace of Tereshkina, either. The Mariinsky brought their best for this — no surprise there. Haglund loved their every step, their musicality, their respectful rapport, and the joy with which they expertly and cleanly dispatched the choreography. The speed was easy for them. Kim’s grand allegro was huge, but it was also beautifully lined and stretched. Tereshkina has always been a goddess in everything that she does. It was wonderful to see just how warm she can be and how she reached out to establish a rapport with the audience.
The Royal Ballet presented Tarantella danced by Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé. We can’t say that there was anything wrong in what was danced, but it did seem lacking in flavor. We’re not saying that it was bland, because it wasn’t. It just needed some more spice.
New York City Ballet closed the program by ripping through Symphony in C. (Much thanks to Conductor Otranto for keeping everyone aflight.) It was a very good performance, but not close to the best that we have seen these principals dance. Tiler Peck, Sara Mearns, and Ashley Bouder seemed sluggish like they were coming back from a few days off. Lauren King in the Fourth Movement was brilliant - so absolutely ready and eager for every step. In her few years as a soloist, she has developed gorgeously and is now so ready for much bigger leading role challenges. We remember when she was first promoted how her legs and feet needed so much work. She put the work in and it has paid off beautifully. We note that the brand new soloist Claire Kretzschmar now faces challenges very similar to those that Lauren had, and we are excited to watch her develop and improve, too.
The men in Symphony in C (Tyler Angle, Jared Angle, Anthony Huxley and Taylor Stanley) came fully prepared to impress. And they did. But so did demi-soloists Aaron Sanz, Daniel Applebaum, and Peter Walker whose long, clean leg lines and powerful jumps had greater impact. Just want to remark how beautiful those tall corps women were and how impressive their speed was. We’ve been watching Miriam Miller pick up speed like she was skipping gears this year. In Symphony in C and earlier this year in Concerto Barocco, she kept up with the 5-footers without reducing her range. And hopefully, we will soon see a lot more of that Sequoia with long graceful limbs, Christina Clark. How about a Dewdrop at the end of the month?
Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, Louboutin's studded metallic leather stiletto, is bestowed upon Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim for bringing the daring, the energy, the preciseness, and the elegance to Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux.
I'm with you on much of this assessment, but I couldn't disagree more about the Russians (well, the Korean and the Russian). Very impressive technique, and remarkable jumps from Kim. But---rather than seeming full of joy and musicality, they were full of themselves. I thought they hardly danced together at all. Unmusical, uninspired--except to show off. It was very interesting to see the two Royal dancers who were (admittedly) a bit lackluster on Wednesday then blaze through Tschai Pas on Thursday. They were 20 times better than the Mariinsky dancers in my opinion, and in the opinion of the three (very knowledgable former dancers) I was with.
Posted by: Eric Barsness | November 02, 2018 at 11:56 AM
The only thing that I saw that could be construed as the artists being "full of themselves" might have been the lengthy bows -- but that's a cultural thing. Everyone knows that the Russian dancers hang out for the applause for a lot longer than the (ahem, ahem) modest Americans. The long soaking in of applause right after the first pdd often has a purpose. It's to give the guy a breather before he has to walk upstage to start his variation.
The Koreans may actually out-do the Russians when it comes to milking bows. I started laughing at the end of the recent K'Ballet performance at City Center when the whole troupe just kept coming forward and coming forward and coming forward. It seemed to last longer than the second act.
It just wouldn't have seemed right – would it? – for the NY City Center folks to tell the Mariinsky folks, "Look, your bows irk the New York audience. Could you tamp 'em back a little bit?"
I agree that the RB dancers really brought their game up on the second night. Compared to their performance on the first night, they were spectacular. But I wouldn't say they rose to the level of or exceeded Kim & Tereshkina. Their fish dives were riskier, definitely – but better? There's probably disagreement there.
Re: the opinions of former dancers: There is a tendency on the part of former NYCB dancers to proclaim vigorously that the way they were taught is the only right way. There were several different Balanchine-approved versions of his Tschai PdD (and many other ballets) danced within his company and outside.
These days we have former dancers from other companies (and even some non-dancers) proclaiming that the way in which the stager set a work on their regional company is the only correct way. Anything that appears different from what they personally know is "wrong". Exhibit A: smiling by the muses in Apollo.
Hopefully I'll get a review up of last night's performance by the end of tomorrow. It will probably be contrary to most of the experts.
Posted by: Haglund | November 02, 2018 at 11:19 PM