Haglund's Heel

NYCB – There is no such thing as too much.

New York City Ballet has been accused of a lot of things lately, but the only thing it’s guilty of is talent hoarding. This excessive, unapologetic displaying of the talent pool drives this balletomane crazy-happy — like a little piggie who gets to roll around in fresh mud every day. “Mejia is debuting in Dances at a Gathering” oink, splat, roll. "Hoxha and Ball are debuting in Stars and Stripes” oink, splat, roll. "Huxley and Gordon are debuting in Theme and Variations" oink, splat, roll. “Laracey and Gerrity are debuting in Scotch Symphony” oink, splat, roll. Filthy happy only begins to describe it. 

 

We’ve been pretty busy beatin’ the path up and down the 9th Avenue ballet trail the past few weeks in an effort to take in all that NYCB has been offering. Seeing veterans revive former levels of excellence or build on already rich interpretations of Balanchine’s and Robbins’ choreography has been most rewarding. Special mention needs to be made about Andrew Veyette’s fine performances in Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet opposite Lauren Lovette, Scotch Symphony opposite Ashley Laracey, and Stars and Stripes opposite Theresa Reichlen. He’s having his own renaissance this season and has brought importance to his performances like we haven’t seen from him in several years. Tyler Angle and Gonzalo Garcia are also dancing as though age doesn’t matter. 

 

The highlights these past couple of weeks have been like a nonstop strobe of brilliance and overwhelming beauty. We kid you not – much more of it and we could all be having ballet seizures. 

 

We want to rave again about the Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet/Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 program. Haglund saw every one and could happily sit through more of them. The final program last Thursday included See the Music hosted by the ever-popular Clotilde Otranto. Was this a debut? We can’t remember ever seeing her conduct these sessions. Well, she was a hit. The audience loved her energy and has always loved her energetic conducting that challenges the dancers to be their best. 

 

On Thursday Erica Pereira and Anthony Huxley in the Andante of Brahms-Schoenberg once again transported us to musical heaven — such a perfect match of artists and material. Erica is wearing the perfume this season like never before. Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia in Theme and Variations were blessedly speedy and musically generous without being complacent. Earlier in the run, a T&V performance conducted by Music Director Andrew Litton was so deadly slow in the adagio that Ashley Bouder tried to fill the music by making faces and mouthing her joy. It was difficult to watch and one more sign that she needs to hand off this role to others who deserve the opportunity – such as Brittany Pollack, Erica Periera, Emily Gerrity, and (where the heck is that) Alexa Maxwell – all of whom have the speed and the graceful limbs that could make T&V as stunning as it deserves.

 

Scotch Symphony showed us that NYCB’s tiniest are terrific, too. Corps women Baily Jones, Rachel Hutsel, and Alston Macgill each got a turn as the Kilt Soloist during this season. All were charismatic but Alston had that unstoppable, run-away-with-it quality that left one breathless after watching her. 

 

Ashley Laracey made a lovely debut in Scotch Symphony on Friday evening opposite Andrew Veyette. But we weren’t quite prepared for what we saw last night in Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Ashley and the debuting Claire Kretzschmar were a stunning pair of newcomers who rocked the house with the strongest debuts of the season. Well, yes, they were helped along by outstanding performances from Amar Ramasar and Ask la Cour, but the two ladies took over the stage with absolute confidence, authority, and flawless dancing. This was a magnificent performance from one and all, and the audience knew it.

 

An earlier Stravinsky Violin Concerto with Lauren Lovette, Sara Mearns, Joseph Gordon and Aaron Sanz seemed like it had been cast for a completely different ballet. Sara and Aaron as a pair — just no. Maybe if the partners had been switched, it all would have seemed less strange. Joseph Gordon gave a powerful and articulate performance — exceptional. Lauren’s dancing was perfect, but the performance aspect was odd due to a lot of extraneous facial expressions. It all became very predictable: smile,2,3,4, scowl,6,7,8, smile,2,3,4, scowl,6,7,8. But like we said, her dancing was perfect and its scope seems to be growing larger with every season. Aaron Sanz also danced perfectly, but also didn’t have control of his cooing and Vogue-ing with his mouth which was richly lined with lipstick. He flirted with everyone on stage constantly. Enough already. Every role isn’t a flirt role. But like we said, he danced perfectly and we are so happy to see Aaron being featured in principal roles.

 

Last night Indiana Woodward and Harrison Ball blew the lid off of Valse-Fantaisie. They, along with the brilliant quartet of Alston Macgill, Olivia MacKinnon, Kristen Segin, and Sarah Villwock, simply could not be contained. They clearly went for the athletic aspect of the choreography, but it was certainly fun to watch. We’re almost to week seven of the season, and Harrison Ball is still fully intact from head to toes which is amazing considering the explosiveness of his dancing this season. He has elevated his dancing the most of anyone and now stands shoulder to shoulder with all the principal men in the company.

 

Spartak Hoxha made a smashing debut leading the 3rd Regiment of Stars and Stripes. What a charmer he is. And what a strong impact he made with his squeaky clean double tours and tight fifth landings. We remember enjoying him quite some time ago in Emeralds. It's time for more.

 

It’s been an outstanding season. We’re sad that Maria Kowroski won’t be able to dance her two Titanias next week. However, we hope that means that we’ll see one, perhaps two debuts. There are so many potential Titanias hanging out in the rank & file. Christina Clark and Emily Kikta, who have been monopolizing our attention every time they are on stage, could be wonderful Titanias. And, of course, Lauren King and Emily Gerrity would as well. So we’ll just have to wait and see. Whatever happens, we need to see much, much more of all four of those ladies.

 

We wish we could have cheered more for Megan LeCrone’s work in Stars and Stripes and as one of the all important demis in Theme and Variations, but something is very off in her dancing this season. The stone face in T&V was so distracting that it negatively impacted all of the performances she was in. In S&S, Megan’s exits from the stage were marked by her quitting before she got fully off stage. Leaps literally quit in mid-air; the head dropped; and she would stoop over at the side edge of the stage to pick something up. The exit leaps didn’t even look committed when she took off. Overall, the dancing was very, very small and uncommitted whenever she was on stage. It is a shame to see this happening.

 

It is worrying to see Lars Nelson being featured so much in demi and quartet corps roles when his dancing can be sloppy and unfinished. His port de bras is so unformed that it looks like it came out of hockey camp. It all becomes even more evident when he's dancing side by side the very gifted and charismatic Alec Knight.

 

We're on to the final week and then it's a long dry spell until the fall season. It would seem that some promotions should be coming up. It's always nice to see the dancers who we enjoy the most get well-earned recognition from their company. It's been four years since a woman has been promoted to principal. There are at least four, maybe five or six who have consistently been dancing at a high principal level. Our H.H. Pump Bump, a fashionable futuristic Balmain sandal with rhinestones, is bestowed upon Erica Pereira, Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Brittany Pollack, Indiana Woodward, and Emily Gerrity. The future looks good.

 

 

 

NYCB 5/18 matinee An interesting and heartwarming afternoon at the ballet

For the record, there were three NYT dance critics in attendance at this matinee. Unfortunately, Gia Kourlas discovered a need to leave at intermission following the standing ovation and cheering that Amar Ramasar received after a truly wonderful, spirited, and expertly danced Rondo alla Zingarese with Sara Mearns in Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. The audience's reception and warm welcome didn't jibe with Gia's ongoing NYT smear campaign designed to try to run Amar out of town away from the sulphur-laden stench of her yellow journalism. 

But the audience had other ideas. Not only did they cheer and cheer at the end, they cheered and cheered as soon as Amar appeared in the upstage corner necessitating a few seconds delay in the start of the music. Then they cheered and cheered his wonderfully danced variations. Really, it is rare to see a NYCB audience come to its feet to cheer mid-bill in a performance. This wasn’t just a handful of people either. It was many, many knowledgeable, devoted NYCB patrons who know the screw job that Gia & company are trying to perform and wanted to send her a personal F-U, your nonjournalistic-feces doesn’t matter. She got the message, and she left. 

 

But we can expect that Gia will continue on her course of reinforcing unfortunate stereotypes about women who can’t stop ragging. She’s like the Republicans who can’t stop talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails. But what else is she going to do? She’s not going to be NYT’s Chief Dance Critic. So she will continue to rag and continue to promote Plaintiff Waterbury’s misguided legal efforts. By the way, the amended complaint has been filed. It still has the plaintiff claiming that she experienced the “worst nightmare of every woman” — you know, having the ecstasy of her sex with the man she loves memorialized on a video snippet or picture and then having him share it with his close friends. Yes, that is certainly "the worst nightmare of every woman” or at least it is to the rich, white, privileged women who have a complete disconnect with the real sexual abuse that common women experience in the real world. But hey, she’s got a hustling lawyer who knows that he has to climb on the backs of real women victims everywhere and make the public believe that his client suffered just like they did. It is a disgrace. And anyone who has ever been on a jury in Manhattan knows that juries here are not made up of rich, white, privileged women who don’t understand what true sexual abuse is. Most any jury would laugh in this lawyer’s face if he tried to convey that his client had suffered “the worst nightmare of every woman.” Of course, the plaintiff’s lover should never have made and shared the photo/video without permission – let’s be clear about that.

 

The afternoon included some downright marvelous dancing besides that of Amar and Sara Mearns (yes, she was marvelous again). Emilie Gerrity, Joseph Gordon, and Lydia Wellington shone brightly in the opening Allegro although they did seem to be concentrating studiously. They relaxed about midway and then their dancing seemed to enlarge and envelop the music beautifully. Lauren Lovette and Andrew Veyette, new to the Intermezzo section, were smooth as silk. Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia carried the Andante section as though they were one. Megan’s movement was so melodic and joyful that we didn’t want it to end.

 

The Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 got a better reading this afternoon. For the record, the crew fixed the lights on the middle chandelier, but now the light second from the right on the major chandelier in the middle of the stage is dozing off. Do you suppose that someone is intentionally messing with us and is trying to set off our OCD which, as you probably know, is a dominant gene in all balletomanes? Is it a plot to drive us crazy?

 

Teresa Reichlen and Adrian Danchig-Waring were ravishing in the Elegie. Lauren King and Taylor Stanley were a fascinating couple in the Valse Melancolique. They danced with a calmness that conveyed that the movement belonged only to them. We all know Lauren for her bright smile and endless joy in her dancing, but when she goes serious, she is devastatingly beautiful. The Scherzo was again danced by Georgina Pazcoguin and Harrison Ball. They seemed more relaxed. He delivered one heck of a series of moving turns like crackling lightning and stopped precisely on the music. They both danced well and seemed unimpaired, but then only Harrison showed up for the final curtain bows. We’ll just have to wait for that particular backstory to come out. Maybe Gina had to take a call from Gia.

 

Ashley Bouder and Anthony Huxley brought the afternoon to a close with the Theme and Variations section. Everything was going so well until Anthony had to do that series of double tours/pirouette. He got through almost all of them before things got shaky and he ended the last one seated on the floor. We’ve never seen Anthony unintentionally seated on the floor, so it was a new experience for us, too. Other than that, he walked right into first place in T&V at NYCB now that Joaquin has retired. By the way, Joaquin was in Row A of the Orchestra seating for the afternoon. 

 

Ashley didn’t make any big blunders and was able to keep up with the speed which was indeed – and thankfully – zippy under the baton of Maestro Otranto. But it’s no longer a best role for her, and more importantly, there are several other dancers who deserve the challenge: Brittany Pollack, Emilie Gerrity and a few extremely talented whippersnappers in the corps de ballet. We shouldn’t have to watch the same dancers do the same roles for ten years when there is really nothing they can add to them in terms of performance value and when there are others who could dance the roles as well and with a fresh perspective. 

 

The sun has gone down on Saturday and we’re done. Tomorrow’s another day, and we’ll be back for more. Until then, we bestow today’s H.H. Pump Bump Award on Amar Ramasar. We’re thankful that he’s back and dancing splendidly, but he should watch his back.

 

NYCB 5/15 - Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet & Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3

Emily Kikta came flying out of the wing with her four wingmen desperately trying to keep up with her. Holy Moly, talk about taking over the stage; talk about a high octane performance that made the viewer’s heart pound as much as the dancer’s. It was almost seven years to the day when Emily first danced this solo role in the Allegro section of Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet — May 18, 2012. At that first performance, all we could think was that we wanted the little corpsbirds to get out of the way so we could watch this majestic eagle soar through Balanchine’s beautiful choreography. True, at that first performance her leg buckled and she nearly went down spectacularly. But victory in the face of near-catastrophe used to be pretty standard fare at NYCB. Last night there were no stumbles – nothing but glorious, huge, GRACEFUL, respectful, and musical grand allegro that used every inch of stage and every note of music. Simply and astonishingly beautiful.

Ashley Bouder and Russell Janzen danced the PdD in the Allegro section. It wasn’t a good match-up: his elegance vs. her rough stylishness; his long lines vs. her compactness; his coolness vs. her boldness. While it was easy to admire Ashley in the allegro solos, it was less easy in the PdD where length of line and grace were desired.

 

In the Intermezzo section, Jared Angle did a good job making Sterling Hyltin look like a miracle. In the Andante, where Erica Pereira and Anthony Huxley were debuting, both danced superbly as soloists and as a pair; the only thing missing was that confidence that comes after getting one performance under the belt.

 

In the Rondo alla Zingarese, Sara Mearns (substituting for Maria Kowroski) and Tyler Angle gave it all the wild gypsy they could without getting arrested – a marvelous output of joyous dancing.

 

Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 wasn’t as ship-shape as it should have been. There are still lights out in the middle chandelier on stage which once again set off balletomanes’ OCD throughout the theater. There were problems with the coordination of the demi-soloists in Theme and Variations and at times the corps struggled with uniformity. Sara Mearns and Ask la Cour gave the Elegie excessive drama. Ashley Laracey and Jared Angle repeated their lush performance of the Valse Melancolique. Georgina Pazcoguin and Harrison Ball danced the Scherzo like they wanted to murder it. Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia in their second shot at T&V this season gave it more polish.

 

At barely two hours, this program provided a fulfilling evening of ballet with wonderful music, and sent the audience spilling out the doors in a happy mood. 

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Giuseppe Zanoti winged stiletto, is bestowed upon Emily Kikta for her remarkable performance in Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet.

observations 5/14

Angel Corella has announced these promotions at Pennsylvania Ballet:

Zecheng Liang, to Principal Dancer
Yuka Iseda, Albert Gordon and Nayara Lopes to First Soloists
Kathryn Manger, Ashton Roxander and Peter Weil to Soloists
Etienne Diaz, Sydney Dolan, Russell Ducker, Thays Golz, Alexander Heier and So Jung Shin to Demi Soloists

This represents a realignment of levels with the addition of First Soloist and Demi Soloist ranks.

The 2019-2020 season promises to be one of the company's most ambitious to date under Corella: Don Quixote; a program of three world premieres; a brand new La Bayadere; a mixed rep program that includes Stanton Welch's Clear, Suspended in Time by Corella, Radev, and Drucker which was originally made for Barcelona Ballet, and a new Neenan piece; a humongous Balanchine program of Ballet Imperial, Who Cares, and Symphony in C; and of course Balanchine's Nutcracker.

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On June 1st at 8:00 p.m. Symphony Space will screen the Nureyev documentary which was recently shown at Landmark Cinemas. While there are irritating things about it, there are also some incredible clips, including the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet with Fonteyn in which Nureyev invests himself like few, if any, other dancers. Seeing this PdD on a big screen is well worth sitting through what precedes it.

 

observations 5/13

Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema's Carmen/Petrushka performance will stream at all the usual places this Sunday May 19th at 12:55 pm. In Manhattan, one can view it at Empire 25 on W. 42nd St at 8th Ave., Kips Bay 15 at 570 Second Ave., Union Square Stadium 14 at 850 Broadway. On Monday at 2pm and Tuesday at 7pm, the Beekman at 1271 Second Avenue will show it. Symphony Space will show it at 2pm on June 4th; tomorrow May 14th, they have a scheduled screening of the Bolshoi's Sleeping Beauty that was shown around town earlier this year. Speaking of Symphony Space, we should remind everyone that tonight Joaquin de Luz will perform Robbins' Suite of Dances in conjunction with the New York Dance Project. Performances are at 5:30pm and 8pm.

Back to Carmen and Petrushka – we have casting:

Carmen Suite:

Carmen           Svetlana Zakharova
Jose                 Denis Rodkin
Torero              Mikhail Lobukhin
Corregidor       Vitaly Biktimirov
Fate                 Olga Marchenkova
Tobacco Girls  Olga Kishnyova, Yulia Skvortsova , Victoria Yakusheva

Petrushka:

Petrushka        Denis Savin
Ballerina          Ekaterina Krysanova
Moor               Anton Savichev
Charlatan        Vyacheslav Lopatin

 

Also coming up is the Landmark Cinema's stream of the Royal Ballet's triple bill of Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medusa, and Pite's Flight Pattern. The single showing is Tuesday, June 18th at 7pm. Unfortunately this conflicts with Herman Cornejo and Sarah Lane in Manon at the Met Opera House.

 

observations 5/9

5/10 Update to the post below:

A stipulation filed today and added to the online case documents as #74 revealed the following:

1. The reason that there has been no answer to the complaint by Zachary Catazaro is that the Plaintiff hasn't yet properly served him with the complaint.
2. The reason that SAB has not filed an answer yet is by agreement between SAB and the Plaintiff.
3. A second amended complaint will be filed by the Plaintiff on or before May 15th as an exhibit to the stipulation filed today. Once it's filed, it will be deemed served on all the defendants. It's kind of like a "do-over". All the previous motions to dismiss will be mooted. New answers, motions and responses from the defendants will be due on June 7th. Plaintiff must respond to them by July 12th. Defendants must answer Plaintiff by August 9th, and it all should be heard in court on August 13th -- unless there are new requests for delays.
4. This is all being done to maximize efficiency and to save the court time. So there ya go...

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It seems there could be a little bit of good news in the making.

Today Defendant Jared Longhitano's attorney filed a document with the court which indicates in part that the attorneys for four defendants had recently conferred with the judge during which time it was decided that Plaintiff Waterbury's attorney would file a 2nd amended complaint which would moot Longhitano's and all motions to dismiss. Speculating here -- perhaps that means that the amended complaint will have far fewer defendants. Stay tuned.

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On Monday Joaquin de Luz will be performing with the New York Dance Project at Symphony Space at Broadway and W. 95th. He will dance Robbins' Suite of Dances. There are two performance times: 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Tickets here.

New York Dance Project is a performing group and school established by former Joffrey Ballet dancers Davis Robertson and Nicole Duffy Robertson. They are dedicated to honoring and promoting the legacy of Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino. One can certainly see some of that in this video:

 

 

 

NYCB 5/3 – Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Barber Violin Concerto, Diamonds

The red azaleas in Damrosch Park are showing off again. They seem to think they’re the prime act at Lincoln Center – oblivious to the competition next door where on Friday night blooms burst to their fullest and most fragrant since the beginning of this spring growing season at New York City Ballet.

 

The three-part bill of Slaughter On Tenth Avenue, Barber Violin Concerto, and Diamonds had the heft of content that longtime balletomanes crave. It’s the type of bill that drives us to buy extra tickets for the purpose of dragging the uninitiated into the ballet world and converting them to our religion. A powerful night it was.

 

Sara Mearns uncorked herself in Balanchine’s Slaughter On Tenth Avenue with lethal leg kicks and fatal shimmy like we haven’t seen her do before. She was the Striptease Girl who only accepts large bills and knows how to shake them out of the wallets. 

 

Debuting as the Hoofer, Peter Walker was subdued with his face down under his hat too much, perhaps concentrating on making the steps accurate instead of exaggerating them and his character. He definitely got the steps, but they are only half of the role. But we have to give him a lot of credit for holding onto Mearns who was, as we said, uncorked. We know that Walker will pull it all together quickly as will Daniel Applebaum as Morrosine, Silas Farley as the Gangster, and Gilbert Bolden as the Big Boss. Theatrically-driven roles are tough for NYCB dancers to grasp on the first try.

 

Megan Fairchild, Teresa Reichlen, Jared Angle, and Aaron Sanz as the quartet in Peter Martins' Barber Violin Concerto emphasized the opposition of the grounded modern dancers and the airy ballet dancers. Freedom versus discipline. Impulse versus restraint. How they clash but ultimately combine beautifully are good themes to think about. Megan was a perfectly impish, insistent, and impetuous modern dancer who continually got in the face of Aaron's stoic ballet character. This was his debut which may account for why he didn’t look sufficiently perturbed with Megan buzzing around him like an annoying fly. His excessive lipstick distracted from any firmness of expression. Teresa and Jared were lovely in their PdD; her arabesque, lavish and flexible, made a particularly strong statement.

 

Sunday afternoon will mark the debuts of Sterling Hyltin, Taylor Stanley, and Emma Von Enck who we think will probably knock the nuts out of the squirrels’ cheeks, so to speak.

 

Balanchine’s Diamonds, excerpted from Jewels, received a stunningly beautiful performance from Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle. In the past several years, Maria has captured the essence of this role to such an extent that it has looked like Balanchine was thinking of her when he created it nearly a decade before she was born. But we remember when that wasn’t always the case; those early performances of Diamonds some 15 years ago were not always easy to sit through because they were so unfinished. She was the proverbial diamond in the rough for some time. Following Balanchine’s custom, Peter Martins expected dancers to search and find their own ways through roles. His faith in Maria’s ability meant that the audience would have to hang in there while she figured things out. But our persistence, and hers, paid off with rich rewards. She is an artist of the most uncommon quality that comes along only once in our lifetime.

 

So while all the media hoopla is playing out about Suzanne Farrell’s return to offer some coaching to seasoned artists who have been dancing Balanchine’s works during long careers, it’s worth remembering that the artists were not exactly flavorless brisket beforehand. Nevertheless, we did notice some enrichment in Friday night’s Diamonds. The first lovely little change in the PdD was the ballerina’s entrance. Her simple stage walk has returned to the more formal ballerina walk on the balls of the feet which leaves a heightened impression of nobility. But the most notable enhancement was Maria’s strong use of her eyes to extend the line of the arms. What makes this interesting is that Farrell was always a very introspective dancer whose eyes were frequently downcast even when her face and chin were up. It seemed almost painful to her to let the audience into her soul. But Maria is letting us in, and it is indeed beautiful.

 

We’ve taken for granted Tyler Angle’s fine partnering for a long time, but he can — and did on Friday night — show himself to be a fine soloist. His turns a la seconde were the best we’ve ever seen from him – snapping to full speed at the outset and never losing energy in the double revolution. His pirouettes, double tours, and manége of coupé jeté were powerfully driven. We did wonder why the assembles traveling towards Amsterdam Ave. were plain whereas the assembles traveling toward 9th Ave. had beats.

 

There seems to have been some fiddling with the corps de ballet in Diamonds. They haven’t quite figured things out yet with regard to shapes, particularly at the end, but they all looked lovely nevertheless. We could not help but notice the exceptional beauty of our sequoias in the corps: Christina Clark, Emily Kikta, and Miriam Miller.

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, the Passion Diamond stiletto from Jada Dubai ($17 million/pair), is bestowed upon Maria Kowroski who continues to inspire us with her magnificent interpretation of Balanchine's masterpieces.

 

 

NYCB All Balanchine 4/30 & Spring Gala 5/2

Sometimes nonsense is so prettily and poetically marketed that people don’t question it.

 

Take for instance, “New work is the lifeblood of the company” - all pure nonsense. The lifeblood of New York City Ballet is the Balanchine repertory. Period. Once that repertory fails to be pumped by strong hearts through the artistic veins of the company, it’s curtains. 

 

If NYCB had to rely solely or even halfway on a composite of contemporary offerings like what we saw during the first week and introduced at last night's gala, the company would not survive to see another season. In fact, without a continual infusion of Balanchine’s works throughout the country’s dance companies, professional level ballet in America might be at death’s door. 

 

But let us not be ungrateful for the few Balanchine works we have seen so far this week. Nor should we neglect to express our joy for the return to the stage of Megan Fairchild and corps dancer Christina Clark after their long absences.

 

Tuesday evening, the first All Balanchine program delivered the vitamin power we needed. Scotch Symphony, led eagerly by Ashley Bouder, Joseph Gordon, and Baily Jones, evoked the essence of a 19th century Sylph-centric ballet without the narrative. The bounding, ebullient allegro in this ballet is a specialty of Bouder’s, and here she was comfortably and joyously in her element. However, Scotch Symphony also includes a substantial amount of traditional adagio which is becoming more and more difficult for her to pull off sensitively. Neither the shape of foot nor the shape and shortness of leg lend themselves to producing the lyrical, seamless quality that one expects in adagio. Joseph Gordon displayed his gift of using his gaze outward to entice the viewer to follow him on his imaginative journey. His complex Romantic spirit and eloquent technique made for a strong debut. Baily Jones, a corp dancer of three years, debuted impressively in the principal allegro role of the girl in the red plaid highland kilt and tartan sash. The corps de ballet looked lovely but for some wiggling and lax feet when it came time for all of them to stand still and developpe to the front. 

 

The center of the program, Duo Concertant and Sonatine, were a workout for gifted on-stage pianist Elaine Chelton who had to switch gears dramatically and quickly from Stravinsky to Ravel. Megan Fairchild and Anthony Huxley danced a spirited Duo Concertant. Lauren Lovette and Gonzalo Garcia carefully attended to Sonatine. It’s not yet fair to compare Lovette and Garcia to Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz who mastered the PdD with such tenderness and coordinated clarity. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to avoid a comparison because so many people saw and loved what Peck and de Luz made of the ballet.

 

Stravinsky Violin Concerto closed the Tuesday program with the expected blazing performances from Maria Kowroski and Sterling Hyltin. The long and the short of it is that these two possess the instruments that can reveal the genius in the choreography more brilliantly than anyone. This ballet has always had a reductive spirit with its emphasis on primary shapes, primary steps, simplification of lines, and clarity of form. The composition is genius, and so was this performance. Adrian Danchig-Waring and Russell Janzen were admirable partners. Adrian’s movement, in particular, had a panther-like quality in its strength and softness.

 

We wish the Thursday night gala had lived up to half of what was presented on Tuesday. Justin Peck’s Bright was the least worst of the two premieres. Costumes by Reid and Harriet looked like cast-offs from Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Peck’s choreography tried to mimic the energy and communal spirit of most any Ratmansky ballet. He even gave Sara Mearns a solo in which she could throw herself around and tragically emote like she does in Pictures at an Exhibition, Russian Seasons, etc. The music by Mark Dancigers was the type that one hears mid-movie when nothing important is going on. Dreadful stuff from note one to the finish.

 

Pam Tanowitz’s Bartók Ballet might be the worst, most god-awful thing that New York City Ballet has ever foisted onto its patrons. The best parts of the dance were when no one was on stage. The dancers were costumed initially in Reid & Harriet’s drab unisex one piece leotards with blousy tops and long sleeves with cutouts. Then most of them changed into mostly unflattering gold leotards and then some changed back to the drab onesies. The choreography was what you'd expect from a remedial gym class at Nameless U. in Can’tFindIt-ville, West Dakota. It dragged on for an eternity with no connection to the undanceable Bela Martok composition for string quartet. We just wonder if NYCB ever decided to experiment with the cuisine at the gala as much as it experiments with the  dance at the gala, would anyone ever show up again.

 

At least the evening included and concluded with a relatively fine performance of Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3. Maybe there needed to be a little more attention to details here or there — well, for instance, how about making sure that there aren’t four or five lights out in the middle chandelier on stage. 

 

Highlights included the beautiful Ashley Laracey’s Valse Melancolique with Jared Angle and Erica Pereira and Daniel Ulbricht’s nearly aerial Scherzo. Ashley Laracey’s ability to pull the pulse of whatever music she’s dancing to is the strongest in the company. She was so full of life and energy that this section could have been the finale of the evening. 

 

It has been thrilling to watch Erica Pereira rocket herself into high orbit with her dancing these past several months. We are so excited to see what next is in store for her.

 

The Theme and Variations finale led by Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia was the evening’s crowdpleaser. The performance didn’t have the boldness that we are accustomed to in Mega's T&V performances, but it was still quite wonderful. Gonzalo didn’t have any particular problems with any part of the ballet, but he didn’t possess the clear lines and strongly arched feet that one always hopes to see in this ballet. 

 

So, in summary, it was a typical NYCB gala with new choreography that you don’t want to ever see a second time.

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, Birds of Paradise stiletto from Altuzarra, is bestowed upon Erica Pereira and Ashley Laracey for their stand-out performances in Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3.