NYCB Pedals to the Metal

When a car has been dormant in a garage for a year and a half, it will take a fair amount of maintenance to get it running in top form again. The drive belts have to be replaced because they’ve dried out and cracked. The fuel pump will need to be replaced. The radiator has to be flushed out. Oil and filter will need changing. Brake and steering fluids will need changing. And most importantly, one must pump out the old gas and replace it with fresh gas — and that seems to be what’s happening at New York City Ballet — they’re pumping out the old gas and replacing it with fresh gas.

 

After some mechanic's tinkering and test track runs, NYCB, which began the season like the Little Nash Rambler (beep beep) is finishing as the Porsche Carrera we know it can be -- roaring toward the finale furioso of its fourth week. Don’t misunderstand — we’re not referring to our beloved retiring artists as old gas. Maria Kowroski, Ask la Cour, and Lauren Lovette have turned out high level performances equal to what they’ve done their entire careers. We’re just saying, well, you know...

 

We need to digress a moment — there are members of the Damrosch Park Corps de Azaleas who have thrown some autumn blooms! They’ve pushed little blossoms right through their fall foliage as if to say, “Dormant schmormant, we haven’t danced in 18 months. Don’t try to stop us now!” Don’t even suggest that plants don’t possess emotion and soul. Look at these little warriors fighting their ways to the stage. We are all so proud of you little azaleas for sticking it out this past long, long year and a half and showing everyone your big hearts and how determined you are to bring beauty to this world.

 

Which brings us to NYCB's spectacular Corps de Ballet. Oh my goodness, how the ladies have taken over the season every time they have revved up Serenade. Even though the soloists were all lovely, with special applause to Lauren Lovette on her final Waltz Girl, the Corps de Ballet’s heart was beating stronger than ever. Maestro Otranto’s swift tempos and the bold strings of NYCB’s incredible orchestra seemed to inspire the dancers to spend everything they had on this masterpiece. Mimi Staker has found new passion in her performing and is drawing our focus in everything she dances. Alexa Maxwell’s new mature elegance replaced youthful kittenishness. Isabella LaFreniere, Christina Clark, Emily Kikta, and Mira Nadon simply astounded us with the breadth of their dancing. The corps' commitment to this choreography remains as strong as ever. We never hear corps dancers complain about being cast in Serenade.

 

The Corps de Ballet in performances of Chaconne was equally impressive with several dancers excelling in demi-soloist roles. We never hear corps dancers complain about being cast in Chaconne.

 

Sunday's matinee saw Maria Kowroski sign off on the Facades PdD with Russell Janzen. Exquisite as always, they celebrated line and length gloriously. Both have such quiet power and unforced elegance.

 

Mira Nadon and Isabella LaFreniere, new as soloists in the Rubric section this year, revealed sleek lines with maximum stretch. The men’s corps in Glass Pieces finally pulled it together for the last performance on Sunday. Jonathan Fahoury, Davide Riccardo, and Andres Zuniga pushed the pedal to the floor to yield spectacular dancing that was as precise as it was fast and huge. We never hear corps dancers complain about being cast in Glass Pieces.

 

Emily Kikta - ten years in the corps; Ashley Hod and Alexa Maxwell - eight years in the corps; Isabella LaFreniere and Mimi Staker - seven years in the corps. These supremely talented corps women dance every step of every Balanchine ballet like it is the most important assignment of their lives. They don’t “rest” in corps roles because they might be understudying demi-soloist or principal opportunities. We don’t hear them complain about being cast in the corps of Diamonds; they understand that it is a privilege to dance in that ballet anywhere on the stage.

 

So this past week, here comes corps dancer India Bradley who is invited by NYT’s Gia Kourlas to try to further her career by trashing NYCB. Bradley, who became a corps member three years ago, has danced approximately a year and a half as a corps member due to the closure of the theater during the pandemic. A year and a half. She declared to Kourlas (who as we know has a specific Woke agenda that she prioritizes over the truth) that performing in Diamonds corps was not really doing much for her dancing and intimated that she’ll leave within five years if she doesn’t get more opportunity. After a year and a half of dancing corps roles in Balanchine’s masterpieces, she has deemed herself to be deserving of greater opportunities that will further her career. Her Instagram page is all ready for promotion and fame; she just needs NYCB management to fall in line behind her.

 

After reading Bradley’s pathetic complaints, we focused on her corps work in Agon on Friday evening. What an embarrassment. She couldn’t manage a fast grand plie and fell out of most of her double pirouettes. She looked like she was marking while the other corps members were dancing as large as possible. Pardon our brusqueness, but who the hell does she think she is? Maybe after she spends seven, eight, or ten years in the corps, she might be able to approximate the quality of a Hod, Kikta, Maxwell, Staker, or LaFreniere. But let’s not torture Ms. Bradley with a Diamonds corps assignment ever again. And let’s not torture the audience by putting her in Agon again until she can do the steps.

 

Speaking of Agon, Maria Kowroski will sign off on this role with Amar Ramasar this Thursday night. On Friday night, she scrawled her signature across this masterpiece like Jimmy Page signing his guitar. Ain’t nobody ever gonna forget Maria in Agon. She and Amar amplified the architectural genius of this work by making sure that every shape was picture-worthy and every connection had us guessing which person was really in control. The whole match came to an electric and dramatic draw with the power of Page’s Stairway to Heaven. Don’t miss their final performance on Thursday night!

 

Megan LeCrone, Anthony Huxley, Ashley Hod, Andres Zuniga, Sara Adams and Sebastian Villarini-Velez gave strong performances. Huxley’s had the perfect attitude percolating within the Sarabande. While watching the corps, we kept thinking about what Christina Clark’s exacting limbs could add to the architecture of the main Pas de Deux.

 

We saw La Valse on Friday evening as well. It just wasn’t quite ready in sections. There was a late substitution of Joseph Gordon for Taylor Stanley. Gordon of course performed well with Sterling Hyltin, but at times there seemed to be a lot of thinking by the two about what came next. Ashley Laracey and Lauren King were exquisite in the demi-soloist roles. We’ll miss Lauren for a long time after she retires this coming week, but luckily we’ll still have Ashley whose refined elegance softly glows more beautifully with each passing season.

 

We sat through Peck’s Pulcinella Variations, mostly with annoyance, but with new interest in Chun Wai Chan, the soloist who recently arrived from Houston Ballet who seems able to do everything and make it all look interesting and important. We’ve always liked Tsumori Chisato’s sunflower costume for the role generally danced by Indiana Woodward. Actually, it’s half of a sunflower with the other half of the tutu petals missing. It’s all very interesting, and Woodward - a sunflower herself - makes it work wonderfully. But when Emma Von Enck danced the role during the first week of the season, she gave a different effect. Instead of being the sunflower, she was like a little bee who had landed atop the sunflower. Her amused look out at the audience seemed to ask, “Want me to sting you? Watch this.” Suffice to say, she killed the choreography much the way Huxley dispatches his with almost superhuman articulation and speed. Quite an impressive debut from a unique artist.

 

After the Rain has dried up and perhaps needs to be stored away for a while. As much as we have enjoyed Lauren Lovette’s dancing during her eleven years with the company, her debut in this ballet the day prior to her retirement was not her best choice. It came off as overly self-indulgent instead of the quiet introspection of Kowroski or Wendy Whelan. Lauren almost danced it like it was a photo shoot for Nisian. Preston Chamblee had an easy assignment with the tiny Lovette and managed it well. Actually, he was the one with the quiet introspection that we hoped to see.

 

Ask la Cour retired on Saturday night by demonstrating his superb partnering in Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, and After the Rain. Over the weeks, we watched him in M&M performances opposite both Mira Nadon and Teresa Reichlen - such different ballerinas who each have a unique voice that makes us listen to different parts of the music. It would have been nice to see him perform Phlegmatic from The Four Temperaments because he made that role so uniquely his own. The black & white Balanchine ballets were his specialty and his absence will be felt.

 

We wish Lauren and Ask the best on whatever paths they embark. Hopefully we will have a chance to see Lauren dance again some day; it seems she desires to explore the more classical side of her art form. So we will watch for that. Principals and soloists are ever important to our enjoyment of NYCB, but its heart and soul are the hardworking, disciplined, committed artists of the Corps de Ballet. We salute you with an H.H. Pump Bump Award, our Lamborghini First Position stiletto, to be shared equally among all.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Solor]

Interestingly, your automotive metaphors missed the first thing that goes when you leave a car dormant: the battery. But it will usually come to life with a sufficient charge.

[MoMo]

Hi Haglund: Has the orchestra been paid yet? Or are the still performing “in good faith”?

[LLF]

Wow. It sounds as if Kourlas is deliberately trying to infect NYC Ballet with the ABT Fakerina virus. Let's hope the NYCB leadership has the strength to resist this. As you've previously stated, the recent promotions indicate that NYCB is a company where continued excellence is rewarded, unlike their colleagues at the weak, badly damaged ABT. This year I'm boycotting ABT and buying tix only at NYCB, where it seems management's judgment, at least when it comes to the dancers, can still be trusted.

[Haglund]

Solor, thank you. The battery totally slipped my mind.

MoMo, I understand that the musicians are being paid while they are still negotiating about back pay and their next contract. It would seem risky for the company not to get these matters settled before they could impact Nutcracker revenues. It appears that the public is behind the orchestra. At performances they have been getting an ovation equal to or greater than that given to the dancers.

LLF, we can only hope that 2022 will be a year of big changes that are also good changes for ABT.

[Solor]

With regard to ABT: there have been some really good promotions in the last year or so and I suspect that the upcoming week of "Giselles" is going to have some outstanding performances.

[Haglund]

Looking forward to Shevchenko's debut. She's been working with Dvorovenko. Brandt, of course. Trenary may be naturally brilliant in the role; excited to finally meet her Giselle.

[Diana]

Bradley admits in the NY Times article that during the hiatus, "When it became clear that the company wouldn’t be performing anytime soon, she stopped dancing completely."

What on earth is up with that?? Dancers gave master classes, took college courses, had babies. But they all worked their asses off to maintain a minimal standard of fitness as best they could.

India Bradley? Modeled for Victoria's Secret. Speaks for itself.

Make no mistake, her complaints are thinly-veiled charges of racism, and there's nothing worse in modern America than being tarred with the scarlet letter "R."

She's locker room poison. But she's there. And her IG account shows that other dancers gush over her. I think they know the score. Gush or be canceled.

[Haglund]

Judging from what we've seen on stage this fall, there were a few dancers who were not successful in maintaining fitness over the closedown. These included dancers in principal, soloist, demi-soloist, and corps roles; we were somewhat surprised that they got to go back on stage. We've not mentioned them because, obviously, it's going to take some time for everyone to get back to normal. But it is remarkable that the women who had babies managed to come back in top dancing condition -- in much better condition than many whose bodies did not go through that huge challenge. Megan Fairchild, Teresa Reichlen, and Ashley Laracey are dancing as though they never missed a beat over the 18 month shutdown.

[Olivia]

On Maria’s retirement from City Ballet. There are some lovely quotes in there from colleagues.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/arts/dance/maria-kowroski-retires-from-new-york-city-ballet.html

I saw her last Agon on Thursday this week. The audience wouldn’t stop cheering after her pas de deux with Amar, until the other dancers came out to continue the piece.

I’m already crying and it isn’t even Sunday 🥲

[Haglund]

I was there last night, too. It was the ballet equivalent of a mic drop. Nothing left to say after that. Nothing.

[Elegant Radiators]

Has the orchestra been paid yet? Or are the still performing “in good faith”?

[Haglund]

The last I heard, which was a month or so ago, negotiations were continuing with regard to pandemic payments and a new contract. The orchestra was paid during the fall season, however. It would be foolish for NYCB management to allow this dispute to impact Nutcracker which begins in 25 days. But we'll have to simply wait and see what they do.