New York City Ballet redeemed itself last night with a superb program of the highest quality choreography performed beautifully by its perfectly cast dancers. By performance time, it had been snowing in NYC for quite a while. The streets and sidewalks were becoming slick which might have — cosmically speaking, of course -- contributed to the occasional skid during the evening. That's all we'll say about that.
Mozartiana received a gorgeous performance by Sterling Hyltin and Anthony Huxley as well as Daniel Ulbricht in the Gigue. Ulbricht’s Menuet muses were the newly-appointed statuesque soloists Ashley Hod, Isabella LaFreniere, Miriam Miller, and Mira Nadon. They made a fabulous size contrast with him while also scripting their steps with the same accuracy and verve that Ulbricht has delivered day-in and day-out over his 20+ year career. Sure — the Menuet muses were all his friends on this night, but he knew that the chances were very good that any one of them could evolve into a dangerous, venomous Siren later on in the season. So he kept his eye on them throughout. Truth be told, we’re actually looking forward to such an entanglement.
We have always admired Sterling Hyltin in this role — not just for her pristine technical gifts but for that je ne sais quois undercurrent that suggests she could unleash her impishness at any moment. Intended or not by Tschaikovsky, that quality flows throughout his score, and Hyltin exploits it beautifully. Anthony Huxley was a gallant partner and danced masterful variations. Perhaps not in championship-ready form yet, he was nevertheless brilliant.
OMG Rubies! Rubies Rubies Rubies.
We could not have loved this performance more. With Megan Fairchild’s scampering hot Ruby and Gonzalo Garcia’s hot-blooded Wile E. Coyote chasing after his roadrunner, Rubies was the highlight of the week. It was a superbly danced and theatrically-rich performance. If that wasn’t enough, we had Emily Kikta’s bombshell of a Tall Girl. There was so much Old World showgirl glamour in her performance that we were not surprised at all to hear that immediately following her series of backward penche arabesques into the wing, she was observed climbing out onto the fire escape where a fedora-clad Sinatra was waiting for her with a ciggie. He said, “Baby, you may be a puzzle, but I like the way the parts fit.” Tall Girl was heard cooing, “Gotta run, Frankie. Don’t wanna miss my next stage entrance” and away she went. We can hardly wait for Sunday to watch this again.
La Valse closed the program with strong performances from Sara Mearns, Jovani Furlan, and Amar Ramasar (subbing for Andrew Veyette). We thought that the climactic moment where Mearns slipped her arms into the black gloves was irresistible theater. The gloves looked as though they were swallowing up Sara. Last night may have been the first time that we have seen Jovani Furlan in a dramatic role; he really did project all the way to the back of the second ring in the theater and gave a boldly theatrical performance. Of course, Amar Ramasar simply ran away with his character. Such fun — all of it.
Ashley Laracey and Aaron Sanz told a lovely little story in the Fifth Waltz with lots of mystery and perfume. And we were ecstatic to see Christina Clark fly back on to the stage in the corps de ballet with such joy and beauty.
More than twelve hours later we are still giddy about what we watched on NYCB’s stage last night. Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, a ruby stiletto with a cut-out cage, is bestowed upon Emily Kikta for her out-on-bail Tall Girl in Balanchine’s masterpiece.
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