This Winter season New York City Ballet took its deepest breath in the past four years. But it had nothing to do with relaxation technique or trying to calm some errant stress response. Rather, we witnessed the company's life blood return to its proper 100% oxygenated level. We're talking, of course, about its Balanchine repertory.
Night after night we were treated to outstanding performances by blossoming artists who possessed the confidence to offer very individual interpretations of roles that they were dancing for the first time or nearly so. Night after night, we saw gems polished to their brightest gleam. These were not jittery debuts by dancers thrown into roles at the last minute. Rather, we saw meticulously prepared artists confidently announcing that they were now in charge of securing and displaying the company's most important treasures.
Indiana Woodward as the Russian Girl in Serenade was like a whirlwind whipping up leaves. Oddly, she made us think of her in roles that have never been associated with New York City Ballet: Giselle, Cinderella, Kitri.
Sara Adams and Harrison Ball restored a simple yet stylish elegance to Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux which has often suffered from a hard-sell approach to its famously difficult steps. Unity Phelan and Jovani Furlan were similarly inclined in the same dance although they didn't enjoy the same level of coordination and harmony as Adams and Ball.
The depth of rapport between Ashley Laracey and Taylor Stanley in Sonatine was so palpable that the pas de deux seemed like it could have been central to a full length ballet. Their quiet energy and spontaneous responses to one another enticed us to become absorbed with their story -- even if there was no story. Ashley's dancing was beautifully expressive and full of life, and we so hope to see this artist in more major ballerina roles such as the 2nd movement in Symphony in C and in Diamonds.
The Four Temperaments acquired a new mood: the Imperative mood. We don't know when we have ever seen such a major restorative overhaul of a ballet as we saw with this ballet this season. The debuting performances were so commanding that they dominated each bill in which they appeared. Emily Kikta and Mira Nadon, masterful and authoritative in Choleric, wielded their limbs like weaponry. Ashley Hod and Isabella LaFreniere, powerfully impulsive and unpredictable as Sanguinic, chased down their curiosities while their outstanding partners, Peter Walker and Gilbert Bolden, attempted to keep them on track.
The performances by Emma Von Enck and Anthony Huxley in Jerome Robbins' Andantino were simply intoxicating. She, with the most elegant elbows and delicate wrists, will surely someday be a transcendent Aurora. And Huxley has found a partner whose smile he cannot resist.
The Black Swan Pas de Deux, a version by Peter Martins after Petipa's original, revealed just how valuable having the right instrument is in order for the ballerina to be convincing in this role. We saw the beginnings of three very capable and determined Odiles. Unity Phelan surprised with her calm, convincing deceit and powerful Italian pas de chats near the end, but technical security eluded her. Joseph Gordon added little to either the drama or to the anticipated technical spectacle. Isabella LaFreniere stunned with her perfect placement and ability to organize everything like she had magnets in her shoes that always got her to the perfect place. But an early misstep, dreadfully slow tempi, and a conductor's misguided efforts to try to help by slowing down even more sent her performance off-track. The performance was not disappointing to us, though it may have been to her, but we were disappointed not to have seen her get a second chance in the run. Her Siegfried, Peter Walker, showed superb partnering skills and delivered sky-bound grand jetes. (Wish we could soon see him as Phlegmatic.)
When Mira Nadon entered the back of the stage as Odile with Chun Wai Chan as Siegfried, our first thought was "She gets it. She just gets who this character is and what she must deliver." Odile's smug confidence, her sense of worldly control, her sociopathic charms were revealed in every step of that entrance. And then she delivered in spades -- so fully prepared and completely in control that we weren't quite sure that we should believe our eyes. Nadon has been studying her Odiles and has put together a composite of evils of Betty Davis, Uma Thurman, and Margaret Hamilton. We could imagine her pushing the sniveling Siggie down the stairs, administering a 5-point palm exploding heart attack from Kill Bill, and then making off with his little dog, too. Evil, but utterly captivating and glamorous. Slow, powerful extensions; rapid fire allegro; and dangerously risky turns were this Odile's pocket change. When she entered the stage for her fouettes, she entered from the middle wing and actually began them at or a little forward of the middle of the stage -- a very gutsy decision by any ballerina. She whipped through the turns with all the joyful menace and guiltless aggression that we remember in Ananiashvili. The final bailout was our Odile at her most reckless. This one was strictly dangerous.
Poor Siegfried -- he had no chance. Not even his own magnificent turns and soaring leaps could protect him from this deadly darling. Chan played the clueless prince to a T. "What's happening here?" his face asked. "Isn't she wonderful? Or isn't she?" His portrayal was the fully rounded character that we remember from a few years ago when we saw his Siegfried debut with Yuriko Kajiya at Houston Ballet -- only better.
Tiler Peck and Jovani Furlan were the fourth couple to dance Black Swan Pas de Deux. Tiler thrilled with the fouettes and all other spins but could not risk making the arabesque or attitude lines of her past. Her performances were quite careful in that respect, and it seemed like Furlan was concerned, if not nervous, about making sure that Tiler did not take her lines too far. His own grand allegro was okay but not as spectacular as either Chan's or Walker's and he did not cultivate the character as well. But all in all, his performance was nice to watch.
So many grand performances these past two weeks, but alas, only one Pump Bump Award to bestow. We have been particularly impressed with the growth of Harrison Ball in a variety of roles. (We still want to see him as Melancholic.) There is real maturity in his dancing along with a new joy. We hope that he will be rewarded sooner than later for his accomplishments. Meanwhile, even as we're distracted by other important worldly matters, we want to bestow this H.H. Pump Bump Award on Harrison Ball.
