. . . the azaleas in Damrosch Park, that is.
It's not that there wasn't some of that going on last night at NYCB, too.
Terrific debuts, a long anticipated return, and a more successful cohesive effort among corps members marked this third performance of the spring season.
Isabella LaFreniere's debut in Concerto Barocco was nothing short of stunning. Such surgical precision coupled with daring space-gobbling we rarely have seen in this ballet. Her entrance variation with its off-balance developpes and literal musicality was so bold and fearless that it brought back memories of the courageous dancing of Jennie Somogyi.
After an absence of several months due to injury, Sara Mearns returned with her own successful debut in Concerto Barocco partnered by Russell Janzen. The choice for her comeback was a bit risky, but this dancer has never been one to shy away from risk either. We look forward to seeing the LaFreniere-Mearns-Janzen trio again on Saturday evening.
It would seem that when the principal cast of Concerto Barocco is as statuesque as last night's, the corps should also be made up of similar women. However, this corps, on its third try, achieved better uniformity than in the opening two performances.
We've seen enough of Kammermusik No. 2 to "get it" and appreciate the difficulty of dancing the complex choreography. But really, how compelling would it be without the swinging ponytails? Seven performances of this ballet may be over-kill.
It was hard to believe that we were, for the very first time, seeing Tiler Peck in Raymonda Variations, a ballet previously painted with the individuality of Violette Verdy and Kyra Nichols. All of a sudden the dancing matched the dreamy, classic beauty of the landscape scenery. A whiff of lilacs, a warm breeze to the face, the freshness of a new perspective -- it was all there. So individual and so lovely. We loved the spontaneity of Tiler's musicality -- it just came out of her like a birdsong. Her pas de deux with Joseph Gordon was sublime and offered a beautiful soft quality in the arabesques and port de bras. Gordon created his own Romantic universe augmented by impressive variations with skimming brise voles and easy, buoyant grand allegro.
The soloists had mixed success. Olivia MacKinnon's first variation began successfully but then faltered with limping hops on pointe that went nowhere. Baily Jones made no mistakes in the second variation but made no impression either. Christina Clark was gorgeous in the fifth variation and showed incredible control of all that natural length. Mary MacKinnon showed once again that she's a jewel worth polishing and polishing in her debut of the sixth variation. Malorie Lundgren managed the seventh variation competently but without being very interesting. These soloist sections of Raymonda have missed Ashley Hod's and Sara Adams' contributions. They also could have benefited from Emma Von Enck, Alexa Maxwell, Brittany Pollack, and (when are we going to see more of) Naomi Corti.
Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, flammes de Louboutin, is bestowed upon Isabella LaFreniere for her blistering debut in Concerto Barocco.
Love reading your reviews! Thank you. I will be in NY for performances next Tuesday and Wednesay. What an exciting season!
Posted by: Jennifer | April 22, 2023 at 05:43 AM
Square Dance was incredible last week. Erica Pereira and Taylor Stanley were both outstanding.
Posted by: NorthHudson | April 26, 2023 at 07:19 PM