Our little pink renegade in the red Azalea Corps de Ballet of Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park has appeared at last. Seemingly always late getting to the stage, she didn't show up this year until it was almost time for bows – like something out of Jerome Robbins' The Concert.
But oh, isn't she a beauty. Funny how this garden parallels life. Just when we were thinking how we really missed so many of Balanchine's big ballets -- although the season's offerings have been nothing to sniff at -- out trotted this big old beautiful rose-scented Robbins ballet that we hadn't seen in years to bring a little extra enchantment to the garden. Brandenburg hasn't been seen in a decade and a half on NYCB's stage, and oh what a beauty of a ballet it is. It's full of surprises and humor, full of imaginative step combinations, full of ballet comfort & beauty, and exquisitely danced by its cast of twenty. How did this ballet get left out of the Robbins 100 Festival a few years back?
For his last ballet, Robbins borrowed the best from himself for Brandenburg. At times, it even looked like he was reminiscing about his excursion with Tharp. The intense focus on clean structure seemed almost architecturally engineered. There were so many appealing arrangements of dancers that the ballet could be a poster for the Elements of Composition: pattern, focus, contrast, balance, rhythm, whatever. Even the dated costumes looked charming with their girly sleeves for the women and masculine-like rolled up sleeves & vests for the men. How did this ballet get left out of the Robbins 100 Festival a few years back?
Indiana Woodward and Anthony Huxley anchored the first of four sections with their charismatic PdD, but it was the Corps de Ballet that stole the spotlight with their joyful dancing. As lines of dancers trafficked through one another in complex formations to the music's 137 beats per minute (it begs to be steppy), some looked a bit unnerved by the combination of speed and complexity of the choreography. Positions went awry once or twice, but it was never at risk of devolving into, say, the opening of Glass Pieces. Dancers' lifted their arms high in V formations during allegro like Paul Taylor's dancers did when they happily skated through the same music in Taylor's Brandenburgs created a decade prior to Robbins' ballet. Just the fact that both Taylor and Robbins were drawn to this same music is confirmation of its danceability, dancesuasiveness, and danceliciousness.
The incredible centerpiece of this ballet was delivered by Mira Nadon and Aaron Sanz, two dancers whose own imaginations opened more possibilities for this choreography than perhaps Robbins, himself, ever imagined. The PdD was a welcomed reminder that PdDs are not about continual manipulation of the woman's body or 10 minutes where the entwined dancers can't let go of one another. Here we saw the dancers separated physically half of their time, their limbs circling each other's limbs without touching or at times dancing the same steps apart -- no physical connection but oh were they ever communicating.
Also on the program was a spirited performance of Robbins' Fancy Free led by sailors Roman Mejia, Joseph Gordon, and Andrew Veyette; Passers-by Mary Thomas MacKinnon, Alexa Maxwell, and Malorie Lundgren; and Maxwell Read as the Bartender.
Balanchine's Agon was the serious soul of the program which opened and closed with Robbins' infectious joy. Unity Phelan, who is just starting to wrap her legs around this lead role, didn't exhibit the expected authority and sharpness during the iconic moment when she spun around before throwing her leg in attitude behind her partner, Adrian Danchig-Waring. Taylor Stanley debuted his Sarabande solo to the difficult Stravinsky horn passage, and Emilie Gerrity gave a crystal clear rendition of the Bransle Gay, if a bit demure.
Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, Louboutin's Lip Chick patent pump, is bestowed upon Mira Nadon and Aaron Sanz for their extraordinary interpretation in Robbins' Brandenburg.
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