NYCB 4/26 Dances at a Gathering & Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

        Properly hydrating before and during Robbins' long piano ballet, Dances at a Gathering, is important for the professional — balletomane, that is. The ballet may only be 60+ minutes long, but on Friday night those minutes were packed with interminably long seconds that dehydrated our spirit. At applause pauses, one could hear the glub-glub-glub of patrons sucking on their water bottles in the dark and swishing liquid from cheek to cheek. “Hey, got anything I can mix with this? We’re only at dance #11 and we still have seven to go.” Maybe not an exact quote, but close enough. What happened? Or rather, what didn’t happen? Hard to say. Whatever was needed in addition to the steps just wasn’t on the stage Friday night. Unfortunately, some audience members were seen leaving mid-ballet. 

 

        We can’t complain about Tiler Peck’s solos as the dancer in Pink. She’s always happily inventive and surprising with her musical choices. Roman Mejia bolted successfully through his variations in his debut as the dancer in Brown. Musical finesse and subtle humor will follow eventually. Megan Fairchild as the dancer in Apricot also danced the section of the “Green” in which she wandered about wooing men who wandered in and out of her reach. Mira Nadon debuted as the dancer in Green minus the section that Megan danced instead. With so little to do, it’s hard to measure her output in this ballet yet. Alston Macgill debuted brightly as the dancer in Blue. Andres Zuniga debuted in Brick — obviously very technically talented but otherwise not very impactful. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough compelling artistry in the performance to keep us interested. Apologies to those who can’t live without Dances at a Gathering, but Haglund can. It should be scheduled at the end of the program rather than the beginning so that people can get out while they’re still happy about what they’ve seen on stage.

 

       Balanchine's Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet saved the evening with another exceptional performance from Emily Kikta. Casting Kikta in the opening movement of this ballet years ago was one of Peter Martins’ best casting decisions ever. We remember that performance well — her soaring, her near disastrous slip, our fascination with the new corps de ballet beauty who was working the pink tulle like few others could. Since then, what a joy it has been to watch her let fly with this role. She should lead every ballet in the repertory that involves long tulle. In this performance, her command of the space was indisputable. She led the men in grand jetés — and we do mean led. There was power in her beauty and beauty in her power.

 

        Emilie Gerrity and Taylor Stanley danced the opening Allegro movement with skill and a hint of sensuality. We’re hoping that Stanley returns more often to the classical rep to keep his considerable skills at a high level. They were a little mushy on Friday night. Olivia MacKinnon and Preston Chamblee were accomplished in the Intermezzo section. Emma Von Enck and Anthony Huxley dispatched the Andante with flair. Sara Mearns and Andrew Veyette came close to stealing the show with their gypsy Rondo at the end. Here was perfect casting, too. This was roll-the-dice, depend-on-your-luck dancing that somehow always wins the jackpot.

 

        The H.H. Pump Bump Award, Louboutin's Follie Draperia, is bestowed upon Emily Kikta for her glorious dancing in Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. We are so ready to see much more leading work from her in Balanchine’s greatest ballets. And when it’s time for her to pass on her introductory soloist role in BSQ, we hope that Naomi Corti will catch the opportunity, because she’s another one with spellbinding tulle talent.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Jeannette]

Hi, Haglund. Glad to read about Kikta and Nadon’s triumphs. Did you see Ashley Bouder perform the green lady in DAAG? Did she perform the full role, unlike Nadon, who was thrown into the assignment rather quickly?

[Haglund]

Hi, Jeannette.

I did not see Bouder's performance yesterday. I have a ticket to today's matinee but I'm still trying to decide whether I want to make myself sit through what I know I'm going to see.

[Haglund]

Well, Jeannette, I went. Oh lordy, lordy, lordy. I don't know what Bouder is trying to prove but she is destroying her artistic reputation and her legacy while doing a disservice to her company and the audience. It doesn't matter whether or not she's technically overweight by some medical standard, she is fat in the legs, arms, middle, face, neck, hands and ass. She doesn't even remotely resemble the professional that NYCB hired and cultivated for two decades. What she is indicating is that the company cannot trust its dancers to maintain the fitness level and aesthetic that they were initially hired for and so it may be necessary to have regularly required weigh-ins and measurements just the way the NFL does to insure that its athletes maintain the conditioning that they were hired for.

(I need to pause here to call in "G.S." for his viewpoint. Hey, Gary, are you out there?)

Other than the shock of seeing Bouder in such awful condition and, by the way, dancing cartoonishly, the rest of the dancing in DAAG and BSQ was simply outstanding.

Mira Nadon and Gilbert Bolden made an entire Hollywood ballet out of their little BSQ Intermezzo. Unity Phelan was superb in the gypsy Rondo with Tyler Angle. Unity can turn on the heat just like Tess Reichlen used to do in the Rondo. Great, great stuff. Miriam Miller was beautiful as the soloist in the first movement Allegro, but oh so different from Emily Kikta. I kept thinking what a world class Myrtha she would make.

DAAG was much better than on Friday - except for Bouder. Afanasenkov, MacKinnon, Abreu, Sanz and Riccardo really held their own with Gerrity, Woodward, Chan, and Huxley. Huxley (in Brown) was brilliant in his solos and also in the PdD with Indiana except for a little stumble. MacKinnon's Apricot was outstanding -- a much better, more physical, more genuine performance than we saw on Friday. Gerrity was far more substantial in the Mauve role than Unity Phelan was on Friday.

A good Sunday afternoon.

[Blue Door]

It is incredible to me that Ashley Bouder thinks she deserves to be on stage. Who else dances Green? Isabella LaFreniere! Mira Nadon! And, as, we've seen, Megan Fairchild in a pinch! The audience that sees Bouder instead of one of these three primas should get their money back.

In my opinion, Bouder should do the audience a favor and leave the stage. Get in decent shape. Stop disparaging the Company. Stop whining. Stop blaming everyone else. Stop shoving your daughter in everyone's faces. Come back when you are ready to respect yourself, the Company, the Board, and the audience. Pick a couple of roles for your Farewell, and be glad it didn't end worse.

[Jeannette]

Glad that the second casts of DAAG and BSQ were mostly excellent, Haglund! I’m sorry to have missed them.

[Laura]

Haglund did you see Bouder’s IG story? She’s now claiming someone at NYCB is encouraging audience members not to applaud her “comeback” show. This is really off the rails stuff. She is almost delusional at this point. She also recorded herself sobbing with joy after the show, blowing the importance of her performance way out of proportion. It’s embarrassing. I don’t know why no one at NYCB seems to be able to reign this in.

[Haglund]

I just read her IG post. She's obviously struggling. It's just a shame that she can't do it in private. She doesn't remotely resemble the professional dancer that NYCB hired and invested in over 20 years. In DAAG, she was purposely a parody of a ballet dancer -- trying to make everyone laugh at her size -- but then she also wants to play the victim when people do laugh at her. I think most of us have Bouder fatigue.

[M]

Haglund I’m curious if you have seen the new Garner work Underneath, There Is Light. I was at the Saturday matinee, and found it to be quite awful. So much running around, nothing of substance, silly business like intermittent thigh slapping, and at the end a bird chirping that sounded like a cell phone ringer going off in the right balcony. I almost hope it was a cell phone, not just more nonsense. Add to that costuming that either looked more appropriate for iceskating or garb that was horribly unflattering and it gets a big No Thank you from this audience member. Rubies was fabulous - Nadon lived up to all of my expectations from reading your reviews, and then some. I also enjoyed In Creases. Mabie was a standout for me and MacKinnon was beautiful. Dig The Say….loved to see Peck and Mejia live, and it was fun but I can’t say that it seemed like a new masterpiece based on choreographic merit. Ultimately overall it was wonderful to see the dancers live and up close (front row in fact!) but I would have preferred more Balanchine for sure.

[Haglund]

Yes, I saw the two new works at the gala. They did not exceed my expectations -- which were rather low.

[Rachel Perez]

I saw the Sunday matinee DAAG/Brahms rep yesterday.

DAAG was lovely save Bouder - I hadn't seen the ballet in a long time and was grateful that the girl in green does relatively little dancing. To the extent that the girl in green is supposed to be a little temptress/disrupter that tempts a few of the boys, one could certainly understand why the boys rejected her advances when there were other beautiful ballerinas at the party. I am curious as to the threats/other machinations that were employed to cause Whelan/Stafford to put her on stage when she clearly is not yet ready to be. Also, being physically present at the theater made me think "how in the world is management orchestrating this don't clap campaign?" It's not as though there was a slip of paper on the Playbill or Wendy and Jonathan were walking around the first ring engaging in some whisper campaign.

That didn't sour my overall enjoyment of the ballet. Huxley, as you say, was great in brown. Chan was wonderful. Indiana and Emilie danced beautifully in pink and mauve, respectively. I'd yet to see Dominika in a featured role, and thought she danced really well in blue as was Olivia in apricot. I thought the ladies in particular did a really nice job of differentiating their roles.

It was my first time seeing Brahms and I loved it. Mira was (as ever) the standout until I saw Unity in the Rondo (with Andy stepping in for Tyler). What bravura dancing from them both! Unity's back moves like no other.

[Haglund]

Thanks for the report, Rachel. Unity Phelan in the Rondo may have been the surprise of the season. She was fantastic, and unexpectedly so given that she tends not to be cast in such boisterous roles. Olivia MacKinnon in DAAG looked like a Robbins specialist -- she really nailed it.

I chose not to go to the performance because Bouder was cast in DAAG -- something I could not watch again. Why the company would let her soil DAAG or any other ballet is a mystery. It's really unpleasant to watch her jiggling around up on the stage with her unattractive smirk, and that's what people may remember about her in years to come.