New York City Ballet Digital Fall Season opens with Balanchine in all his moods

Online
September 29, 2020

David Mead

The opening programme of New York City Ballet’s Digital Fall Season showed just what a genius George Balanchine was. Spanning a quarter century of his creative output, from the effervescence of Symphony in C, through the enigmatic Ivesiana, the restrained grace of Liebeslieder Walzer to the playfulness of Stravinsky Violin Concerto, this was ballet in all its moods.

Things got off to a sparkling start with the First Movement of Symphony in C led by Ashley Bouder and Joseph Gordon, the latter in what was his debut in the role. Balanchine and music are invariably as one but here the dance seems to ride the score especially easily. Bouder was full of her usual flair but it was Gordon who took the eye as he breezed through his solo with a sense of enjoyment and fun coming through in the pirouette sequence. The corps, as ever with Balanchine so important, framed the pair flawlessly.

Symphony in C is Balanchine at his Russian classical best. Ivesiana is him at his most unusual. The dark, sombre work has even been called ‘anti-ballet’.

‘The Unanswered Question’ section from the ballet features a woman (here Janie Taylor) in white carried on high by four men. With them hidden in the shadows, and her in a diaphanous dress, she appears as a ghostly vision. In front of this figure a fifth man (Anthony Huxley) turns and reaches out to her. He brims with desire for her, and one senses she for him. Sometimes she in turn reaches back but only once do they meet, when for a moment she is released into his arms. But only briefly. Seconds later the moment of hope is dashed as she is gently taken away. She really is unattainable.

There are many other marvellous stage images. The woman is made to disappear int a black hole as she is manoeuvred between her supporters’ legs, and once she falls backwards into dark space. Twice, there’s a hint of sexual arousal as she passes inches above his prone body, her loose hair brushing his face. And she never, ever, touches the ground.

A past, a dream, a desire? Maybe all three. Certainly, an unanswered question. But what an utterly captivating few minutes.

A change of mood brought two excerpts from Liebeslieder Walzer. From the decorous and graceful first half of the ballet, so with her in ballgown, Maria Kowroski and Jonathan Stafford were all formal elegance and grace. From the second half, when the women change into tuille dresses and pointe shoes, Lauren Lovette and Jared Angle played on the desire and ecstasy of the moment a little more, particularly noticeable in her face. But it’s still graceful, until that is someone pops the champagne cork and the dance fizzes forth in an outpouring of joy; rather like you felt it wanted to all along.

Yet another change of moods brought an excerpt from Balanchine’s Episodes. In many ways, it’s not unlike Symphony in C with its deep musicality and its leading couple framed by an ever-shifting corps. Both ballets are elegant too, but in the black and white Episodes it’s of the clean, sleek, supremely modern kind.

Teresa Reichlen and Adrian Danchig-Waring were spellbinding in a marvellous performance of the ballet’s closing ‘Ricercata’, set to Anton Webern’s orchestration of Bach’s Musical Offering. Again, let’s not forget the corps, without whom the ballet would be nothing, however. The ever changing, always together, ports de bras framed the leads perfectly. ‘The Unanswered Question’ ran it close, but this was the highlight of the programme.

And that’s despite all the fizz you would expect from Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz in the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux that followed. It was a thrilling ride of the sort maybe only these two can produce. It’s also made special by the little flourishes and looks, that little hanging onto a moment before speeding off again, that both excel at. And when dancers look like they are enjoying things like these two, so do we.

Rounding things off was the finale from Stravinsky Violin Concerto led by Sterling Hyltin, Sara Mearns, Ask la Cour, and Taylor Stanley. With its playful nature and light touch, tongue-in-cheek wit, it was a great way to end a delicious fifty minutes or so of super dance.

This program will be available until October 6, 2020 on New York City Ballet’s YouTube channel.

The second programme premieres October 6 at 8pm (New York) and features Balanchine’s Kammermusik No. 2 and Movements for Piano and Orchestra; Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer and Glass Pieces; Chiaroscuro by Lynne Taylor-Corbett; and Red Angels by Ulysses Dove. Visit www.nycballet.com for full details.