Tag: NYCB

Miro Magloire/New Chamber Ballet

Friday June 24, 2011 – Miro Magloire and his New Chamber Ballet hold a unique place on the New York City dance scene. Performing works deeply rooted in classical ballet technique, NCB use an intimate studio setting to bring the viewer as close to dance as one can get. As a composer and musician, Miro puts an equal value on the music we experience at his performances: performed live by excellent musicians, we frequently hear works by contemporary composers that we might not otherwise get to know.

Miro’s troupe of ballerinas allow us not only to enjoy their individual dance-personalities up close but also to observe the technique of dancing on pointe in a way that can’t be grasped in the large venues where ABT and New York City Ballet perform.

Miro Magloire frequently re-visits his earlier works and brings them back with fresh details. Tonight’s opening THE GAME was originally developed under the title TABLE. Much of the piece looks as it did in the earlier version, but a deck of cards has been added giving a focus to the subtle combat between the two seated women. Madeline Deavenport and Katie Gibson (top photo by Kokyat) each periodically skitters away from the table to dance in jaggedly expressive phrases. Violinist Erik Carlson’s mastery of the Brian Ferneyhough score underlines the tension between the two players; Katie wins the game as the cards go flying across the studio space.

Miro’s working on a new piece to Lucio Berio which will be shown in the Fall, In the meantime, pianist Melody Fader gave us a musical preview tonight, playing Leaf from Six Encores as a solo interlude.

Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wagner inspired LOVE SONG SOLOS, which premiered tonight. However, there is no singing involved. Instead Miro used the songs as a map, transcribing them for maracas (!) which he skilfully played himself. Who but Miro would imagine such a musical departure? But it works. Three dancers – Katie Gibson, Alexandra Blacker and Elizabeth Brown – each have a solo. They wear mossy green tunics by costumier Candice Thompson. Devoid of a literal story line, the dances nonetheless echo the emotional aspects of the original songs: passion, serenity, agitation and longing are conjured in movement. This unusual work gives each dancer ample expressive opportunity.

Choreographer Emery LeCrone calls for sustained energy levels from three dancers – Lauren Toole, Victoria North and Maddie Deavenport – in CHAMBER DANCES. This three-movement work set to John Adams’ Road Movies propels the dancers thru in-sync trio passages with relesntless pacing. A calmer central movement gives way to more bursts of movement in the finale. Each girl has a solo in which Emery builds on individual attributes to give us a personal look at each dancer while never stinting on technical demands.

A real workout for the threesome, CHAMBER DANCES signals Emery LeCrone’s ongoing ascent in the choreographic sphere. Earlier in the day, I got to watch another work that Emery is developing for the Guggenheim’s Work & Process series. More about that – with Matt Murphy photos – coming soon.

Alexandra Blacker is a dancer Kokyat and I have really admired in her performances with New Chamber Ballet. This past January we just happened upon Alexandra working in the studio with Emery LeCrone and Deborah Wingert on the solo VIRTUOSA for New Chamber Ballet; that’s where Kokyat took the above photo. Alexandra will now be moving back to California; it’s been lovely getting to watch her in several works with NCB during this past season.

June 24, 2011
Four Stars from New York City Ballet

Paul Kolnik’s images from two recent performances at New York City Ballet: above and immediately below: Janie Taylor and Robert Fairchild in Balanchine’s LA SONNAMBULA. Read about their performance here.

This performance marked the debuts of Janie and Robert in LA SONNAMBULA.

Above: Teresa Reichlen and Amar Ramasar in a performance of the Peter Martins/John Adams ballet FEARFUL SYMMETRIES. I wrote about this revival here.

May 30, 2011
At the Noguchi Museum

Sunday May 29, 2011 – Kokyat and I have been talking about going to the Noguchi Museum for months and today we finally made it there.

Noguchi’s Water Stone (1986) at the Met Museum is one of Kokyat’s favorite works of art. Every time we go to The Met we make a pilgrimage to sit and observe the stone. The best times are when there are no other museum visitors around. We usually fall silent when sitting there; it creates a peaceful atmosphere. There is a very similar work at the Noguchi Museum (top photo) but it’s outdoors, and the surface of the pool refects the sky and trees in every-changing patterns.

The Noguchi Museum is not all that easy to get to from Manhattan. It’s a long walk from the nearest subway stop (though there is shuttlebus service from Manhattan) and so it is blessedly free of baby strollers, cellphones and tourist traffic. The atmosphere is wonderfully tranquil and there’s a deep connection with nature both in the wood and stone which Noguchi fashioned into masterpieces…

…and in the garden’s trees and plants, some of them native to Japan and rarely seen in the States. The blending of art and nature is so calming.

The museum is housed in what was once a run-of-the-mill industrial building. Noguchi saw something in the space and its ‘courtyard’ (then a run-down parking lot and storage area), transforming the mundane property into a spectacular sculpture garden while creating ten galleries within the building to house a large collection of his works. He also bought a small building across the street where he lived.

Noguchi did not always sign and date his work, but his signature runes (above) can be found on many pieces. Most of the works are simply presented without the title cards and descriptive information one usually sees in a museum. Noguchi wanted the viewers to draw their own inferences from his work without being steered by his own concepts in creating them.

Noguchi at Versailles in the 1950s.

We spent a long time wandering the galleries…

…then Kokyat fell asleep in the garden beneath a wall of bamboo. It is such a serene and restful place.

Isamu Noguchi’s work with Martha Graham was recently celebrated in an evening of works on which they collaborated, performed at the Rose Theater. In another connection with dance, Noguchi designed ORPHEUS for George Balanchine and his stylized lyre from that production was for years the iconic logo of the New York City Ballet.

I’ve posted some of my photos from our day at the museum on Facebook.

May 29, 2011
Dance Against Cancer: Tech Rehearsal

Monday April 25, 2011 – Since I was unable to attend the Dance Against Cancer benefit performance at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center this evening, I had the good fortune to be invited to watch the technical rehearsal which started at noon today. Above: a snapshot I took of Matthew Rushing of the Alvin Ailey Company. Matthew was the first artist to tech today.

A lot goes into staging a dance production and while the major companies have lighting and sound crews and stage directors and stagehands all on staff, for a one-time gala like DANCE AGAINST CANCER, all these elements need to be brought together at the venue in a short span of time on the day of the performance. Having performers from several companies on the programme, the gala coordinators need to mesh schedules with classes and other rehearsals that the dancers might be involved in. Since several of the gala participants are member of NYC Ballet, they were having their traditional Monday off in the midst of preaparing for their opening week of Spring Season which starts on May 3rd. Stars from Ailey, Lar Lubovitch, Keigwin & Co and Carolina Ballet along with special guests Martin Harvey, Alex Wong and Tara Jean Popowich all had to be scheduled for tech sessions for the individual numbers in which they are involved.

What happens at a tech rehearsal? Musical and lighting cues are coordinated; spacing, timings, entrances and exits, even the bows are all worked out in minute detail so that the dancers will know their way around the performance space and the wings. Musicians who are playing ‘live’ for the individual numbers also get a feel for the space, find out where to enter from (invariably in the dark!) and how they will maintain visual contact with the dancers during the showing.

Dance Against Cancer is presented by MMAC‘s Erin Fogarty and New York City Ballet’s Daniel Ulbricht.

Here is the announced programme:

On The Other Side; Choreography: Benjamin Millepied; Dancers: Janie Taylor and Tyler Angle
Love Songs; Choreography: Larry Keigwin; Dancers: Kristina Hanna and Aaron Carr
Mozartiana (excerpt); Choreography: George Balanchine; Dancer: Maria Kowroski
Untitled World Premiere; Choreography: Robert Fairchild; Dancers: Tara Jean Popowich and Alex Wong
Little Rhapsodies; Choreography: Lar Lubovitch; Dancer: Attila Joey Csiki; Piano: Kathy Tagg
Tatum Pole Boogie; Choreography: Daniel Ulbricht; Dancer: Daniel Ulbricht
Untitled World Premiere; Choreography: Earl Mosley; Dancer: Matthew Rushing
Who Cares (excerpt); Choreography: George Balanchine; Dancers: Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar
Untitled World Premiere; Choreography: Attila Bongar (Principal at Carolina Ballet) Dancers: Lara O’Brien and Attila Bongar
Carmen (excerpt); Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon; Dancers: Maria Kowroski and Martin Harvey
After the Rain; Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon; Dancers: Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall; Piano: Cameron Grant; Violin: Arturo Delmoni

I’ve arranged with photographer Erin Baiano, who is shooting the actual performance, to have some of her images for my blog. They will be posted here soon.

April 25, 2011
DANCE AGAINST CANCER: Gallery

Photographer Erin Baiano shares a portfolio of her images from the April 25th DANCE AGAINST CANCER benefit performance at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. Above: New York City Ballet principal dancer Daniel Ulbricht in a solo of his own devising entitled Tatum Pole Boogie. Daniel, along with MMAC‘s Erin Fogarty, organized the gala event.

Since I was going to be at The Met on the evening of the benefit, Erin and Daniel very generously arranged for me to watch the technical rehearsal for the programme which began at noon. In the darkened theater, Daniel took a break from his directorial duties to run thru his solo with devastating agility and effortless airborne facility. Then he immediately bounced back into director mode.

Another dancing dynamo, Alex Wong (above) performed the solo 747 chroregraphed by Rachael Poirier. At the tech rehearsal, Alex sort of marked the piece though there was enough full-out dancing to see that he was going to knock ’em dead at the actual performance. Which by all reports is exactly what he did.

A programme change left time for a solo danced by a colleague of Alex’s, Tara Jean Popowich (above).

From Carolina Ballet, Lara O’Brien and Attila Bongar (above) danced a lirico-romantic duet choreographed by Mr. Bongar. They looked beautiful together and fitted comfortably into the programme’s stellar lineup.

I had to leave the tech rehearsal before Aaron Carr and Kristina Hanna (above) from Keigwin & Co ran their duet, Love Songs. Having recently seen these dancers in Larry Keigwin’s EXIT at The Joyce, I imagine they were pretty exciting and that Larry’s choreography would grab the crowd.

Attila Joey Csiki from the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company performed the four-part solo Little Rhapsodies which Lar excerpted from his 2007 work of the same title as a concert piece for Attila. Kathy Tagg was at the keyboard to play the Schumann pieces and Attila – even in rehearsal – showed the fluid Lubovitch style with grace and commitment. On the previous weekend, Attila had danced these solos for another worthy cause, the DANCE FOR JAPAN benefit in Brooklyn. This afternoon at MMAC I snuck a peek at Atti warming up in the same studio with NYCB’s Janie Taylor and developed the idea of seeing them dance together sometime.

Janie was one of four NYC Ballet principal ballerinas to appear on the gala programme. She danced a duet with Tyler Angle choreographed by Benjamin Millepied entitled On The Other Side. This duet was made during a summer on Nantucket a a few years ago. Janie and Tyler have a great rapport and during the tech I had the added secret excitement of seeing Janie’s hair slip out of its pin-up and become a part of her performance. Tyler and Janie, above.

You can’t imagine how exciting it was for me to watch my beloved NYCB dancers in this intimate rehearsal setting. Maria Kowroski (above) danced the Preghiera from MOZARTIANA at the tech in a tee-shirt, leg warmers over black tights, and no makeup. She was able to create the celestial atmosphere of this famous Balanchine solo with her expressive port de bras and serene emotional connection to the music.

In a complete change of pace, Maria was later joined by Martin Harvey (above) to dance a sultry pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s setting of the dances from the opera CARMEN which he created for the Metropolitan Opera‘s production where Maria and Martin have performed it several times. This particular duet is set to the prelude of the opera’s third act; for me, it’s the most poignant music in that super-familiar opera. Maria and Martin were really into this passionate love duet, understandly so: they plan to wed this Summer. What a gorgeous couple!

Deborah Wingert, former NYCB dancer and a top-class ballet teacher and coach, sat next to me as we watched Amar Ramasar and Sterling Hyltin (above) in a dazzling rendition of The Man I Love from Balanchine’s WHO CARES? Yes, it was only a rehearsal but these two dancers got right to the heart of the matter. Deborah remarked how superbly they were able to fill the space while never seeming constrained by it.

I’ve seen hundreds of mesmerizing dance performances over the years but nothing hits me in the heart quite like the now-classic duet from Christopher Wheeldon’s AFTER THE RAIN. Arturo Delmoni and Cameron Grant played the Arvo Part score live for Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall (above). Even in a rehearsal with the dancers occasionally speaking to one another and once even cracking up over a small faux pas, this work generates a breath-taking atmosphere. Matt Murphy, who photographed the performance from the wings, spoke of how moved he was by Wendy and Craig’s dancing.

Matthew Rushing (above) of Alvin Ailey gave me a remarkable experience as I watched him rehearse a solo crafted for him by Earl Mosley. Matthew is one of those dancers for whom the sheer quiet joy of dance radiates thru every centimeter of his being. I could watch this man dance for hours and in this solo there was a pure rush of Rushing. I felt yet again my extraordinary good fortune at being in the same space with such a genius of movement.

The presenters: Daniel Ulbricht and Erin Fogarty. My thanks to them and to publicist Michell Brandon Tabnick for letting me eavesdrop on the process of putting a gala together, and to all the dancers and musicians who are so generous with their time and talent and so welcoming to a starstruck viewer. Special thanks to Erin Baiano for her photographic souvenirs of a grand night of dancing.

April 25, 2011
Balanchine/Martins/Robbins @ NYCB

Sunday February 27, 2011 matinee – Today’s programme at the New York City Ballet featured a Balanchine/baroque masterpiece, a visually striking Martins ballet (photo above) set to a fascinating contemporary score, and the festive Robbins/Verdi FOUR SEASONS as a finale. The Company now leave for a week of performances in Hong Kong, and will be back at Lincoln Center for their Spring season opening on May 3rd.

SQUARE DANCE: M Fairchild, Huxley

MIRAGE: Somogyi, J. Angle, Laracey, Finlay, Pereira, Huxley (solo violin: Lydia Hong)

THE FOUR SEASONS: JANUS: J. Peck; WINTER: Janzen, Pereira, Alberda, Tworzyanski; SPRING: Muller, Mearns, T. Angle; SUMMER: Anderson, Reichlen, R. Fairchild; FALL: Seth, Bouder, Veyette, Carmena

The opening SQUARE DANCE again featured Megan Fairchild and Anthony Huxley in the leading roles. This is ideal casting of the ballerina role; it could have been created just for Ms. Fairchild as it shows off her polished technique and lovely presence to perfection. Anthony Huxley was again very impressive both in his allegro work and in the slow, expressive solo with its deep backbends and silky port de bras. He and Megan showed a more intense connection with one another than at the earlier performance, and both separately and as a partnership they offer a highly enjoyable vision of this vivid and demanding Balanchine ballet. Excellent corps work.

Ashley Laracey (Joe Anderson photo from the NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ project) is a dancer who always stands out among the bevy of City Ballet’s corps ballerinas and I am always so happy to see her in a featured role. In MIRAGE she danced with Chase Finlay, the Company’s rising young cavalier; they looked great together and Ashley showed off her beautiful extension, swift pirouettes and a lyrical style that is uniquely her own. Chase was excellent here, confirming his ascendent trajectory.

Jennie Somogyi’s innate dramatic quality instills a sense of urgency into her duets with Jared Angle, always the perfect partner. It’s been great to see Jennie so often this season, and Jared shows her off superbly in this ballet. Erica Pereira’s technical clarity works wonders in a contemporary setting and Anthony Huxley followed up his beautiful SQUARE DANCE with a fine performance in the Martins, notably his airy opening solo. The four corps couples deserve special mantion, both for their fine dancing here and for their uniform excellence all season: Callie Bachman, Brittany Pollack, Kristen Segin and Mary Elizabeth Sell with Ralph Ippolito, Troy Schumacher, Andrew Scordato and Christian Tworzyanski.

At its premiere, the composer Esa-Pekka Salonen had conducted his own score for MIRAGE; tonight Andrews Sill had the complexities of this dense, colorful work well in hand and Lydia Hong played the demanding violin part – a real physical workout – with complete command.

In THE FOUR SEASONS, set by Robbins to neglected ballet music from Verdi operas, Justin Peck summoned the seasonal deities – Russell Janzen, Gwyneth Muller, Marika Anderson and Henry Seth – who in turn escorted their respective courts onto the stage. Erica Pereira made a very pretty impression as the shivering maiden in Winter, with Christian Tworzyanski and Devin Alberda as her cavaliers. Sara Mearns swirled serenly thru the many pirouettes of Spring and looked luscious while her partner Tyler Angle gave an excellent performance with some majestic grand jetes. Their four back-up boys – Giovanni Villalobos, Allen Peiffer, Austin Laurent and Ralph Ippolito – looked handsome and danced handsomely. The tall and radiant Teresa Reichlen was provocative in Summer and Robert Fairchild was ideally cast as her cavalier, a new role for him this season.

Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette tossed off the spectacular technical fireworks of Autumn with boundless supplies of energy and pirouettes, and Antonio Carmena’s sexy and ingratiating Faun followed Bouder’s lead and tucked in some Plisetskaya kicks in addition to his other virtuoso feats.

A very sizeable audience today and nice to see so many of the faithful on the Promenade at intermssion.

February 27, 2011
Millepied/Balanchine/Robbins @ NYCB

Wednesday February 23, 2011 – A really nice evening at New York City Ballet tonight with two beautiful Balanchine masterworks as the centerpiece, opening with a recent work by Benjamin Millipied and ending with a Jerome Robbins classic that still feels quite contemporary even though it’s a quarter-century old. Top photo: Sterling Hyltin & Tyler Angle in Benjamin Millepied’s PLAINSPOKEN, photographed by Paul Kolnik.

PLAINSPOKEN: Hyltin, Taylor, Reichlen, Somogyi, T. Angle, Marcovici, Ramasar, J. Peck

VALSE-FANTAISIE: T. Peck, De Luz

SQUARE DANCE: M. Fairchild, *Huxley

GLASS PIECES: Laracey, Hankes, Lowery, Whelan, Finlay, Thew, Tworzyanski, Hall

The curtain rose on the Millepied and I felt certain I was going to like it much better than I did the last time I saw it. The music is very good (especially the ‘Sterling Hyltin’ section), and the eight dancers looked great. But as the work progressed I found my interest fading, despite the high level of dancing and the individual personalities of some of the Company’s best and brightest stars. The audience applauded dutifully at the end but failed to muster a call for the dancers before the curtain. My feeling is that we won’t see PLAINSPOKEN again; as well-danced as it is, there is nothing in the ballet that really grabs the viewer either musically, emotionally or technically.

Thereafter the performance soared steadily upward with superb dancing from Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz in VALSE-FANTAISIE. Backed by a lovely quartet of ballerinas – Amanda Hankes, Ashley Laracey, Gretchen Smith and Lydia Wellington – Tiler gave a stellar performance where her musicality, technical wizardry, personal beauty and her elegant joy in dancing Balanchine’s steps combined in perfect measure to delight the audience. Joaquin tossed off the virtuoso passages with his accustomed brilliance. Watching Tiler and Joaquin is one of the great pleasures of ballet-going these days and they were at their finest tonight.

In SQUARE DANCE, Megan Fairchild has one of her most appealing roles. Whether wafting into balances or embroidering the stage with her fancy footwork, she gave a wonderful performance. Her partner was Anthony Huxley, debuting in his role with impressively precise technique. His quiet lyricism in the expressive slow solo kept the audience engaged, and he and Megan swept thru the allegro passages with easy charm. The audience responded enthusiastically to their dancing, calling them out three times before the curtain: a well-deserved success. The ensemble of twelve was comprised of excellent dancers from the NYCB corps and they all deserve mention: the ladies – Likolani Brown, Alina Dronova, Lauren King, Meagan Mann, Kristen Segin, Mary Elizabeth Sell – and the gentlemen: Devin Alberda, Cameron Dieck, Ralph Ippolito, Austin Laurent, Troy Schumacher and Giovanni Villalobos. They added so much to the pleasure of watching this beautiful Balanchine creation.

Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall danced the adagio of the concluding GLASS PIECES with cool intensity; the audience scarcely breathed as these two gorgeous dancers cast their spell, abetted by the mystery of the Philip Glass score. An excellent sextet of demi-solistes – Ashley Laracey with Chase Finlay, Amanda Hankes with Joshua Thew, and Savannah Lowery with Christian Tworzyanski – made a vivid impression in the first movement, and of course the finale of this ballet is a treat for corps watchers.

It was nice to see the house packed to the rafters tonight. Perhaps the sold-out SWAN LAKES this season have generated a desire among newcomers to the ballet to see more of the Company’s rep and more of this great troupe of dancers. I hope the management are planning a couple weeks of SWAN LAKE in the Autumn: strike while the iron is hot! In addition to generating good box office and buzz, there are some potential Swan Queens and Siegfrieds in the Company who I’d like to see have an opportunity.

February 23, 2011
Pointe & Pirouettes @ MMAC: Wendy Whelan

Monday February 21, 2011 – New York City Ballet’s principal ballerina Wendy Whelan gave an afternoon class at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center as part of their day-long Pointe and Pirouettes event. I asked Matt Murphy, dance photographer de luxe, to meet me there and he was happy to since he is as big a fan of Ms. Whelan as I am.

Wendy’s classroom was filled to capacity with dancers from many levels. Rather than ‘talking down’ to some of the youngest dancers, Wendy set the pace and complexity of the exercises and combinations quite high, giving the girls a taste of what they’ll need to be prepared to do as they dance into the future. Wendy gave gentle and helpful corrections, mixed in with more specific remarks about body placement and keys to projecting the movement into the performing space.

One thing she spoke of which I think is sometimes not given enough attention in class is using the eyes while you are dancing. Not only must you watch where you are going, but you need to look to your hand in an extended port de bras or to your foot in develope to say to the audience: “Look how beautiful this movement is!” Sure enough, I’ve seen her do this so many times when watching her from my high/side perch at NYC Ballet performances: she’ll look right up along her arm and hand and right into my eyes. This kind of contact draws the viewer into the dance and makes it personal. How wonderful to find among the photos Matt sent me this very image, above. (Of course all the professional ballerinas know this ‘eye-language’, but there’s something extra captivating about peering thru your opera glasses into Wendy’s gaze.)

I loved her barre excercise based on envelope, a move I hardly ever think about – and how beautifully she executes it. This in fact was one thing about the class that I found most intriguing: how difficult it is to look at anyone else when Wendy Whelan is in the room. But despite the allure of watching her demonstrate, she deflects attention to the students; she treats them all as colleagues and fellow travelers on the path that turns work into art.

Despite the studio being filled to bursting, I couldn’t help but wish that even more students could have had the benefit of taking Wendy’s class.

There were a few dancers in the room that I recognized from other visits to MMAC…

…including the young ballerina Amy Gilson (above) who caught my eye and Matthew’s lens.

One of the most distinctive and delightful people in the New York City dance world, Deborah Wingert – an outstanding teacher and priestess of Terpsichore in her own right – took Wendy’s class. Kokyat and I are especially enamoured of Ms. Wingert and her lovely spirit.

As the class flew by, I felt an urge to clamber up onto the piano and set the clock back by a half-hour or so just to keep Wendy and the dancers there a bit longer.

I’ve saved the best for last. I am not sure how Matthew managed in this crowded and bustling studio setting to capture this portrait of Wendy but I am so glad that he did, and I’ll let him keep the secret of this capture all to himself. It’s one of my favorite images ever of this fascinating dancer.

My thanks to Wendy, Francois Perron, Matt Murphy, MMAC‘s Erin Fogarty and the publicist Michelle Brandon Tabnick – and all the dancers – for a beautiful late-Winter day full of dance.

All photos by Matthew Murphy.

February 21, 2011
Sara Mearns in CORTEGE HONGROIS

Paul Kolnik’s photograph of New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns in Balanchine’s CORTEGE HONGROIS. Read about the performance here.

Click on the image to enlarge.

January 30, 2011
Scheller’s CORTEGE/Revival of OUTLIER

Saturday January 29, 2011 – Ana Sophia Scheller’s debut in the prima ballerina role of Balanchine’s CORTEGE HONGROIS was a big attraction for me this afternoon at New York City Ballet. Kokyat photographed the Argentine ballerina last November when she appeared with Avi Scher & Dancers.

CORTÈGE HONGROIS: *Scheller, Askegard, Laracey, *Hankes, Lowery, Suozzi
intermission
OUTLIER: Bouder, Kowroski, T. Peck, Hyltin, Whelan, Ramasar, R. Fairchild, *Alberda, De Luz, *Tworzyanski, Hall [Solo violin: Nikkanen]

The two ballets are so well-contrasted in every regard, making for a really satisfying visit to the ballet this afternoon. Andrews Sill was on the podium and gave the Glazunov a lush romantic treatment; along with the excellent violinist Kurt Nikkanen, the orchestra made the OUTLIER score so darkly radiant.

Ana Sophia Scheller’s Raymonda is a gorgeous princess, regal but not haughty. With her classic poise, technique and beauty, the ballerina gave her dancing a special sense of allure and mystery. One especially lovely moment came near the end of the adagio when she swirled through a series of pirouettes which seemed almost to be in slow-motion: really dreamy. I’ve always loved watching Scheller and would give anything to see her as Kitri, Gamzatti, Juliet, Giselle, Aurora or Swanhilda. Her originally-announced partner, Jonathan Stafford, was replaced by Charles Askegard whose fluent partnering I think we tend to take for granted, but we shouldn’t.

Savannah Lowery and Sean Suozzi were a grand gypsy couple. They rightly conveyed an underlying sexual tension during the slow opening of the czardas, then burst into joyous swirling dance when the tempo quickens. (Sean’s upcoming debut as the Prodigal Son is circled in red on my calendar: February 8th). The solo variations were danced tonight by Ashley Laracey and Amanda Hankes, much to my delight, and the pas de quatre danced by Mlles. Adams, Brown, Dronova and King was extremely fine. The big corps look superb in the green-white-gold costuming and the whole ballet is such a pleasure to watch…and to hear.

I really liked Wayne McGregor’s OUTLIER at its premiere last May and thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again this afternoon. It’s vastly dfferent from anything else in the repertoire; there are some production photos here. In the above Paul Kolnik photo, Tiler Peck in the ballet’s opening moments.

The ballet begins in silence: a vivid circle of red illuminates the stage floor as the orchestra starts to sound the very quiet opening phrases of the Thomas Ades score. Then Tiler Peck and Craig Hall begin to move slowly, almost warily at first. The work proceeds, highlighted by a series of duets: Maria Kowroski and Robert Fairchild, Robert with Amar Ramasar, Wendy Whelan with Craig Hall (to an especially gorgeous theme in the score). Debuting Devin Alberda has a duet with Sterling Hyltin, both dancers so light and luminous in their movement. An ensemble passage is danced to an intriguing tom-tom rhythm with strings and woodwinds. Meanwhile, the lighting is really striking throughout the ballet – it’s good to see it from ‘above’. Ashley Bouder looks great with her hair in bangs and with her stellar dancing taking on an restless element. Christian Tworzyanski and Joaquin de Luz are wonderful to watch although – along with Wendy Whelan – I wish they had more to do. In fact OUTLIER is one of those rare works that I wish was longer! I’ll catch it two or three more times this Winter because who knows when we might see it again.

January 28, 2011