Liam Scarlett's 'Acheron'

This post has taken a long time to finish because I wasn't that inspired by 'Acheron', which I saw twice -- once at the final dress rehearsal and once on March 1st at the Janie Taylor/Sebastien Marcovici farewell performance.

SATURDAY EVENING, March 1, 8 PM

ACHERON: Adams, Bouder, T. Peck, Veyette, Ramasar, R. Fairchild, Carmena
[Conductor: Otranto; Guest Organist: Michael Hey]

and final dress rehearsal on January 31, 12:45 PM:

NEW SCARLETT (World Premiere): *Krohn, *Bouder, *Mearns, *T. Angle, *Ramasar, *Danchig-Waring, *Huxley
[Guest Organist: Michael Hey]

Liam Scarlett's 'Acheron', is set to Poulenc's 'Concerto for Organ, Strings and Tympani'.  'Acheron' is one of the five rivers in the underworld according to Greek mythology (along with the more familiar river Styx). It was a stream for the cleansing of sins and healing of souls upon their entry into the underworld -- kind of like the 'River Jordan' in Christian mythology.  Scarlett used another reference to the Greek mythical underground, 'Asphodel Meadows', as the title to his first major work for the Royal Ballet (2011) where we was named 'Artist in Residence' in 2012.  That work also used music by Poulenc, his 'Double Piano Concerto'.  

'Acheron' is plotless, but certainly used the Greek mythological reference as a point of departure, especially for the murky 'underground' lighting design.  There are three principal couples plus a male soloist and five corps couples. They are dressed in costumes designed by Scarlett -- the women bare-legged in light, knee-length dresses shading to dark reddish brown on the top of the bodices; the men bare-chested in light, knee-length tights shading to dark reddish brown toward the knees.  Bare-legged ballerinas always look unflattering to my eye -- with thigh and calf muscles more harshly exposed by light and shadow.  The men's costumes have the unfortunate effect of making them look longer-waisted and shorter-legged than they really are.  Amar Ramasar was an exception, looking sleek (and dancing with great strength and impact) because the dark bottom of the tights blended with his darker skin tone while the lighter-skinned men have an awkward break just below the knees that divides their legs into zones.

Ashley Bouder & Amar Ramasar in Liam Scarlett's 'Acheron', photo by Andrea Mohin for the NY Times

In the cast on Saturday evening (first cast shown in parentheses), Sara Adams & Andrew Veyette (or Rebecca Krohn & Tyler Angle) seemed the most tender couple, Tiler Peck & Robert Fairchild (or Sara Mearns & Adrian Danchig-Waring) seemed the most enthralled, and Ashley Bouder & Amar Ramasar seemed the most passionate.  (The three couples in Jerome Robbins' 'In the Night' come to mind). Ashley & Amar danced in the premier and had replaced Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia by March 1st.  Antonio Carmena as the solo man on March 1st was fine, but seemed a bit too solid as the lone soul observing the other pairs and seeming to be searching for his own mate. The elegant and enigmatic Anthony Huxley in the first cast gave the role a completely different aura of longing and desperation.

The opening moments are stunning as Sara Adams (or Rebecca Krohn) emerges from a flowing river of bodies to find Andrew Veyette (or Tyler Angle) .  What follows is an intense series of choreographic miniatures often with couples in canonical mirroring and expanding phrases -- among principal couples and between principal and corps couples. 

Sara Mearns & Adrian Danchig-Waring, Amar Ramasar & Ashley Bouder in 'Acheron',
photo by Andrea Mohin for NY Times

There are lots of tricky and strenuous lifts for the three principal couples as well as occasional pyrotechnics -- like a whiplash fast series of chaine turns from Ashley.

The dancing from both casts was gorgeous and you could see how their confidence in handling the tricky partnering had increased in the intervening month.  There's a snippet of a pas de deux for Sara Mearns and Adrian Danchig-Waring on the NYC Ballet website here:  http://www.nycballet.com/ballets/a/new-scarlett.aspx 

Sara Mearns & Adrian Danchig-Waring in Liam Scarlett's 'Acheron', photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The trouble is that what they were dancing was only sporadically interesting.  This work follows a trend in contemporary choreography -- what I've labeled 'ADHD ballets' -- where choreographic snippets are grafted together without overall coherence. Dancers seem to enter and leave the stage without providing much sense of any larger structure to the work.  It all relates to the music that's being played at the time, but doesn't necessarily add to our enjoyment of it or lead us to a better understanding of its structure.  The same lack of choreographic architecture plagues many recent plotless ballets.  

The Poulenc music was nicely interpreted by the orchestra under Maestra Clotilde Otranto with the guest organist, Michael Hey.  They emphasized the impressionistic murmurings of the opening and the jarring tensions later on. It's an interesting score and obviously lends itself to choreographic interpretation (Glen Tetley used it for 'Voluntaries' at the Stuttgart Ballet which was later staged at ABT and PNB among other companies).