Ever More Ballet Quibbles and Bits . . .

Seeing Triple at SAB This Summer:

With much of the School of American Ballet's fifth floor studios a construction zone this summer, it's easy to think that you're seeing triple in the maze of plastic drop cloths and the cacophony of sledge hammers and nail guns.  You're not!

Marcos, Cesar and Angel Ramirez Castellano.  Photo by Ramon Espinosa for AP

I was doing double-takes as I encountered first one dark-haired, dark-eyed young man . . . then another . . . and another coming down the hall toward the back studios about 30 paces apart.  They're Angel, Cesar and Marcos Ramirez Castellano, 15-year-old identical triplets from Cuba who are attending SAB's Summer Session.  Here's a 2013 video profiling them that was produced by the BBC when they were just 13:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePjRF9oBhrw

You can think of their attendance at the five-week Summer Session as SAB's contribution to the recent thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations. 

SAB Founders Society Picnic:

Every summer, the School of American Ballet invites the members of its Founders Society -- a group of individuals who have made provisions for SAB in their estate plans -- to a 'picnic' followed by an opportunity to observe a Summer Session class.  

The 'picnic' has usually been held in the Student Lounge adjacent to the School's studios.  This summer the picnic -- a lovely buffet lunch of sandwiches, wraps, salads, cookies and fresh fruits (I missed the brownies this year) -- was held in rooms at the back of the Rose Building cafeteria because the areas around the student lounge on the 5th floor are under construction.  During the lunch, we heard from members of the School's Development Staff --  Cheryl Kohn, Chief Development Officer; Kristen Barrett, Director of Institutional Giving; and Giulia Gabrielli, Individual Giving Membership Coordinator -- about the renovation of the 5th floor and about various aspects of this year's Summer Session (including the Ramirez Castellano triplets).

Following the luncheon, Founders Society members were given a choice of watching Susan Pillare teach a girls toe class or Jock Soto teach the Intermediate Men.  We selected Jock's class.  There were 18 students in the class varying in age, height, ethnicity and ability.

While they were still at the barre, Jock taught them a complicated series of arm movements to accompany some fairly routine steps.  Then he divided them into two teams of nine and asked each team to select one representative to demonstrate the combination, and another to 'judge' the other team's choice in a competition.  Each judge was then asked for the number of 'errors' committed by the other team's man.  Jock took the two numbers and combined them into the number of push-ups that everyone had to do.

Over the course of the hour and a quarter class, the observers get a sense of which students have both the ability and drive to continue at SAB in the Winter Term or perhaps return for another Summer Term in 2016.  I had my eye on four out of the 18 that I'd like to see back at SAB again -- two that seem to be quite young and still quite short and two that seem more mature and more developed.  I felt that the other 14 lacked either the focus or the natural ability to succeed at SAB in the future.

Three Promotions at New York City Ballet:

Anyone who's been following this blog knows that I enthusiastically favor the three promotions that New York City Ballet announced at the end of their Spring season on June 7th:  Anthony Huxley and Lauren Lovette to principal dancers and Ashly Isaacs to soloist.

Anthony Huxley blossomed this spring from his naturally introspective elegance into a more expansive dancer in roles like James in Bournonville's 'La Sylphide' and Oberon in Balanchine's 'Midsummer Night's Dream'.  He still needs to work on his partnering skills, but his technical finesse and newly assured stage presence make him a valued addition to the top of the Company's roster.

Lauren Lovette and Anthony Huxley in Balanchine's 'Raymonda Variations'.
Photo by Andrea Mohin for NY Times

Lauren Lovette is one of the Company's most sunny and vivacious ballerinas -- plus she is drop dead gorgeous.  Since joining the Company as an apprentice in 2009 Lauren has essayed a wide variety of iconic roles in the NYCB repertory and brings a special sparkle to everything she dances.  This spring she was a spritely Sylph in Peter Martins' staging of Bournonville's 'La Sylphide'.

Ashly Isaacs struggled with injuries during her transition from SAB to NYCB -- she accepted SAB's Mae L. Wien Award in a cast and on crutches at the 2009 Workshop Gala -- but has since blossomed into an extraordinary dancer -- fleet, daring and musically adventurous.  Among her recent roles have been Dewdrop in 'The Nutcracker', Hippolyta in 'Midsummer Night's Dream' and the pas de deux from Bournonville's 'Flower Festival at Genzano'.

Ashly Isaacs as Hippolyta in Balanchine's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
Photo by Andrea Mohin for the NY Times

Congratulations to all three dancers on these promotions which recognize both their achievements and their potential.

NYC Ballet's (Mis)Adventures with Bournonville: Part Four, 5/24 Performance of 'La Sylphide'

Before we saw the all-Bournonville program at NYC Ballet on Sunday, May 24th, I had attended a dress rehearsal of 'La Sylphide' on May 5th and together we went to the NYCB Seminar on " Peter Martins' 'La Sylphide' and the Bournonville Style" on May 18th.  This is the fourth of four posts about these events.


La Sylphide:
SUNDAY MATINEE, MAY 24, 3:00 PM [Conductor: Capps]
LA SYLPHIDE: Lovette, Huxley, King, Schumacher, Smith, Muller

During the Spring season the Company programmed eight performances of Bournonville's 'La Sylphide' with four different principal casts.  After seeing the opening night cast at the May 5th dress rehearsal, I was pleased to see another excellent cast on May 24th.  At this performance I was less distracted by the sets and able to concentrate more on the dancing and mime.

Lauren Lovette as the Sylph and Anthony Huxley as James in Act II of Bournonville's 'La Sylphide'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Lauren Lovette made a lovely, airborne Sylph filled with mischievous joy.  She has a very expressive face with large sparkling eyes which she uses to captivate the audience as well as James.  Her dancing was both fleet and secure.  

Anthony Huxley as James executed the beats and spacious jumps of the role with elan and his mime scenes were delivered with clarity and force.  For such a reserved dancer, this was an impressive breakthrough into a more expansive, confident performing style.

Lauren King was lovely as the baffled Effie and Troy Schumacher's Gurn was an earthy, grounded rival of the daydreaming James for Effie's hand in marriage.  Gretchen Smith's old crone, Madge, lacked the overwhelming sense of aggrievement that should provide the basis for her actions.  Gwyneth Muller looks like James' older sister rather than his mother.

The Royal Danish Ballet has a different life cycle for dancers than NYC Ballet.  RBD can move dancers on from dance roles to character roles as they mature.  It's in keeping with the Danish welfare state to provide dancers with meaningful work as they mature while giving the RBD a ready supply of character dancers for roles like Madge and James' mother.  NYC Ballet lacks the resources or infrastructure to support such a system -- although Darci Kistler, Jock Soto and Albert Evans did take on character parts in Peter Martins' 'Romeo+Juliet'.  This puts a burden on young dancers in mime-heavy ballets like 'La Sylphide'.  Not only do they have to learn the mime gestures, but they must also do it as characters who are two or three times as old as they are. 

Act II of Peter Martins' staging of Bournonville's 'La Sylphide' for New York City Ballet.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The corps of sylphs in Act II danced as if they had been dancing in the Bournonville style their entire lives.  While there is some lovely dancing in Act II, as a whole 'La Sylphide' is about half mime and lacks the urgency and excitement that is at the heart of the Company's dance profile.  

As an exercise in expanding and improving the Company's dance technique, the restaging of 'Bournonville Divertissements' and the introduction of 'La Sylphide' was entirely successful.  However, I don't think that New York City Ballet's audience is ready for an entire evening (or afternoon) of Bournonville.  In fact, it quickly becomes boring and repetitious.

NYC Ballet's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' on Sunday, June 7th

SUNDAY MATINEE, JUNE 7, 3 PM (Guest Conductor: Capps Paroni)
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM:
 TITANIA: *Miriam Miller+
OBERON: *Anthony Huxley
PUCK: Antonio Carmena
HIPPOLYTA: Georgina Pazcoguin
THESEUS: Joshua Thew
TITANIA’S CAVALIER: Ask la Cour (replaces Russell Janzen)
HELENA: Faye Arthurs
DEMETRIUS: Amar Ramasar
HERMIA: Sterling Hyltin
LYSANDER: Jared Angle
BUTTERFLY: Kristin Segin
BOTTOM: *Cameron Dieck
DIVERTISSEMENT: Ashley Bouder and Adrian Danchig-Waring
 * First Time in Role   Apprentice +

George Balanchine created 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in 1962 using the incidental music that Felix Mendelssohn wrote for Shakespeare's play plus his overtures to Athalie, The Fair Melusine, The First Walpurgis Night, and Son and Stranger, and Symphony #9 for Strings.   Balanchine stitched these Mendelssohn pieces into a two-act score with the help of the Company's first music director, Leon Barzin.  It was Mr. B's first completely original evening-length ballet.

Children from The School of American Ballet as bugs in Balanchine's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.  
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Balanchine knew the Shakespeare play well, since he had performed in it as an insect when he was a child.  Virtually the play's entire plot is covered in Act I, leaving the celebration of the triple wedding of the Theseus and Hippolyta, Helena and Demetrius, and Hermia and Lysander and the attendant divertissement (which replaces the rude mechanical's 'Pyramus and Thisbe' as entertainment for the wedding) for Act II.  A brief epilogue then returns to the fairy kingdom in the forest for the reconciliation of Titania and Oberon.

The original 1962 cast was a starry affair with Melissa Hayden as Titania and Conrad Ludlow as her Cavalier; Edward Villella as Oberon, Arthur Mitchell as Puck and Suki Schorer as the Lead Butterfly; Jillana, Patricia McBride, Roland Vazquez and Nicholas Magallanes played the mortal lovers, Bill Carter played Bottom, Francisco Moncion was Theseus and Gloria Govrin was Hippolyta, and Violette Verdy lead the divertissement.

Sunday's debuts:  Anthony Huxley as Oberon; Miriam Miller as Titania; Cameron Dieck as Bottom.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Sunday afternoon's matinee featured debuts in three roles in the final performance of the Company's Spring season. Soloist Anthony Huxley made a superb debut as Oberon, dancing with wonderful elevation and elegantly articulated beats.  His series of grand jetes a la seconde across the stage were spectacular.  This role requires no partnering, so it is ideal for Mr. Huxley, who is not a strong partner.  He only needs to make his mime passages more forceful to truly own this role.

Miriam Miller, a company apprentice, made her debut as Titania, queen of the fairies.  She is tall and slender with lovely tapered limbs and gorgeous feet.  Her pas de deux with Ask la Cour (a last minute replacement) as her Cavalier showcased her long lines and extravagant extensions.  Still, her dancing was conventional and lacked musical allure.  Her mime passages were too demure, needing more imperiousness.  

In their confrontations over the changeling boy, both Ms. Miller and Mr. Huxley need to convey Shakespeare's line for Oberon:  'Ill-met by moonlight, proud Titania' and elements of Shakespeare's following scene which itemizes the reasons for their dispute and its effect upon the world around them.  This is no mere domestic spat, but a colossal battle of wills between the fairy monarchs which has affected the whole planet.  Balanchine has reduced it to a few key gestures which must be delivered with assurance and passion.

Children from The School of American Ballet play insects who weave their way through the scenes set in the fairy realm.  They are adorable and beautifully trained by the Children's Ballet Masters, Dena Abergel and Arch Higgins.

Ms. Miller's love-struck pas de deux with Cameron Dieck -- making his debut as Bottom -- was fine and confident.  Mr. Dieck dancing inside the head of an ass conveyed the comedy of the situation -- Titania pursues Bottom (as an ass) while Bottom (as an ass) pursues food -- all while performing a complex pas de deux.  This scene is pure Balanchine magic.

Balanchine gives the four mortals in the 'love quadrangle' -- here Faye Arthurs (Helena), Sterling Hyltin (Hermia), Jared Angle (Lysander), and Amar Ramasar (Demetrius) -- dance passages of comedy, conflict and confusion that move the plot forward.  Ms. Arthurs and Mr. Ramasar are most effective in displaying their emotions through dance.  Ms. Hyltin and Mr. Angle are more reserved.

Faye Arthurs as Helena with Sean Suozzi as Puck in Balanchine's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Antonio Carmena plays Puck as an efficient enabler for Oberon's plan to humiliate Titania which also wreaks havoc on the mortal lovers.  

Ashley Bouder and Adrian Danchig-Waring lead the Act II divertissement with calm assurance.  Mr. Danchig-Waring provided strong, devoted partnering to Ms. Bouder, who danced elegantly and avoided her look-at-me mannerisms.  Their pas de deux of idealized love is Balanchine's response to the messy and imperfect love of the mortal lovers and the fairy monarchs in Act I.

While 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' has long been a favorite ballet of ours, this Sunday matinee performance lacked the magic that can make this work a captivating and exhilarating experience.  The music from the orchestra lead by Maestro Stuart Capps was muffled and pedestrian.  The cast often seemed to be on autopilot and except for the three debuts they were more efficient than involved.  



  

NYC Ballet Matinee Performance, Sunday, May 3rd . . .

SUNDAY MATINEE, MAY 3, 3:00 PM [Conductor: Otranto]

APOLLO: *Danchig-Waring, T. Peck, *Isaacs, Lovette
AGON: Kowroski, Ramasar, Veyette, King, Hod (replaces Smith),Krohn, Alberda, Applebaum
DUO CONCERTANT: Bouder, *Huxley [Solo Piano: McDill; Solo Violin: Delmoni]
SYMPHONY IN 3 MOVEMENTS: Hyltin, Pereira, Lowery, Stanley, Ulbricht, Scorda

* First Time in Role on Wednesday, April 29th

This program from the Balanchine Black & White Festival was subtitled 'Stravinsky/Balanchine'.  It included four works Balanchine created to Stravinsky's music spanning the years from 1928 through 1972 -- all danced in (mostly black and white) leotards.

First, a word about the excellent playing of the New York City Ballet Orchestra under the conductor Clotilde Otranto on Sunday. These Stravinsky scores are this orchestra's birthright.  They have been playing them for many, many years.  Under Maestra Otranto's enthusiastic baton they sounded as fresh and clean as when they were first encountered.

Apollo
When Balanchine created 'Apollo' (aka 'Apollon Musagete') for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1928 it featured elaborate costumes and sets by the French painter Andre Bauchant.  A year later there were new costumes by Coco Chanel.  By the time he staged it for NYC Ballet in 1951 he had begun a process of stripping away the sets, the costumes and the scenario.  By the 1957 staging the costumes by Karinska were extremely simple leotards -- with brief skirts for the three women.  When he restaged it for Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1979 Balanchine eliminated the prologue -- which portrayed the birth and infancy of Apollo -- and the spare, steep staircase at the back representing Mount Parnassus -- which Apollo and the three muses climbed in the finale.  (I seem to recall that this version was also used by Rudolf Nureyev on his tour programs starting as early as 1967.)

On Sunday, two of the dancers -- Adrian Danchig-Waring as Apollo and Ashly Isaacs as Polyhymnia -- had just debuted in their roles the previous Wednesday.  Danchig-Waring's Apollo is very much a work in process.  He hasn't created a coherent through-line that pulls the individual dance scenes together to portray the young god's development from adolescence into manhood.  On a technical level he doesn't always place the iconic images correctly on the stage and he doesn't accurately align them in relation to the proscenium and the audience -- usually due to an under or over rotation of a turn.

Adrian Danchig-Waring as Apollo in Balanchine's ballet.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Ashly Isaacs' Polyhymnia, muse of mime, was danced with enormous confidence and brio.  Isaacs is still in the corps, but she is this year's Janice Levin Dancer honoree.  It is clear that she has a brilliant future.  Isaacs filled the stage with big, bold, joyous dancing that plays with and against Stravinsky's music.

Tiler Peck as Terpsichore, Ashly Isaacs as Polyhymnia, Lauren Lovette as Calliope and Adrian Danchig-Waring

as Apollo in Balanchine's 'Apollo'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Tiler Peck's Terpsichore, muse of dance, seemed bored, petulant and lacked rapport with Danchig-Waring's Apollo.  Lauren Lovette's Calliope is not one of her best role, failing to catch the muse of poetry's sparkle and contorting her beautiful face with ugly grimaces while 'reciting' her poetry.  Perhaps Ms. Peck and Ms. Lovette are letting their off-stage affection for different Apollos (Robert Fairchild and Chase Finlay respectively) distort their performances in this cast.

Final image of the current 'Apollo' with Tiler Peck & Adrian Danchig-Waring.   Note the awkward placement of Adrian's left foot and the lack of turnout in the left leg.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The final image of the 1979 version of 'Apollo' that Balanchine left us is the sunburst of the sun god with the legs of the three muses arrayed in arabesque around him -- what the late critic Robert Garris referred to as 'the Apollo-logo'.  'Apollo' remains an essential work in the Balanchine cannon and we can only hope that this cast will coalesce in future performances.

Agon

Balanchine commissioned Stravinsky to compose the score for 'Agon', which premiered in 1957.  Stravinsky modelled the individual sections of the score on dances from a mid-17th century French dance manual.  Balanchine uses the first three sections: Pas de Quatre (Four Boys); Double Pas de Quatre (Eight Girls); and Triple Pas de Quatre (Eight Girls, Four Boys) to introduce his dancers.  I'm always amazed and amused by how Balanchine moves the 12 dancers in the triple pas like chess pieces between the three groups of four dancers to form mixed-sex foursomes before aligning them back into the three same-sex foursomes.

The company fielded a perfect cast for Sunday's matinee of 'Agon'.
In the first Pas de Trois, Andrew Veyette (with Lauren King and Ashley Hod) danced with polished athleticism.

Andrew Veyette dancing the 'Sarabande' from Balanchine's 'Agon'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

 In the second Pas de Trois, Rebecca Krohn (with Devin Alberda and Daniel Applebaum) infused the 'Bransle Gay' with sensuous angularity and handled being thrown from one man to the other with cool aplomb.

Maria Kowroski used her extraordinary extension and flexibility to clearly etch the extremes of the Pas de Deux.  More importantly, she interacted with Amar Ramasar -- making him more than a stalwart and steady partner by acknowledging and reacting to his warmth and charisma.  They are great in this iconic pas de deux.

Amar Ramasar and Maria Kowroski in the 'Agon' pas de deux.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

In Part III the Danse des Quatre Duos (4 twos) morphs into the Danse des Quatre Trois (four threes) and then the four boys repeat the opening steps in reverse in the Coda -- followed by an ovation for a truly extraordinary performance.

Duo Concertant
I'm not really sure why 'Duo Concertant' is so often in the repertory.  It is a piece for a violinist (Arturo Delmoni), a pianist (Nancy McDill), and two dancers (Ashley Bouder and Anthony Huxley) that was created for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival (originally with Kay Mazzo and Peter Martins).  Over the years it has been danced by many great dancers -- Peter Boal, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Nikolaj Hubbe all danced it with Yvonne Borree.

The dancers spend about a third of the piece simply listening to the two musicians play Stravinsky's music -- 'Duo Concertant' from 1934.  Even the greatest dancers have difficulty feigning interest in the music while standing still.  When they do dance it is in snippets -- often with folk dance overtones.  It ends with a maudlin section on a darkened stage where the dancers' hands and heads are caught in a single follow spot as they play out an intensely romantic interlude.

Anthony Huxley and Ashley Bouder in 'Duo Concertant'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Neither Ashley Bouder nor Anthony Huxley (who debuted in the role the previous Wednesday) are ideally cast in this work -- Bouder is too extroverted, Huxley too introverted.  Neither is a very good listener when they just stand behind the piano.  I'm sure that we will see 'Duo Concertant' again, but I don't need to -- it serves as short (and boring) program filler and in the case of this program it suffers in comparison to the masterpieces around it.

Symphony in Three Movements
Balanchine also created 'Symphony in Three Movements' for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival to the symphony Stravinsky composed between 1942 and 1944.  It uses a large cast -- three principal couples, five demi-soloists couples, and a 16 woman corps.  In the outer two movements they are all deployed in complex patterns that challenge the eye with countervailing rhythms and movements.

The opening line of 16 corps women in 'Symphony in Three Movements'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The curtain opens on a diagonal line of the corps women -- all in white leotards with ponytails.  It seems like a neo-classical version of a classical 'vision' scene -- the 'Kingdom of the Shades' from 'La Bayadere' or the second act of 'Giselle' perhaps.  But as soon as they begin to move and as the principals and demi-soloists are introduced you realize that this is an edgy, jagged modern work -- 'Shades' on steroids. 

Taylor Stanley and Sterling Hyltin in the central pas de deux of 'Symphony in Three Movements'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The central movement is a quiet, slightly exotic pas de deux for one of the principal couples -- on Sunday, Sterling Hyltin and Taylor Stanley.  Hyltin and Stanley seem nicely matched.  Their 'oriental' arm ripples seemed a bit extreme (like some slightly crazed Odettes), but they created an oasis of calm between the frantic energy of the first and third movements.

In the closing moments of the third movement Balanchine clears the stage for the principal and demi-soloist couples by having the corps girls stand half covered behind the wings.  As the momentum builds they step out of the wings and back into them -- creating a dynamic frame for the dancing at center stage.  Suddenly all of the cast is on stage in patterns that reminds me of the crews that guide planes onto the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Full cast in the finale of 'Symphony in Three Movements'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Sunday's performance of this iconic Balanchine work seemed ragged and under-rehearsed.  Lines that should have been straight weren't; patterns that should have been clearly aligned weren't. This detracted from the complete joy that this work can provide.

New York City Ballet -- Tuesday, October 14, 2014

We attended the New York City Ballet performance on Tuesday evening, October 14th.  It was our first chance to see Justin Peck's 'Everywhere We Go' -- which was first seen during the Spring 2014 season.  The program also featured several debuts (*) in Balanchine's 'Chaconne' and Robbins' 'Interplay'.

TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 14, 7:30 PM
[Conductor: Capps]
CHACONNE: Kowroski, T. Angle, *King, *Huxley, *Kikta, *Kretzschmar, *Sanz, *Woodward, *Hod, *Alberda, *Phelan, *Prottas
INTERPLAY: Pollack, *Wellington, *Mann, *Villwock, Walker, Alberda, Hoxha, *Coll (replaces Villarini-Velez)
[Solo Piano: Walters]
pause
AFTER THE RAIN PAS DE DEUX: Whelan, Hall [Solo Piano: Moverman, Solo Violin: Delmoni]
EVERYWHERE WE GO: Krohn, Isaacs, Hyltin, Reichlen, Danchig-Waring, Ramasar, Veyette

George Balanchine staged 'Chaconne' for Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins in 1976.  

Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell, the original cast in Balanchine's 'Chaconne'.
Photo by Max Waldman

The score is ballet music from Christoph Willibald von Gluck's opera 'Orphee et Euridice'.  Balanchine had worked with Gluck's score before.  First, in 1936 he staged the opera for the Metropolitan Opera with decor by Pavel Tchelitchew.  The singers were in the pit with the orchestra and his American Ballet dancers were on stage   It lasted for two performances.  In 1963 he composed all of the dances for a production of the opera by the Hamburg State Ballet.  This production was mounted by the Paris Opera a decade later with some adjustments by Balanchine.  In 1975, a somewhat different version was performed by the Chicago Lyric Opera with dances by Balanchine.  'Chaconne' is based primarily on the ballets he created for the Hamburg State Opera version with adjustments, of course, for the special gifts of Farrell and Martins.

The ballet is divided into two distinct sections.  The first section (the Elysian Fields) begins with an ensemble of nine women with loose hair and long flowing beige costumes walking slowly about the stage in simple patterns.  As they exit the stage the principal couple (Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle) in simple white costumes enter on a diagonal.  Their first moves are beautiful calm mirroring arabesques which they sustain joined only by one hand.  In recent seasons Maria and Tyler have formed a wonderful partnership which was fully displayed in this first pas de deux with its low, skimming lifts and off-kilter promenades to Gluck's 'Dance of the Blessed Spirits'.

As Tyler carried Maria off stage in a last series of low lifts, the stage brightens and the large cast entered for the divertissements and chaconne that end the opera -- a secondary couple (Lauren King and Anthony Huxley); a trio (Emily Kikta, Gretchen Smith and Aaron Sanz); five women (led by Indiana Woodward); two demi-soloist couples (Ashley Hod with Devin Alberda and Unity Phelan with David Prottas); and a corps of 15 (9 women and 6 men).  The Karinska costumes are white and pale blue; the background is a blue sky with wispy white clouds.  

Kikta, Smith and Sanz were making their debuts in the pas de trois.  The man is a troubadour plucking on an imaginary lute while his ladies strut in courtly fashion.  This new trio were astonishingly accomplished and conveyed the Baroque spirit of the piece.

The tricky pas de deux that follows was danced with sunny assurance by King and Huxley, also making their role debuts.  It is a tricky dance that relies on bent arms and legs as a recurring motif.  Anthony, sometimes an insecure partner, showed new confidence in the complex partnering with Lauren and between them there is a nice contrast of stage personalities -- Anthony dark and reserved, Lauren vivacious and fair.

The pas de cinq was lead by Indiana Woodward, another debutant, with twinkle.

Kowroski and Angle re-emerged in more formal white costumes to dance the final pas de deux.  The entrance is elegant, but with a cheeky swagger.  Balanchine brought out the high Baroque elegance in the music, which Farrell and Martins embellished with self-confident showmanship.  Maria Kowroski has always been a worthy heiress of the roles Balanchine created for Farrell, absorbing the style without all of the mannerisms.  Maria's long slender arms and legs and easy hyperextension were deployed here with grace and wit. 

Maria Kowroski in the second principal pas de deux from Balanchine's 'Chaconne'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Here Tyler proved himself an able interpreter of Martins' skillful, but not subservient, partnering.  Tyler shared the stage with natural nobility and elegantly understated style.

Following their pas de deux, there is a passage -- the actual chaconne -- for the 15 members of the corps with the two demi-soloist couples (Hod with Alberda and Phelan with Prottas, all in debuts).  They are then joined by the principal couple.  Balanchine loved the resolving the challenges posed by odd numbers of dancers on stage.  The patterns and combinations he devised for first 19 and then 21 dancers display his clever solutions.  Then, the entire ensemble gathers for the final courtly menage.

Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle in the chaconne from Balanchine's 'Chaconne'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Jerome Robbins' 'Interplay' to the music of Morton Gould is the better of his 'kids just having fun' ballets.  It was first done in 1945 for Billy Rose's Concert Varieties and was staged for NYC Ballet in 1952.  Four of the eight dancers were making their debuts, but somehow I wasn't convinced that they were having all that much fun.  Their camaraderie seemed more calculated than spontaneous. 

The pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's 'After the Rain' followed.  It was on many programs over the last two weeks of the fall season -- as a vehicle for Wendy Whelan to bid farewell to her adoring audience.  I'll say it again -- Wendy Whelan is remarkable and nothing shows off her special magic better than Wheeldon's ethereal pas de deux of departure and impending loss.  For the past several years, Craig Hall, has been her sensitive, supportive partner.

Craig Hall and Wendy Whelan in the pas de deux from Wheeldon's 'After the Rain'.  Photo by Erin Baiano

The audience gave Wendy (and Craig) a standing ovation -- much deserved after her indelible 30-year career with the company.

The final work of the evening was Justin Peck's 'Everywhere We Go' which premiered during the Spring 2014 season.  Choreographed to nine 'musical movements' commissioned from Sufjan Stevens by NYC Ballet with a cast of 25 -- a mixture of principals, soloists and corps dancers.  The 13 women all wear leotards with black and white striped tops and white bottoms separated by a single red band above the waist; the 12 men all wear leotards with grey tops and black bottoms separated by a single red band.  The costumes are by  Janie Taylor, the former NYCB principal dancer.

Andrew Veyette and Sterling Hyltin with cast in Justin Peck's 'Everywhere We Go'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The backdrop by Karl Jensen is a backlit honeycomb of overlapping hexagons that changes shapes between each of the nine sections.    

There are two prominent motifs that occur throughout the piece.  One is a large group of dancers lying on their backs with one leg pointed straight into the air.  Often this is accompanied by other dancers touching the raised feet as they circle the prone dancers.  The second is some dancers going limp and being caught by other dancers and gently laid on the floor.

As usual with Peck's choreography, there is no specific hierarchy to the piece with individuals emerging from the group for solos and duets and then merging back in.  Teresa Reichlen has dazzling solo passages and Ashley Isaacs paired with Amar Ramasar particularly catches the eye.

Teresa Reichlen jetes past three men from the cast (Taylor Stanley, Daniel Applebaum and Andrew Scordato).
Photo by Andrea Mohin for the NY Times

Peck needs to learn to edit his work, so that he doesn't fall into the Jerome Robbins trap of leaving the audience begging for less.  Six or seven 'musical moments' would probably have been better than nine and might have resulted in less repetition.  The whole cast succumbing to the plague once is interesting -- twice it's redundant and frankly rather tiresome at the end of a long evening.

Could Peck's ballet be about honeybees (the backdrop) and the unexplained collapses of bee colonies?  Is Reichlen the queen bee?

JR's Art Project for NYC Ballet Reconsidered

I was hasty in criticizing JR's photo-mural on the floor of the promenade at New York State (Koch) Theater for encroaching on Philip Johnson's gorgeous space.  I still do believe that the space is better left unadorned.  But on second and third viewing during subsequent visits, the JR work itself does have resonance.  It resembles one of those wonderful ceilings in baroque churches and palaces except that it's underfoot and the glorious gods and goddesses are beloved members of New York City Ballet.  The entire piece is in the shape of a giant eye which can best be appreciated from one of the upper rings.

JR's eye from the west end of the fourth tier, photo by McClure

It's interesting to see the audience interact with the piece -- something missing from my first view of the installation at a dress rehearsal.  With audience members walking over the floor, casting moving shadows and interacting with the images makes it more interesting.  Also, it's surprising to watch them searching for a favorite dancer.  And almost shocking to see them lie down next to them. 

Two people lying in the 'pupil' of JR's eye installation at State Theater as others walk by, photo McClure

The group of dancers forming the 'iris' are like carytids gracefully holding up some far off temple on the Acropolis -- particularly the gorgeous Faye Arthurs in a blush pink leotard.

Anthony Huxley and Faye Arthurs in JR's 'iris', photo by McClure

Here are a few other favorite dancers spotted around the installation in no particular order.

Harrison Coll and Rob Fairchild with admirers, photo by McClure

Silas Farley as part of the 'iris', photo by McClure

Ashley Bouder with an observer, photo by McClure

Olivia Boisson in anti-gravity mode, photo by McClure

Craig Hall dreaming among shadows and scuffs, photo by McClure