New York City Ballet -- Sunday, October 19, 2014

How disheartening to walk home from the performance by New York City Ballet last Sunday afternoon!  We had just seen four works by Balanchine choreographed to the music of Tschaikovsky -- Balanchine's company performing four works to the music of one of his favorite composers.   And yet, the fall season had just ended for us with a dull thud.  

SUNDAY MATINEE, OCTOBER 19, 3:00 PM
[Conductor: Capps]
SERENADE: Mearns, Lowery, Reichlen, J. Angle, Danchig-Waring
MOZARTIANA: Kowroski, T. Angle, Huxley
pause
TSCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX: Bouder, Garcia
TSCHAIKOVSKY SUITE NO. 3: ELEGIE: Krohn, la Cour; WALTZ: A. Stafford, J. Peck;
SCHERZO: Pazcoguin, Schumacher; THEME & VARIATIONS: Hyltin, Veyette

Sure, the company had celebrated the retirement of an iconic ballerina (Wendy Whelan) after a storied 30-year career with the company the night before.  Sure, they were just finishing a season packed with premieres of four new works.  Sure, three of its principals have gone on sabbatical to perform in Broadway shows.  Sure, the company's ranks have been depleted by illness and injury. Sure, sure, sure there are excuses to be made for this bloated, dull performance.

The most egregious reason for this lackluster performance, is the continuing erosion of the standards of the orchestra.  It is now nearly three years since the former music director, Faycal Karoui, announced his decision to leave the company.  Since his departure in the Spring of 2012, the company has not succeeded in securing a competent replacement and has struggled along with an inadequate 'interim music director',  two associate conductors of good-to-indifferent quality, and a collection of so-so guest conductors who may have been auditioning for the music directorship.

The failure of Peter Martins and the Board of Directors to find and engage a music director of the stature of Andrea Quinn and Faycal Karoui for the house of Balanchine is a disgrace.  Having allowed the orchestra to deteriorate in the years prior to Maestra Quinn's arrival in 2001, one would think that management had already learned the lesson that inadequate attention to the pit can have a disastrous impact on the artistic merit of what is presented on stage.

It is interesting to note that three of the four new works this season were performed to solo piano music or small chamber ensembles.  Are the choreographers choosing not to entrust their new pieces to an interim music director and his deficient orchestra?

Instead of just complaining about the lousy music making, let me propose a long-term solution.  Together, New York City Ballet, the Julliard School and Career Transitions for Dancers should establish a joint fellowship/apprenticeship program that identifies dancers reaching the end of their stage careers who have the interest and aptitude to become conductors -- specifically ballet conductors.  Julliard provides formal training and mentorship in music and conducting; City Ballet, the Julliard Dance Division and the School of American Ballet provide apprentice conducting opportunities; individuals who understand ballet from the perspective of dancers gain the technical skills to become ballet conductors and music directors; meaningful career transitions for dancers are facilitated; and the pool of qualified candidates for music director is expanded. 

On Sunday, the orchestra's playing under Daniel Capps wasn't awful, merely indifferent, rote and plodding.

NYC Ballet corps in the opening image of the Balanchine/Tschaikovsky 'Serenade'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

In 'Serenade' to Tschaikovsky's 'Serenade in C for Strings' it seemed that the dancers were given no incentive to listen to the music and respond to it.  When dancers of the stature of Sara Mearns, Teresa Reichlen and Jared Angle appear lethargic and unmotivated something is quite wrong.  Reichlen's 'dark angel' barely completed the manipulated rotations in arabesque above Mearns and left out the final stretched arabesque pose that usually makes this moment so striking.  Adrian Danchig-Waring flubbed a lift with Reichlen.  The final tableau with Mearns carried by the four men looked perilously shakey. 

The closing image of the Balanchine/Tschaikovsky 'Mozartiana' with Tyler Angle, Maria Kowroski and 
Daniel Ulbricht.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Balanchine created 'Mozartiana' in 1981 for Suzanne Farrell, Ib Anderson and Christopher d'Amboise -- to Tschaikovsky's 'Suite No. 4', his arrangement and orchestration of four short works by Mozart.  Balanchine had used the music before -- first for Les Ballets 1933 and then in 1945 for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Maria Kowroski looked calm and poised in the opening 'Preghiera' which Balanchine stages as a kind of prayer.  Unfortunately, the four young students from the School of American Ballet looked ragged and undone by the lack of musical pulse coming from the pit.  The elegant Anthony Huxley, new in the 'Gigue' this season, gave a surprisingly uninspired performance.  The four tall women (Marika Anderson, Megan Johnson, Emily Kikta, Gwyneth Muller) looked gorgeous in the 'Menuet' but the pit undermined their precision.    Tyler Angle joined Kowroski for the 'Theme et Variations'.  They danced beautifully despite the orchestra's failure to adequately differentiate one variation from another.

Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia in Balanchine's 'Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux'
Photo from (Albany) Daily Gazette

Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia brought the requisite dazzle to Balanchine's 'Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux'.  They looked great together.  Gonzalo turns the opposite direction from most male principals in the variations, which is a little disconcerting, but doesn't detract from the clarity of his execution.  Bouder's bravura was on full display -- without the smugness that can often undermine her performances.

Corps and demi-soloists in 'Tema con Variazioni' from Balanchine's 'Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

In 1970 Balanchine created 'Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3' by choreographing the first three movements of the Tschaikovsky suite and tacking them onto the front of 'Theme and Variations' -- a ballet he had created for American Ballet Theatre in 1947 using the final movement from the suite, 'Tema con Variazione'.  The first three sections take place behind a scrim in a hazy, dimly lit, 'ghost' ballroom. The women are in long flowing gowns in shades of lavender with unbound hair and the men are in loose silk trousers with ruffled shirts.  

The opening 'Elegie' was lead by Ask la Cour and Rebecca Krohn.  Ms. Krohn seems uncomfortably miscast as the passionate, romantic 'ideal' woman to Mr. la Cour searching dreamer.  Abi Stafford and Justin Peck could not do much with the lackluster Balanchine choreography for 'Valse Melancolique'.  Georgina Pazcoguin and Troy Schumacher took the spins and leaps of the 'Scherzo' with dare devil speed.  Their final jetes into opposite wings lead to a blackout accompanied by the raising of the scrim (which coupled with the dim lighting always seems like an annoyance by this point in the work).

When the lights blaze on for the 'Tema con Variazioni', we are in a magnificent ballroom with Sterling Hyltin, Andrew Veyette, the four demi-soloist women, and eight corps women symmetrically arrayed in glittering costumes of white, gold and turquoise.  The two principals state the theme, followed by the women.  Variations follow, alternating between the ballerina and her cavalier with support from the demi and corps women.  Unfortunately, Hyltin does not have the technique and strength for this demanding role.  Her footwork and beats are blurred and indistinct and her energy flags noticeably.

The polonaise and finale for the full 26-member cast are always glorious and uplifting.  But they couldn't erase the memories of inadequacies earlier in the performance.  Perhaps an all-Balanchine/Tschaikovsky program looks better on paper than the reality -- nearly three hours in their company with inadequate musicianship and spotty casting.  Perhaps the season should just have ended with Wendy Whelan's farewell performance instead.

Jenifer Ringer's Farewell Performance

SUNDAY MATINEE, FEBRUARY 9, 3 PM
JENIFER RINGER FAREWELL PERFORMANCE
(Conductor: Capps)
DANCES AT A GATHERING: Ringer (in pink), Krohn (in mauve), M. Fairchild (in apricot), Kowroski (in green), A. Stafford (in blue), Garcia (in brown), J. Angle (in purple), Ramasar (in green), Carmena (in brick), Catazaro (in blue) [Solo Piano: Walters]
UNION JACK: 
SCOTTISH AND CANADIAN GUARDS REGIMENTS: De Luz, T. Angle, A. Stafford, J. Angle, Hyltin, Lowery, Bouder; 
COSTERMONGER PAS DE DEUX: Ringer, Ramasar;
ROYAL NAVY: Bouder, T. Angle, J. Angle, Lowery, Schumacher, Villalobos, De Luz, A. Stafford, Hyltin

Yesterday, we said 'farewell' to a lovely ballerina who had graced the New York City Ballet's stages with warmth, humanity and humor.  Jenifer Ringer's final performances were in Jerome Robbins' masterpiece, 'Dances at a Gathering', which marked his return to NYCB in 1969 after more than a decade as a Broadway and Hollywood choreographer and director, and in Balanchine's 'Union Jack', his 1976 U.S. bicentennial tribute to Great Britain.

We first encountered 'Dances at a Gathering' as a work-in-progress in the company's summer home in Saratoga Springs. There, the dancers all sat on stage throughout the work and simply rose and joined the dance as they were needed.  It seemed charming and nonchalant.  Balanchine famously told Robbins, 'More, make more!' as the work was in development and Jerry certainly took him up on it.  With Chopin's gorgeous piano music and danced by the stellar original cast (Allegra Kent, Sara Leland, Kay Mazzo, Patricia McBride, Violette Verdy, Anthony Blum, John Clifford, Robert Maiorano, John Prinz and Edward Villella) the audience loved having more.  But over the years with changing casts, more has become much too much.  Following 'Dances' Robbins created several ballets which further demonstrated his inability to edit his own work.

Although the program was chosen long before her retirement was announced, it was a wonderful platform to showcase Ringer's many charms.  She has been a dancer who has excelled at relating to fellow dancers as well as to the audience.  In 'Dances at a Gathering' she had the opportunity to interact with nine fellow dancers.  Her two pas de deux - first with Jared Angle and then with Gonzalo Garcia were miniature master classes in the art of partnering and being partnered.  Jared is the more natural partner, nurturing and sustaining his ballerina and matching her with beautiful line of his own.  

Jared Angle & Jenifer Ringer in Robbins' 'Dances at a Gathering'; by Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Gonzalo is a less assured partner, but Jenifer seemed to enjoy the challenge of making them both look wonderful together. Elsewhere in the ballet, Jenifer listened and watched her fellow dancers intently, ever attentive to the nuances of their bursts of dance and whimsical couplings and uncouplings.

The rest of the cast was uneven.  Maria Kowroski was delightful in the humorous role Robbins created for Violette Verdy.  She was the only cast member who had no opportunities to interact with Jenifer, but her interactions with the three men (Jared, Amar and Antonio) in the 'speed dating' segment were sly and charming.  Abi Stafford, Rebecca Krohn and Megan Fairchild are varying shades of pallid.  Amar Ramasar's partnering of Rebecca in their early pdd was wonderful, but she seems to have difficulty adapting to the romantic nuances of Robbins' choreography.  Megan and Antonio Carmena caught the humor of the two-against-three waltz, but also made it look rushed and airless.  The central pas de six with Abi, Rebecca and Megan, Jared, Amar and Zack Catarazzo failed to give the thrill of most casts.  The men were all stalwart partners, but the acrobatic lifts, carries and throws all somehow seemed routine.  There was no dance crescendo building to the final series of throws of the three women from Jared to Amar to Zack.

The cast seemed to have been chosen to make Jenifer stand out in relief -- two wonderful partners and no serious competition from the other women.  It was her afternoon and she really was the dancer at this gathering.

'Union Jack' is a work about quantity.  The opening tattoo features 70 dancers in seven regiments of 10 each, moving in precision formations.  Here again there seemed to be some casting 'errors' among the four lead women.  Abi Stafford doesn't have the chops to lead 'Green Montgomerie' which as the first female regiment needs to be lead in with a certain swagger and style.  Sterling Hyltin looked lost under the 'Dress MacDonald' hat and also lacked any specific sense of style, but at least had Jared Angle from 'Menzies' to offer some support and distraction.  Savannah Lowery had the right strength and percussiveness for 'MacDonald of Sleat'. Ashley Bouder is simply miscast in the swaggering 'R.C.A.F.' role which Balanchine created for the off-centered bravado of Suzanne Farrell.  Ashley is a very centered dancer who probably can't handle and doesn't attempt the exaggerated loose-jointed swinging hips that Suzanne used to make the role so distinctively her own.  I would have cast Sara Mearns or Teresa Reichlen or Lauren Lovette to bring some panache to this role.

Jenifer Ringer and Amar Ramasar made the 'Costermonger Pas de Deux' a delightful interlude with appropriate mugging for the audience and great comic timing. Unfortunately, the pony threatened to steal the show in a tug-of-war with his very young handler, finally charging off stage before the pearly princesses could reboard the cart.

The 'Royal Navy' section is always a romp for the cast and the audience.  The seven leads from the opening tattoo augmented by Troy Schumacher and Giovanni Villalobos have great fun with nautical motifs that Balanchine cleverly adapted for ballet.  Here again Bouder was woefully miscast as the leader of the Wrens, another Farrell role.  Ashley at least needs to learn the semaphore flag sequence for 'God Save the Queen' during the bombastic finale.  BTW Ashley is a favorite dancer but her stiff, small-scaled performance here is just wrong.

Jenifer Ringer accepting the ovation from the Company & the audience; photo by McClure

Of course, the afternoon ended with an extended ovation for Ringer and the presentation of many bouquets from the principal men of the company, individual roses from the principal women, and finally bouquets from Damian Woetzel, Peter Martins, and her husband and former principal dancer, James Fayette.

Jenifer Ringer's final bow, February 9th 2014, photo by McClure

Here's a link to an appreciation of Jenifer Ringer in Oberon's Grove:
http://oberon481.typepad.com/oberons_grove/2014/02/farewell-to-jenifer-ringer.html