Program for the 2016 School of American Ballet Workshop Performances

The faculty of the School of American Ballet has announced the program for the 2016 Workshop Performances on Saturday, June 4th, and for the 2016 Workshop Gala on Tuesday, June 7th:

'The Four Temperaments', Hindemith, Balanchine
'Les Gentilhommes', Handel, Martins
'Danses Concertantes', Stravinsky, Balanchine

After a few years of an 'odds and ends' dance recital format, this year they're returning to a substantial Workshop program that honors the School's seriousness of purpose and offers rewards for the talented students it trains and the devoted audiences who attend the three Workshop Performances.

'The Four Temperaments'

'The Four Temperaments' was first staged by Ballet Society -- the immediate precursor of New York City Ballet -- in 1946 at the auditorium of the Central High School of Needle Trades.  Unlike the austere black-and-white leotard ballet that we will see this June, the original 1946 performances had bizarre costumes by the surrealist artist Kurt Seligmann.
  

Kurt Seligmann's sketch of costume designs for Balanchine's 'The Four Temperaments'.

According to many contemporary viewers Seligmann's costumes distracted from Balanchine's revolutionary choreography. 

Elise Reiman and Herbert Bliss in Kurt Seligmann's original costumes for Balanchine's 'The Four Temperaments'. 

Even before the first performance Balanchine pruned some of the greatest excesses of the costumes.
  

Maria Tallchief in Kurt Seligmann's costume for 'The Four Temperaments'.

When 'The Four Temperaments' re-entered the repertory of New York City Ballet in 1951, Seligmann's costumes had been completely scrapped -- replaced by black-and-white leotards that display Balanchine's choreography in pristine glory.

The commissioned score by Paul Hindemith was created in 1940.  Igor Stravinsky admired the music of Hindemith and probably urged his friend George Balanchine to work with him.  Hindemith initially suggested a work titled 'The Land of Milk and Honey' as a joint project in 1938, but he was unable to produce the score on Balanchine's time table.  In 1940 Hindemith offered to produce the first part of a score for a different ballet in one week.  This opening section of Hindemith's score for piano and string orchestra was first heard that year at one of Balanchine's informal musical evenings.  Among the musicians that evening were Nathan Milstein, Samuel Dushkin (for whom Stravinsky wrote the 'Violin Concerto') and Leon Barzin.  Barzin went on to conduct the first performance of 'The Four Temperaments' at Needle Trades and to become the first conductor for Ballet Society and then for New York City Ballet.

The conceit of 'The Four Temperaments' is the medieval theory that each individual is composed of varying amounts of four temperaments or 'humors' -- melancholic, phlegmatic, sanguinic, and choleric -- which collectively form each personality.  The structure of the ballet is first a series of three pas des deux which establish movement motifs that will recur; then sections for each of the four temperaments; followed by a finale.  There are a total of 25 dancers -- 19 women and 6 men.

Here's a short video clip of the New York City Ballet principal Adrian Danchig-Waring discussing, rehearsing and performing 'The Four Temperaments': 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRgViWiqqr8 

Balanchine's choreography is mostly a response to Hindemith's music.  The sections for the four temperaments have a tenuous relationship to those humors at best.   Balanchine uses the classical ballet vocabulary, but makes subtle alterations.  Often the relationship of the dancers to the audience shifts to profile or diagonal; knees are often bent; feet are flexed; hands, arms and wrists stray from classical positions.  

Justin Peck and Rebecca Krohn of NYC Ballet show the bent knees and profile poses characteristic of Balanchine's 'The Four Temperaments'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The finale is like a fireworks display as four men lift their ballerinas in explosive grand jetes above the rest of the cast.  Here's a link to a video from San Francisco Ballet performing snippets from the Phlegmatic section and the finale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBqOG3mJyl0

Suki Schorer is enlisting the help of several men from New York City Ballet -- Ask la Cour, Cameron Dieck, and Peter Walker -- in staging this modern masterpiece.

'Les Gentilhommes'

This year the SAB Workshop Gala on Tuesday, June 7th, will celebrate the School's Boys Program, which provides tuition free ballet training to male students.  The Boys Program is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.  Here's a video describing the program:

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

Listen for Jock Soto's comments about retirement -- Jock retired from the School's faculty at the end of 2015.

Peter Martins created 'Les Gentilhommes' in 1987 as a tribute to Stanley Williams who taught at the School of American Ballet from 1964 until 1997.  Peter Martins himself had studied with Williams at the Royal Danish Ballet before Williams left Copenhagen for SAB.  Williams' men's classes were legendary for producing some of the finest dancers in American ballet -- and for attracting ballet stars, including Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, whenever they were in town.  Nine of Williams' students danced in the original cast -- Gen Horiuchi, Peter Boal, Carlo Merlo, Jeffrey Edwards, Michael Byers, Damien Woetzel, Richard Marsden, Cornell Crabtree and Runsheng Ying.

The cast of the 2011 School of American Ballet Workshop production of Peter Martins' 'Les Gentilhommes'.

Set to Georg Friedrich Handel's 'Concerto in F, Opus 6, #9' and the Largo from 'Concerto in F, Opus 6, #2', Martins choreography displays the refinement and elegance that Williams demanded of his students.  Through the costumes, lighting and movement, we are brought into the courtly world of the 18th century with allusions to fencing and dancing and formal rules of conduct.

Peter Martins and Arch Higgins are already working with the Advanced Men on 'Les Gentilhommes'.

'Danses Concertantes'  

Balanchine's 'Danses Concertantes' was created in 1944 for the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo.  Igor Stravinsky composed the score in 1941 as an orchestral work --  in effect, 'concert dances'.  The score is decidedly dancey and Balanchine found it inspiring -- twice.  The original 1944 production was lead by Alexandra Danilova (another legendary teacher at SAB) and Frederic Franklin.  Although the pick-up orchestras the Ballet Russe used on their perpetual tours struggled with the complexities of the score, it remained in their repertory until 1948.

Balanchine created new choreography for a second version for New York City Ballet's 1972 Stravinsky Festival -- he claimed that he couldn't remember the original steps.  Linda Yourth and John Clifford led the 1972 cast.  The same colorful sets and costumes designed by Eugene Berman were used for both the 1944 and 1972 versions -- they were particular favorites of Stravinsky.

Darci Kistler and Robert LaFosse led New York City Ballet's 1988 revival of the 1972 version.  Hopefully, Ms. Kistler will be involved in staging 'Danses Concertantes' for the SAB workshops.  

New York City Ballet dancers in a recent revival of Balanchine's 'Danses Concertante' led by Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The cast consists of a principal couple and four color-coded trios of two women and one man.  They are introduced in a prologue -- a parade in front of Berman's colorful front curtain.  When that curtain rises there is a sequence of four pas des trois followed by a pas de deux for the lead couple and then a final parade for the entire cast.  

Balanchine's choreography is bubbly and effervescent -- like champagne -- but then quickly evaporates.  The whole ballet is colorful, clever and energetic.  It will provide a frisky, insouciant high note for the students at the end their program.

NYCB 2/1/15 Matinee Performance

SUNDAY MATINEE, FEBRUARY 1, 3:00 PM [Conductor: Sill] 
SYMPHONIC DANCES: *Reichlen, *Catazaro 
THE CAGE: Hyltin, *Kikta, *J. Peck, Suozzi 
ANDANTINO: Bouder, Veyette [Solo Piano: Walters] 
CORTÈGE HONGROIS: Kowroski, *Janzen, *Pollack, *LeCrone, Pazcoguin, Hall

* First Time in Role on Friday, January 30th

It's hard to imagine a more disheartening New York City Ballet program on paper than the one we attended on Sunday afternoon.  Subtitled 'Hear the Dance: Russia', it consisted of second rate works by Peter Martins and George Balanchine flanking a masterpiece and a slight but glistening pas de deux by Jerome Robbins -- all to Russian music.  Fortunately, there were several dancers who had debuted in their roles on the previous Friday evening to add some novelty and hopefully some energy to the afternoon.  Super Bowl Sunday is an odd time to be at the ballet I suppose -- the theater was only about 60% filled (no-one in the fourth/fifth ring and lots of empty seats lower down).

It began with Peter Martins' energetic, but generally uninspired 'Symphonic Dances' to the music of the same name by Sergei Rachmaninoff.  Danced by a principal couple, four demi-soloist couples, and 8 corps couples, it was created in 1994 for Darci Kistler and Nicolaj Hubbe.  Teresa Reichlen and Zachary Catazaro (who had debuted in the roles on Friday, 1/30) seemed poorly matched and generally cautious.  Martins choreography for couples is often so difficult and awkward that it is impossible to say if there were actual slip-ups or just planned but ungainly partnering moves.  Kistler and Hubbe could mask such treacherous terrain, but Reichlen and Catazaro in their second performance in these roles often looked clumsy and exposed.

As usual, Martins choreographs brilliant entrances and exits for the large cast, but if they stay on stage for any length of time the moves and patterns become repetitious and unexceptional.  Especially, the four demi-soloist men (Harrison Ball, Joseph Gordon, Spartak Hoxha and Peter Walker) are given some wonderful, explosive entrances.  

Santo Loquasto's costumes are problematic.  The demi-soloist couples are beautifully dressed in teal and rust outfits that look like Russian nobility masquerading as serfs -- although why two of the four men had differently patterned tunics is a mystery.

Demi-soloist couples in Santo Loquasto's costumes for Peter Martins' 'Symphonic Dances'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik

The corps is similarly attired in slightly less brilliant shades of aqua and peach -- the women with less elaborate Russian style headdresses.  The principal couple wears the palest aqua and peach costumes with little decoration and only a few jeweled clips holding up Reichlen's hair.  Near the end she suddenly appears with a ponytail -- looking almost as if she's getting ready for bed.  She and Catazaro just fade into the background when the entire ensemble comes on stage for the finale.

Jerome Robbins' 'The Cage' is danced to Igor Stravinsky's 'String Concerto in D'.  Robbins created 'The Cage' in 1951 for the great dramatic ballerina Nora Kaye as The Novice.  The scenario is clearly derived from the second act of 'Giselle' -- a band of female creatures led by a queen with two henchwomen is initiating a novice when their precinct is invaded by two male intruders in succession and the queen and her band encourage the novice to dispatch them.

Emily Kikta was sensational as The Queen.  Probably the tallest woman in the company, Kikta has long arms and legs and an incredible extension which give her commanding authority in The Queen's opening solo.  Sterling Hyltin was intense and predatory as The Novice -- emphasizing the weirdly nonhuman aspects of a creature learning to tantalize and victimize her prey.  She makes quick work of the first intruder, Sean Suozzi, barely giving Sean time to make an impact.  By the time she gets to the second intruder, Justin Peck, Hyltin has learned to entice and toy with her victim. There is a wonderfully angular and lustful pas de deux before he too is killed.

Justin Peck and Sterling Hyltin in Jerome Robbins' 'The Cage'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Kikta and Peck had debuted in their roles on Friday evening.  Both made a considerable impact and the audience reacted with an extended ovation for the entire cast.

After a pause, Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette danced Jerome Robbins' 'Andantino'.  Robbins created 'Andantino' to the Second Movement (Andantino-semplice--Prestissimo) of Tschaikovsky's First Piano Concerto in 1981 for the Company's Tschaikovsky Festival.  Susan Walters played the solo piano part which is mostly contemplative, unlike the more bombastic outer movements of that concerto.

Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette danced this pas de deux with refinement and attention to detail.  There is little opportunity for technical bravado, but their well-honed technical skills were put in service of elegance and beautifully controlled unison passages and partnering.  This brief (8-minute) work was like a refreshing shot of ice-cold premium vodka in the midst of a long, heavy Russian banquet.

Balanchine created 'Cortege Hongrois' in 1973 as a parting gift for Melissa Hayden who retired at the end of the 1973 Spring season.  It was also a sort of apology for having ignored Ms. Hayden in favor of younger ballerinas, particularly Suzanne Farrell, for much of the previous decade.  It is not among Balanchine's finest work -- it is mainly a rehash of Petipa's 1898 choreography from the original 'Raymonda'. 

The music is from the third act of 'Raymonda' by Alexander Glazunov -- a melodious score that Balanchine turned to frequently throughout his career ('Pas de Dix' in 1955 and 'Raymonda Variations' from 1961 which is still in the active repertory).  The ballet that Petipa choreographed in 1898 is about Raymonda, a countess loved by a Hungarian crusader knight, who is seduced by a Saracen but ultimately stays faithful to the knight.  The third act celebrates Raymonda's wedding to the knight.  

'Cortege' is for a principal classical couple (Maria Kowroski with Russell Janzen on Sunday) backed by a classical corps of eight couples; and a principal Hungarian character couple (Georgina Pazcoguin with Craig Hall) backed by a corps of eight Hungarian couples.  The costumes by Rouben Ter-Arutunian are white decorated with gold for the four principals and white decorated with gold and emerald green for the corps.  The character men wear white boots (for stomping) and puffy 'Hungarian' hats.  The overall effect is garish and somewhat silly.

Rebecca Krohn and Sean Suozzi in the ridiculous Rouben Ter-Arutunian costumes from 'Cortege Hongrois'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Janzen had debuted in the role on Friday evening and his partnering and solo work were still somewhat tentative.  With his height, he is an ideal partner for Kowroski and they look good together.  Kowroski was regal and cool in her solos.  Somehow, she makes the Hungarian mannerisms of her variation seem tacked on rather than integral to the choreography -- perhaps because Balanchine just tacked them on.

Pazcoguin and Hall led the stomping, heel-clicking Czardas with charisma and authority.  Brittany Pollack (a Friday evening debutant) was radiant in the first classical variation, but Megan LeCrone (also new on Friday evening) seemed distracted and pinched in the second.

'Cortege' relies for impact on its courtly parades and massing of dancers in serried ranks.  Instead of innovative choreography one settles for warmed over Petipa with half-hearted Hungarian appliques -- but done to a suite of first rate Glazunov ballet music.

Finale of 'Cortege Hongrois' with Jon Stafford and Maria Kowroski flanked by Sean Suozzi and Rebecca Krohn.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The real pleasure of an uninspiring program like this is in seeing favorite dancers undertaking new roles.  Certainly, Russell Janzen and Brittany Pollack in 'Cortege'; Emily Kikta and Justin Peck in 'The Cage'; and Teresa Reichlen in 'Symphonic Dances' fit that description -- although they accommodated the roles with varying degrees of success.  When the choreography doesn't provide surprises, I can always search the corps for familiar faces -- Silas Farley in both 'Symphonic Dances' and 'Cortege' is always totally in the moment with his elegant, stretched lines and exceptional height; Lydia Wellington and Megan Johnson also in 'Symphonic Dances' and 'Cortege' can always be counted on for anchoring lovely moments of corps dancing; Mimi Staker with her sparkling dark eyes was vivacious in the Czardas corps of 'Cortege'. 

Silas Farley dancing the lead in 'Cortege Hongrois' in School of American Ballet's 2012 Workshop Performances.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for SAB

And it's always good to see the pros -- Bouder, Kowroski and Veyette -- in almost any context.  As an alternative to the Super Bowl this was still a super afternoon.