Trumpets Blazing
"All Balanchine"
"Chaconne", "The Four Temperaments", "Vienna Waltzes"
New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center, New York
January 6, 2009
The first night after "Nutcracker" always has a gala feeling, the start of some real dancing. This was doubled by the glorious programming, three of Balanchine's finest and most diverse works. "Chaconne" is one of his iridescent hymns to women, and more specifically to Suzanne Farrell. Wendy Whelan does not resemble Farrell in any way, except in one--the ability to let a role absorb her and to find her own truth in it, and she gave a mesmerizing performance. She has developed the confidence to let stillness resonate and a radiant control so her opening scene, the Blessed Spirits, combined lyricism with an understated passion; she really does seem to breath a different air than you or I.
The second part of "Chaconne" seems to have little to do with the first, though the literal can come up with links having to do with the soul and the body. But for me, it is just a long meditation on the various aspects of beauty, and who really cares about logic or form when presented with such a feast. Ask la Cour was courtly as the lute-playing cavalier, and Gwyneth Muller was especially lush as one of his consorts. Erica Pereira replaced Ana Sophia Scheller in the quirky pas de deux. She is a slight dancer, who has yet to learn to phrase big, and her dancing was rangy and slightly awkward. Her partner, Adam Hendrickson, was smooth and elegant, and made the role into a cousin of Petipa's Blue Bird.
The long pas de deux between Whelan and Philip Neal is one of Balanchine's wittiest, with unexpected little turns and changes of direction. Though playfulness isn't really her forte, Whelan didn't dance cute, and her pure musical intelligence sparkled. Only the slightly coy, chorus-girl pose at the end seemed out of place on such a dignified dancer. Neal partnered with grace and deference, and his dancing was crisp, clear, and apparently effortless.
"The Four Temperaments" is welcome anytime, with its spare, innovative, and astringent choreography. For all of Balanchine's devotion to women, this very early work has two of the most interesting and unusual male solos in the ballet repertoire, and they both got fine performances. Sebastien Marcovici danced Melancholic with a smooth and weighted upper body, and got the push and pull of the hope and defeat feeling in the choreography. Albert Evans was a wonderfully impassive Phlegmatic, not quite as limber or a steady as he once was, but his timing and loose grace is still a delight.
Abi Stafford, with Jared Angle, made debuts in Sanguinic. Stafford didn't quite have the radiant and magnanimous impersonality that the role needs, and did the steps neatly and precisely. Teresa Reichlin danced Choleric; in the past, she too has suffered from neat, precise, and reticent dancing, but she as developed into a magnificent performer, and her Choleric was sharp, clear, vibrant, and dominating.
"Vienna Waltzes" is an amalgam of vignettes in 3/4 time, soaked in nostalgia for a lost era where joy is fleeting and happiness has a melancholy tinge. This essentially European sensibility is sometimes difficult for the more hopeful American outlook to convey, and I did miss Nikolaj Hubbe's old-world chivalry in the opening "Tales from the Vienna Woods"; though Tyler Angle was thoroughly romantic, he didn't seem as if he could use a saber. Sara Mearns, however, used her lush upper body to dip and sway, and danced with a fragile vulnerability.
The more experience Yvonne Borree and Benjamin Millepied danced the purely classical variation. Millepied has lost some of the ballon that the role needs, but he phrased it beautifully, and was a gracious partner to the sometimes shaky Borree; she did get through it without mishaps, and the structure of the piece shimmered. Jenifer Ringer, who has danced luminously in the "Voices of Spring" variation, was the Merry Widow to Nilas Martins' cavalier. Ringer's openhearted and honest stage presence isn't what the role needs; she has no mystery and, lovely though she is, could not convey a woman with a past. Martins, who is so wonderful in real character roles like the Pearly King, doesn't have the presence or the physique to cut an impressive figure. Casting in the final Rosenkavalier scene was also problematic. Darci Kistler has some of the same issues that Ringer has--she cannot really convey melancholy or mystery, and there was no real feeling of dancing with memories. When she closed her eyes, it seemed as if she were trying to be the young girl in "Spectre de la Rose".
But once the lights came up and the music soared, the swirling figures, making up what must be Balanchine's most luxurious summation of black and white ballets, conquered all, and it was a wonderful beginning to the season.
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill
