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Old and New

“Fancy Free”, Agon”, “Brandenburg”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 10, 2023

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill

This program opened with Jerome Robbins’ first work, “Fancy Free” (1944) and closed with his final ballet, “Brandenburg” (1997), with Balanchine’s “Agon” in the middle.  When “Fancy Free’s” three sailors first jumped out on the Ballet Theatre (now ABT) stage, the US was fighting World War II, and many in the audience would have recognized those boys whooping it up in New York City and understood the horrors they would soon be shipping off to.  By 1980, when they made it to NYCB, the world had changed, but the three sailors and the girls they meet remain firmly and gloriously in 1944.  "Brandenburg's" happy generic peasant dancers exist in a timeless Robbins-land, yet for me "Fancy Free" makes a much more vivid impression.

New York City Ballet in Jerome Robbins' "Brandenburg" photo © Erin Baiano

The French Connection

“La Source”, “Namouna, A Grand Divertissement”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 29, 2023, evening

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill

“La Source” and “Namouna” were both elaborate 19th century ballets first presented at the Paris Opera choreographed by Frenchman to French music.  “La Source” (1866,) with music by Léo Delibes and choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon and “Namouna” (1882), with music by Édouard Lalo and choreography Lucien Petipa (Marius’ older brother), have complicated plots, full of exotic locations, put-upon heroines, and stalwart heroes (both danced originally, coincidentally, by Louis Mérante).  The current versions by Balanchine, (“La Source”, 1968) and Ratmansky ("Namouna, A Grand Divertissement, 2010) both have heroes, but very little plot.  Balanchine ignored the plot completely, but kept the French elegance; he choreographed the brief, expanded pas de deux for Violette Verdy and John Prinz in 1968.  Alexei Ratmansky, on the other hand, mixed in elements of the original “Namouna” for his 2010 celebration/send-up of 19th century balletic conventions but dressed his hero as a Victorian child strutting around in a sailor suit. They may have used different approaches, but both clearly loved the lush, melodic scores.

Photo: New York City Ballet in "Namouna, A Grand Divertissement" photo © Paul Kolnik.

Musical Variations

“Concerto Barocco”, “Kammermusik No. 2”, “Raymonda Variations”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 20, 2023

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill

The three ballets on this all-Balanchine program were all abstract responses to music with energetic corps and intense pas de deux, yet each ballet had its own distinctive character.  “Concerto Barocco”, from 1941, is one of Balanchine’s greatest works, a jazzy take on Bach, celebrating female dancing (the lone male turns up briefly to partner one of the ballerinas and then disappears), the spiky “Kammermusik No. 2”, one of Balanchine’s last ballets (it premiered in 1978), an inversion of sorts of “Concerto Barocco”, with its eight male corps members mirroring the earlier ballet’s eight female corps, and “Raymonda Variations” (from 1961), a spun sugar salute to Petipa.

Mira Nadon and Emilie Gerrity in "Kammermusik No. 2" photo © Erin Biano

Stars of tomorrow

The International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 25, 2023

by Denise Sum
Copyright © by Denise Sum 2023

The Erik Bruhn Prize is a beloved event for Toronto balletomanes. Established by Bruhn, former National Ballet of Canada artistic director and dance legend, the competition brings together young talents from international ballet companies with which Bruhn had relationships. Participants must be between the ages 18-23. It is a rare chance to see emerging artists from other companies who are selected by their artistic directors for their talent and potential. By participating, the dancers are given the opportunity to prepare a classical pas de deux, as well as have a newly commissioned work created for them. 

Roman Novitzky, Mackenzie Brown and Daichi Ikarashi. Photo by Karolina Kuras. Courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.

A wish your heart makes

"Cinderella"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 10, 2023  

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2023 by Denise Sum

James Kudelka’s “Cinderella” has been a perennial favorite at the National Ballet of Canada since its premiere in 2004. With its broad appeal, “Cinderella” was programmed over March break to draw in families and hopefully gain some new audience members for the company. Kudelka’s modern take on the familiar fairy tale has something for everyone – humor, romance, intricate choreography, stunning designs and high production value. The last time “Cinderella” was performed by the NBoC was in 2016. This most recent run features several noteworthy debuts. 

Genevieve Penn Nabity in “Cinderella”. Photo by Karolina Kuras. Courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada. 

Identity and Archetypes

"Symphony in C", "Alleged Dances", "Anima Animus"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 3, 2023  

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2023 by Denise Sum

The National Ballet of Canada artistic director Hope Muir continues to enrich the company’s repertoire with another interesting mixed program, featuring two new works (a world premiere and a company premiere). As with last year’s fall mixed program which featured ballets by black choreographers Alonzo King and Vaness G.R. Montoya, Muir continues to show a commitment to creating space for representation of BIPOC and women choreographers at the NBoC. Here, she has commissioned a new work, “Alleged Dances” by Rena Butler, whom she collaborated with previously at Charlotte Ballet. Muir also brought British choreographer David Dawson’s striking “Anima Animus” to Toronto audiences for the first time. Throwing in George Balanchine’s brilliant “Symphony in C”, this triple bill highlights the company’s tremendous range. 

Genevieve Penn Nabity and Ben Rudisin in “Anima Animus”. Photo by Bruce Zinger. Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada.

The Source

"The Sleeping Beauty"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 24, 2023

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill

It is no exaggeration to say that without “The Sleeping Beauty”, ballet as we see it today would not exist.  New York City Ballet’s program provides a useful outline of its importance, starting with the group around Diaghilev and without that great impresario, there would be no Balanchine, no Royal Ballet, and possibly no modern ballet at all. “The Sleeping Beauty” is more than a collection of pretty music and difficult dancing attached to a simple fairy tale, and any production should try to convey what it is about the work that has captivated so many brilliant artists over the years.  Of course, the dancers should not look as if they were tiptoeing around a great cathedral, overawed by the grandeur, but they should all be part of the overarching story.  That story, to me, isn’t just about a nasty guest who was overlooked, and the moral isn’t “doublecheck your list”, it illustrates, so elegantly, the importance of generosity.

Emily Kikta and Peter Walker in "The Sleeing Beauty" photo © Erin Baiano

Without Feathers

"The Sleeping Beauty"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 15, 2023

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill

The New York City Ballet celebrated the day after Valentine’s with “The Sleeping Beauty”, the apotheosis of love, grandeur, and gorgeous music.  Peter Martins’ version, first seen in 1991, remains somewhat of a mixed bag, but it has some stunningly beautiful scenes with magnificent choreography, and often, excellent performances.  It was produced before the Mariinsky and ABT revivals, both based on the notated Petitpa choreography, now housed at Harvard University, and it lacks much of the moral seriousness of these versions.  Those knitting ladies are not just dancing to bouncy music, they show the audience the importance of forgiveness, as the King wavers between justice and mercy.  And Carabosse, the embodiment of petty vindictiveness (an all to human trait) is not Von Rothbart’s first cousin; she is not an irrational evil being who must be destroyed, as she too is forgiven and invited to the wedding.  Martins’ version has changed very little over the years (though for some reason, in this performance the Prince entered the hunting scene hatless—his hat was stored in the wings and picked up later, worn for about a minute and then removed—which made the Lilac Fairy’s forecast that a prince with a feather in his hat would awaken Aurora a bit pointless).

New York City Ballet in "The Sleeping Beauty" photo © Paul Kolnik

Not His First Rodeo

"Copland Dance Episodes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 28, 2023 evening

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill

Justin Peck first used Copland's music for his 2015 ballet "Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes", an abstract piece set to Copland's symphonic arrangement of the ballet score that launched Agnes de Mille. For his new full-length ballet (as advertised and sold by the company, though it is a 70+ minute intermission-less piece) he has incorporated most of his earlier "Rodeo" and added two other Copland dance scores, "Appalachian Spring", composed for Martha Graham, and "Billy the Kid", from a now rarely seen ballet commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein and choreographed by Eugene Loring, with Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" as the overture.  All of these works have a spacious grandeur and a Western twang (Copland interspersed cowboy and folk songs into his ballets) and his music evokes sunsets, campfires, boundless horizons, and determined optimism, which the orchestra, conducted by Andrew Litton, brought to life, beginning with the blazingly confident trumpets of the overture.

New York City Ballet in Justin Peck's "Copland Dance Episodes" photo © Erin Baiano.

Two by Two

"Donizetti Variations", "Haieff Divertimento", "Valse-Fantaisie", "Stravinsky Violin Concerto"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 17, 2023

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill

New York City Ballet's Winter season opened with two pairs of Balanchine ballets, as the 19th century confections "Donizetti Variations" and "Valse-Fantaisie" alternated with the more austere and astringent 20th century works "Haieff Divertimento" and "Stravinsky Violin Concerto".  The pairings, with their contrasting styles, showed so clearly how music propelled Balanchine's choreography.  These ballets are all wedded to their scores, the movements intertwined with the music, and, with the barest whisper of a narrative, all have a distinctive emotion.

Ashley Laracey and Joseph Gordon in "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" photo © Erin Baiano

Vangeline's Story

-- By Tom Phillips 

Butoh began in the ruins of post-war Japan as the "dance of utter darkness."  Today it is performed and taught all over the world, and increasingly influential in other techniques and styles. No one is more responsible for this than Vangeline, founder and director of the New York Butoh Institute, which marks its 20th anniversary in 2023. After many years on the margins of the dance world, this year she is flooded in fellowships – including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to study the brain waves of Butoh dancers. 

Vangeline was born in 1970 in France, and came to New York in 1992. She told us her life story recently while sitting and stretching on the floor of her dance studio, near the banks of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.     

            Vangeline Theatre in "The Slowest Wave"  Photo: Michael Blase                         

Mad World

"MADDADDAM"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
November 30, 2022 

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2022 by Denise Sum

Wayne McGregor's "MADDADDAM", a new work inspired by Margaret Atwood's prescient MaddAddam trilogy (published between 2003 and 2013), has been many years in the making. In an alarming example of life imitating art, the premiere of this dystopian ballet set during a global pandemic was delayed by an actual global pandemic. Of her frightening work of speculative fiction, Atwood has written "it does not include any technologies or biobeings that do not already exist, are not under construction, or are not possible in theory." Lest audience members get too comfortable distancing themselves from the horrific hypothetical scenarios of "MADDADDAM", the message that they could occur in the near future is sobering. It is heavy and dark content, hardly an obvious choice for a classical ballet company. Then again, McGregor has shown with "Woolf Works" that he is not one to shy away from complex, literary material. A large scale, big budget work, "MADDADDAM" brings together many repeat collaborators of McGregor in this joint production between the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Ballet. It features an original score by Max Richter, design by We Not I and film design by Ravi Deepres. British designer Gareth Pugh created brilliantly imaginative costumes. Atwood is listed as "creative consultant", but has said in interviews that she gave McGregor and his team carte blanche in reimagining her books for the stage. 

Artists of the Ballet in Wayne McGregor's "MADDADDAM". Photo © Karolina Kuras. 

A Holiday Favorite

“The Nutcracker”
New York City Ballet
David Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
December 6, 2022

by Gay Morris
copyright © 2022 by Gay Morris

When New York City Ballet first presented George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” in 1954, New York Times critic John Martin wasn’t happy. He thought it betrayed Balanchine’s dedication to abstraction, which, he said, had revolutionized ballet. But, as so often happened, Balanchine knew best. He added the full-length narrative work to New York City Ballet’s mostly plotless repertory, and it is still a hit to this day, not to mention a major source of revenue for the company.

With these thoughts in mind, I joined the crowd at Lincoln Center on Tuesday evening for one of the many “Nutcracker” performances, with varied casts, that New York City Ballet offers annually from late November through December. And once again, the ballet showed why it has become as much a part of New York’s festive season as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and neighborhood caroling.

Old Faithful

"The Nutcracker"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
November 25, 2022

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2022 by Mary Cargill

For some people, the Christmas season starts with New York City Ballet's magical tree growing up to the sky with scintillating, musical excitement.  The production has remained basically the same for years; though the Chinese dance has lost much of its flavor, the boys still want to grow up to be cavalry officers and the girls still politely sip their tea and rock their dolls. 

New York City Ballet in "The Nutcracker" photo © Martha Swope

In with the new

"The Collective Agreement", "Crepuscular", "Concerto"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
November 9, 2022 

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2022 by Denise Sum

The National Ballet of Canada's 2022-2023 season opened with a mixed program ushering in the new. Toronto-born Hope Muir started her appointment as artistic director of the company in January 2022, marking a new era after Karen Kain's 16 year tenure in the role. This repertory program is the first Muir has put together for the NBoC. Muir has expressed a commitment to foster more diversity in the company and its programming, which could be seen here. It featured a new work created by Vanesa G.R. Montoya, principal dancer at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, which premiered in the summer of 2021 during the company's outdoor performances at the Harbourfront Centre. It also included Alonzo King's "The Collective Agreement", the NBoC's first acquisition from King and the first time this work has been performed in Canada. The program concluded with a revival of Sir Kenneth MacMillan's "Concerto", last performed by the company in 1990. 

Jurgita Dronina and Harrison James in "The Collective Agreement". Photo by Karolina Kuras.