New York City Ballet:
George Balanchine:
"Serenade", "The Four Temperaments", "Symphony in C",
Justin Peck: "In Creases"
Alexei Ratmansky: "Concerto DSCH"
Jerome Robbins: "N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz"
Christopher Wheeldon: "Les Carillons"
The Opera Stage
The Royal Theatre
April 4 – 5 2013
When George Balanchine and later Jerome Robbins died, the character of NYCB changed dramatically. The company was no longer the choreographic tool of master choreographers. The status of NYCB became more like its fellow European companies: " Royal Danish Ballet", "Royal Ballet", "Paris Opera Ballet" and "Kirov", who had to combine the inherited repertoire with works by new choreographers and international standard works. Indeed, one could say that Peter Martins, himself a product of the European tradition actively forced the transition by adding ballet like "Sleeping Beauty", "Romeo & Juliet" and a full "Swan Lake" to the repertoire.
Where it earlier have been impossible to compare NYCB to the other companies, it became easier and easier. Not only did NYCB do more standard works and the bigger European companies and ABT more Balanchine and Robbins. The companies also favored the same new choreographers: Forsyth, Wheeldon, Ratmansky etc. Where NYCB had been totally unique in its approach to repertoire and style, the company became more mainstream.
Regarding heritage NYCB was and is facing the same dilemmas as the other companies with an existing heritage repertoire, how to develop and cast it. With Balanchine himself at the helm, he could develop dancers by casting and - in many cases - editing the choreography to highlight individual strengths. That way he created and maintained stars. The European companies had to find others method. For RDB and POB the schools and the tradition helped the process, and a dancer who fits into the company’s standard have an easier career path. Royal Ballet tended to import stars from abroad.
The Balanchine programme at the NYCB tour to Denmark shows in spite of some fine dancing that NYCB and Peter Martins has not really managed to break that code.
Motion or Emotion
For a European mind, "Serenade" is as much Balanchine toying with the romantic ballet style as it is a work of its time. But the way, it was danced by the NYCB corps and soloists, there was no expression of feelings nor any hint of past styles.
Each time one is faced with the Martins dancers, it became clear that the Balanchine body aesthetics has changed to a more athletic compact look. The Martins dancer is strong, fast but not necessarily interest grapping. The nuances have gone. Instead of dancing with romantic touches the girls kicked and moved their skits to force the illusion of flight and lightness. The three ballerina roles were filled with a trio of dancers who did not match size-wise and therefore never became a sisterhood nor reached the full potential of the work. As the choice obviously was not to play on emotions, we were not pulled at our heartstrings or inspired to shed a little tear, as an European audience like to do.
Space Troopers
Regarding "Symphony in C", the bigger stage was a welcome change from the cramped concert hall stage in TIVOLI, where NYCB previously danced on their tours to Copenhagen. The dancers were fitted out in their sparkling new costumes, sponsored by Zwarowsky Crystals and this is costumes that changed the look from dancers in practice clothes to royalty in performance.
Like" Serenade" the performance was marred by oddly size casting. In first movement tiny Meagan Fairchild was dwarfed by gigantic side soloists. Second movement ballerina Maria Kowroski was partnered by Tyler Angle, who was too short for her. In all the three allegro movements became too alike in their presentation. The nuances are gone. It is all about execution and too little about content.
The middle ballet "The Four Temperaments" proved to be the most interesting of the three. Due to very fine and clear dancing by the three initial pairs and especially by the two male soloists. Robert Fairchild's face, plastique, pliable upper body and musicality painted the almost perfect picture of the melancholic while Danish Ask La Cour, recently promoted to principal, proved a perfect choice for the Phlegmatic. La Cour who was educated at the RDB and danced Lenski in Onegin before joining NYCB in 2002 as a lanky young dancer. He has now found the perfect gravity so suited for this role.
Fairchild and La Cour prove that is still possible to see beautiful and carefully engineered and interpreted roles at NYCB. It is performances like theirs who keeps the magic alive.
Old Friends
Save for in-house boy Justin Peck, the choreographers of the second program is well known to the Danish audience. Alexei Ratmansky is a former principal of RDB and started his choreographic career here and has made at least five ballets on the company, the last one being "the Golden Cockerel" earlier this season, Christopher Wheeldon has choreographed two ballets here including our "Sleeping Beauty" and especially since Nikolaj Hübbe signed on, the Robbins quota has passed the ten ballet mark.
It proves my initial point, but it must also be said that the works for NYCB by the choreographers really caters for the company’s strengths. One can even say that all four ballets try to counter-act Balanchine's well known preference for a female dominated corps. Counting heads the male side wins by one. It looks like either the choreographers or the Ballet Master has wished to even the odds and showcase the strong male dancersSave the Ratmansky piece, which includes a trio of two men and one woman, mostly everything in the four ballets are focused on dancing in pairs. Justin Peck's octet to Phillip Glass piano music "In Creases" shows some traits of the Robbins heritage is a pleasing, flowing ballet that showcases his skillset but little less. I want Peck to want to do more. Yes he can move dancers around in a continuous flow, but there got to be more to it.
Mystery Hour
Christopher Weeldon's "Les Carillons" danced to Bizet’s "L'Arlesienne Suite" is heavy going. Neither he, nor the designer team seems to draw any kind of reference to the French rural story about a local boy ditching his fiancée to pursuit a women, he has hardly if ever seen. Remembering Roland Petit's treatment of the subject, this could be a wise decision.
But the ballet seems anchored nowhere. The style of both dancing and the fussy costumes seems to recall a period around the late 1940s where the fashion in ballet was to be mysterious, highbrow and symphonic, but you are as bewildered by the end as you were at the beginning. Nothing seems resolved.
Wheeldon uses ten couples, the five dressed in nuances of red and lilac take care of the solos and pas de deux and a supporting cast of five more pairs in Prussian blue . However in segments where Wheeldon needs a sixth man he borrows one of the supporting cast member to fill the quata.
10 couples are an awkward group to choreograph for, It is a big ensemble and yet not really constituting a corps. I once read an article on Balanchine and mathematics which showed that Balanchine's patterns always made sense, even when he used uneven numbers. Where Justin Peck uses four couples, Balanchine might have chosen five women and three men. (Divertimento no. 15) and he used more hierarchical layers with three or four levels. This creates a pyramidal variation as contrast to Wheeldon's two layer cake.
From Russia with Love
The best constructed ballet of the evening was Alexei Ratmansky's "Concerto DSCH" to a work by Shostakovich for a couple, a trio and a corps of seven men and seven women, which presented more layers and mathematical sense than the Wheeldon ballet.
The choreography and the costumes supplemented the music to create a vivid and mostly happy picture of Russian optimism and joy. There are references to Russian folk dance and the original costumes resemble posters for Russian's healthy young pioneers.
Ratmansky is a former director of Bolshoi, and what he had experienced there had cured him for any ambitions a running a ballet company. But actually he does. He uses the companies, he serves as a guest or house choreographer as the medium to develop and build the next generation of Russian ballets and to fill out the patterns. "Concerto DSCH" and his two works for RDB: "Anna Karenina" and " The Golden Cockerel", is part of this quest. He is a clever and entertaining choreographer and "Concerto DSCH" seems to be as enjoyable for the dancers as for the audience.
Finally, choosing N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz as the only example of Jerome Robbins’ talent was perhaps not a wise decision as the Danish audience has had two seasons with the "West Suite Story Suite" presenting a likewise slim movement pattern. A work like "Glass Pieces" would have made a better case for Robbins as both a classical and a modern choreographer.
True Grit
In an interview with a Danish newspaper, Peter Martins explains the difficulties of running a large scale company like NYCB through hard times and the cost and compromises it takes. According to the article NYCB has found a younger audience, but the price has included marketing and presenting ballet in another way as well as being open for co-branding and making commercial choices. I am sure that it has taken all the grit he can muster, and the fact NYCB still remains strong, is to his credit.
Although this tour shows a company in good shape, there are artistic concerns especially regarding the Balanchine repertoire. Signature works seemed performed with more routine than feeling and the number of dancers who can really match the stars of yesteryears in style and expression are few. It is a well-oiled machine, but some of the core values are slipping.
Regarding choreography, Balanchine still rules as the most modern choreographer on the tour. This, I suppose is both good and bad news for the company.
Photos by Paul Kolnik(c)
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