DANCE REVIEW
Taking Flight: A Season of Revival
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
New York City Ballet, with, from left, Sean Suozzi, Savannah Lowery, Sébastien Marcovici, Abi Stafford and Daniel Ulbricht, in Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements” on Wednesday at the David H. Koch Theater. More Photos »
By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Published: January 28, 2011
On Wednesday both George Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements” (1972) and Christopher Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia” (2001) returned to New York City Ballet repertory. Other works by choreographers dead and alive have also been revived this winter season, but these two have been outstanding.
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Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
Teresa Reichlen in Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” on Thursday. More Photos »
In “Symphony in Three Movements,” the curtain rises — to the opening chords of Stravinsky’s music of that title — on a dynamic diagonal of 16 women braced for explosive action. (“Put 16 women on the stage, and it’s everybody — it’s the world,” Balanchine said in 1959. “Put 16 men, and it’s always nobody.” Whether or not we agree in general, his works make us agree while we follow them.)
Even by Balanchine’s standards, the imagery, patterning and structure of this piece make an extraordinary assortment. Wheels rotate within (and against) wheels; machines and aviation are suggested; Western casual modernity is juxtaposed against Eastern traditional gesture. In one episode the corps de ballet moves while only half-seen in the wings, and in another passes on and off the stage in arcs that apparently continue out of sight. Three couples lead the first and third movements: nothing prepares you for why the second couple is singled out to dance the central movement pas de deux. Does anything explain the different and strange images of interdependency that they exhibit alone together?
It’s hard to follow a work so boldly imaginative — and it’s impressive how well “Polyphonia” succeeds. Made for four couples, this work — built like a series of études — strikingly suggests a whole series of stylistic possibilities for contemporary ballet. Among its many bold features, it announces overtly that it has inherited the language of Balanchine and Frederick Ashton. You can see references to the heroic pose with which two men end a duet in “Agon” (1957); the partnering device whereby a woman is folded in half and revolved before opening out anew in Ashton’s “Dream” (1964); and even one of the strangest images from “Symphony in Three Movements,” in which the woman holds her hands (palms out) before her eyes, as if sightless.
“Polyphonia” shows, as most of Mr. Wheeldon’s work has since, that he is chiefly interested in how women may be partnered by men. But, unlike some of his later dances, it also supplies enough images of female independence to put that into a larger context. And its wealth of energy and wide palette of contrasting moods make it look as arresting as it did when new.
A season that contains both “Polyphonia” and Alexei Ratmansky’s “Concerto DSCH” has an unsurpassed choice of repertory by living choreographers. A season featuring “Symphony in Three Movements” among numerous masterpieces by Balanchine andJerome Robbins is without match in the world today.
Still, some works have been revived this winter in ways that look trivially pretty and nothing more. As a vehicle for a ballerina and her partner, “La Source” (1968) by Balanchine should be at least as resplendent as his “Cortège Hongrois” (1973) — which makes several appearances this season — and perhaps it will be in later performances. But on Sunday, as led by Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz, “La Source” was a politely bland bonbon. The dancing of Lauren King, in the soloist role, radiated more truly into space and took more verve from the music than that of either star.
Thursday’s audience gave Daniel Ulbricht a big ovation for his delivery of the title role in “Prodigal Son” (1929). You couldn’t miss how the amazing height and force of his jumps in the first scene caused excitement. He also showed, as ever, ace timing and utter commitment to the action. But his face in such roles doesn’t read well in the theater, and his body has never yet found the harrowed intensity that should make the nondance end of the second scene and the start of the third at least as powerful as anything that has gone before.
Amid an otherwise slightly washed-out performance of Robbins’s “I’m Old Fashioned” (1983) on Wednesday, it was glorious to see how specific Robert Fairchild made every moment of his role. Here is a dancer — while seeming always modest and courteous — who keeps growing, finding ever more signs of truth and spontaneity in his choreography, making everything fall into focus around him.
This season is giving several breaks to dancers at soloist and corps level; so did the recent “Nutcracker” series. Soon after Christmas, Rebecca Krohn, dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy with Zachary Catazaro, suddenly showed a kind of glamorous authority and individuality — intermittent, true, but piercing — that raised hopes that she will achieve the same again in ballerina material. She and Mr. Catazaro made a handsome couple, well matched in proportions and elegance, with facial features that project beautifully, and Mr. Catazaro’s adult refinement as a partner made a very fine impression. More, please. What will this season give them to consolidate upon this achievement?
Anthony Huxley, another of the company’s youngest Sugar Plum cavaliers, is emerging as one of its most stylish dancers: on Thursday the precision, wit and grace of his Gigue in “Mozartiana” (1981) made up the finest account of this elusive solo in several seasons at City Ballet. I’m sorry to have missed Chase Finlay’s debut as the Sugar Plum cavalier, but in “Polyphonia,” when he was partnering Sara Mearns, his ultranoble physicality made one impatient to see him in a big role. These aren’t the only young men of promise in the company’s junior ranks, and there are fleeting signs (too few) of young women to match them.
The company’s main problems lie amid the principals, only a few of whom know how to turn steps and music into drama and excitement. Mr. Fairchild is one exception; Teresa Reichlen, a mystery woman who changes from ballet to ballet, is another. (Her cold, blunt Siren in “Prodigal” is superb.)
Better yet is Ms. Mearns, who this season has already illuminated ballets by Balanchine, Robbins, Mr. Wheeldon and Mr. Ratmansky. The single greatest performance of the season so far has been hers in “Cortège Hongrois.” With Ms. Mearns, its tremendous “Hungarian” variation, led by the piano, becomes a thrilling conflict. Now she takes command of her music (those handclaps); now she surrenders to it (those backward drifts on point). The audience hangs upon her every movement in suspense.
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