DANCE REVIEW
At City Ballet, a New Work Looks to Ellington for ‘That Swing’
By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Published: January 30, 2011
Determinedly jolly, Susan Stroman’s new ballet, “For the Love of Duke,” is trite on purpose. Its premiere took place on Friday night, but nothing about it felt new. It peddles clichés.
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
Jared Angle and Maria Kowroski in Christopher Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia.”More Photos »
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Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
New York City Ballet: Tiler Peck and Amar Ramasar in the premiere of “For the Love of Duke” by Susan Stroman.More Photos »
As the title indicates, Ms. Stroman selected music from Duke Ellingtonfor this work. The second of its two parts, “Blossom Got Kissed,” is a little nothing that Ms. Stroman first created for City Ballet in 1999. Poor, hefty, maladroit Blossom (Savannah Lowery) ain’t got that swing, so she ain’t got a thing — unlike all the other utterly lookalike gals with their lookalike boyfriends.
But Robert Fairchild as the Musician has nothing better to do, so he kisses her hand anyway. Transformation! Blossom, irradiated by the transcendent glory of this kiss, promptly peels off her blue tutu and becomes just another floozy in scarlet. Such are the transforming wonders of love in Stromanland. And they don’t stop there. Now Blossom too can swing!
The first half, “Frankie and Johnny ... and Rose,” unveiled on Friday, feels every bit as stale, and it indicates a diminution rather than a growth of artistry for Ms. Stroman. Johnny (Amar Ramasar) is keeping his gal Rose (Tiler Peck) happy until his other gal, Frankie (Sara Mearns), turns up. For a little while Johnny’s case could be summed up by what the hero of “The Beggar’s Opera” once expressed as “How happy could I be with either, Were t’other dear charmer away,” but there’s only so many times Johnny can keep dropping t’other dear charmer behind a bench, and soon enough Rose discovers Frankie. I forget who chases whom.
Were there any freshness to the characterizations or the steps, this little entertainment might have its sweetness. But no, we’re in the world of pastiche here. If only Rose and Frankie would dump the double-timing bastard and go off with each other or run for office or take up painting restoration. Don’t get kissed, Blossom! Get the hell out of this world of predictability and convention! Alas, Blossom wants nothing better than to be just another high kicker; and Frankie and Rose will be ready fodder for the next adulterous creep who comes along.
A ballet like this may make you cry out for originality. As a caution against this, however, City Ballet revived Wayne McGregor’s “Outlier” on Saturday afternoon. New last year, “Outlier”manages to be awash with originality while proving every bit as forgettable as “For the Love of Duke.”
Mr. McGregor’s characters are not stuck on ballet’s treadmill of relentless heterosexuality; the movements are often surprising, the dancers are not predictably attired; and the décor and music (Thomas Adès’s 2005 Violin concerto “Concentric Paths”) are all impeccably modern. But Mr. McGregor’s glacial conception of humanity seems even smaller than Ms. Stroman’s. His nine dancers — with their isolations of body-parts and their hyperextensions — might belong to an alien species, and he coldly examines the individual quirks of each (Just look how horridly weird this one is! And this!) before moving on. He never makes human energies interesting or dramatic. Dancers are pawns in his game, and he uses music like a movie soundtrack.
Fortunately the program on Friday night and both of Saturday’s performances also included better fare. Though I have repeatedly praised Alexei Ratmansky’s “Concerto DSCH,” Friday night’s performance — with Ryan McAdams conducting Shostakovich’s score, and Elaine Chelton at the piano — was especially fine.
In the lead role Wendy Whelan pointed every detail with perfect eloquence. When Tyler Angle (whose skills as a partner have been growing apace this season) lifts her high in the second movement, back to the audience, one leg extended sideways, her arms strike a beautiful halo above her head in wonderful conjunction with the piano melody. Everything about her body language captures the lunar nocturne of this scene. (The low and mid-height lifts, full of feeling and intimacy, are just as telling.) Among the many moments of comedy in the outer movements, my favorite is the little farce episode, when she walks in on her flat feet and stops dead to confront Mr. Angle, who happens to have Ashley Bouder in his arms at the moment.
Amid a largely new cast in Christopher Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia” — whose impact comes partly from the strange blend of freedom and exactitude with which it answers its Ligeti piano score — Lauren Lovette delivered a solo with a quiet grace that had many in the audience turning to the program to make sure they knew her name. This performance reminded me that the ardent fullness that Christian Tworzyanski generously brings to every movement across the repertory is a consistent pleasure. The personable Taylor Stanley registered with the same new force that he has brought to other roles this season.
Maria Kowroski — superbly partnered by Jared Angle — was dancing the role with the first and final pas de deux. Her mildly voluptuous charm has an immediate appeal here that I welcome while also missing the greater power and decisiveness of Ms. Whelan (the role’s originator, seen earlier in the week). I also welcomed it on Saturday night in George Balanchine’s “Walpurgisnacht Ballet.” If only she could find more bite and sweep to round off the loveliness of her dancing. Grand by gifts of physique, she’s only occasionally grand in dance delivery.
On Saturday afternoon the soloist Ana Sophia Scheller made her debut in the ballerina role of Balanchine’s “Cortège Hongrois.” She has the technique, the timing, the precision; but this role calls for immense authority and a bold range of pure-dance dramatic color that aren’t hers. There are other ballerina roles that would suit her better (she has danced a pleasing Sugar Plum Fairy for some seasons), and surely there are others who would better suit this role.
Better casting came on Saturday evening when Janie Taylor made her debut in the central role of Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements.” Ms. Taylor is almost the complete opposite of Ms. Scheller: she’s far less brilliant or precise, and yet there’s an intensity in her very nervous system that can radiate right through to her hands and feet. In the right role — this was one — these gifts register as both power and delicacy.
Too many of the older ballets this season have duller lighting — by Mark Stanley — than ever before. (A tableau for the nine goons in Thursday night’s “Prodigal Son” was nearly invisible.) You can see that each work has its own definite lighting scheme, but not that there is any particular concern to make the dancers shine.
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