Sunday January 28, 2007 matinee - I love this photo of Balanchine taken in Venice by Boris Kochno in 1926. Today, over 80 years later, I watched a programme of five Balanchine ballets and they looked very alive & vibrant to me.
Sometimes I think our mood and what we bring into the theatre has a lot to do with our perceptions and our enjoyment of a given programme. Knowing I would want to really concentrate, I found myself changing my seat even before the lights went down. I could tell the area I was in was going to be noisy and distracting; when I ran into Susan at intermission she confirmed that it had been very unsettled in our usual place, distracting her from the performance. I watched AGON from standing room and the rest of the afternoon from 5th Ring.
I have seen AGON often over the years and today was one of the finest renditions of the piece I have experienced. The curtain rose and it was clearly a 'young men's AGON' - Sebastien Marcovici, Andrew Veyette, Seth Orza and Amar Ramasar kicked the ballet off looking fresh and vital. Andrew (in the Paul Kolnik photo at left) made a very strong impression with his fluent dancing. He has the clarity of the steps and - in the coda especially - beautifully pointed feet. Ashley Laracey and Savannah Lowery enhanced the vivid images of the first pas de trois.
In the second pas de trois, Ellen Bar (Kolnik photo again, left...from LA VALSE) gave one of her finest performances. She brought an aristocratic calm to her role, with easy balances, and she was teamed very effectively with Seth Orza and Amar Ramasar. The boys managed the tosses well, and in their duet they were engaging and spirited.
Marika Anderson, Dara Johnson, Gwyneth Muller & Ellen Ostrom all fit perfectly into the scheme of things.
In a stunning performance of the pas de deux, Maria Kowroski & Sebastien Marcovici seemed to enthrall the audience. I can't recall ever seeing them dancing together before, but I certainly hope we'll have many more opportunities; they compliment each other to perfection. The Kowroski legs should be deemed a national treasure and her extension today was mind-boggling; Marcovici might be thought the heir to the Soto crown in these intense, sexy adagios. They were warmly applauded and had to step forward for an extra bow. Here and in VENTO, Maria has been at her peak, and that's saying a lot.
Rebecca Krohn (Kolnik photo, left) repeated her very strong performance in MONUMENTUM/MOVEMENTS today perfectly partnered by Charles Askegard. Rebecca's fluidity and polish as well as her alluring face & form make watching her one of the great pleasures at NYCB these days. With Kaitlyn Gilliland still unfortunately out, it was an unexpected treat to find the luminous Sara Mearns filling in unannounced. Earlier, Faye Arthurs and Craig Hall were exuding their own star quality in MONUMENTUM.
This is the finale of MONUMENTUM in a Kolnik photo from the current season brochure.
Yvonne Borree and Nikolaj Hubbe were on great form today, winning the afternoon's most sustained applause in a repeat of DUO CONCERTANT. Borree was particularly gracious and Nikolaj brought off the transitions from standing-and-listening to dancing with unaffected charm.
I had really been looking forward to seeing Jennie Somogyi and Amar Ramasar in SYMPHONY IN THREE MOVEMENTS today - in fact it was a main reason I decided to go - but: "The best laid plans..." as the saying goes: they didn't appear. Instead Wendy & Albert Evans, who were not involved in this ballet this season, very kindly came in on their day off and showed us Balanchine's remarkable pas de deux with great athleticism and subtle hints of humour. Wendy was at her finest in what has always been an ideal role for her. Albert took care of everything and they are a great team. Abi Stafford & Adrian Danchig-Waring looked super together and displayed boundless energy and real affinity for the steps. Sterling Hyltin was dancing a role as different from Aurora as you can get, but like the Tchaikovsky princess this suited her to a T. When the curtain-rise diagonal of girls splits and steps apart, Adam Hendrickson came soaring in from the wings and commenced a stupefyingly virtuosic peformance which was laced with sensational leaps all the more sensational for the silky silence of his landings. Adam's a great dancer.
Hi Philip! I really should have taken your advice and moved up to the 5th ring at intermission. This performance was one of the finest I’ve seen from NYCB this season and unfortunately those noisy neighbors started up again during Symphony in 3. Plastic bag rustling started early and at one quiet point in the score I actually heard “you have 2 messages”. An errant cell phone ring is bad enough but can you imagine actually checking your voice mail during a performance? Some people really shouldn’t be allowed out of their living rooms.
It was a shame they had to disrupt such a wonderful performance so often. I agree with everything you’ve said - everybody was really in the zone today, especially Kowroski. I also thought that Rebecca Krohn looks much more comfortable in the Gesualdo half of M&M now. I think she was a natural for Movements, but the first time I saw her in Monumentum she had the steps down technically but I didn’t think she looked entirely sure about how to present them. This time I saw more amplitude and a very clear reading of the courtliness implicit in the choreography. Then when the curtain came up on her in Movements, it was as if we were seeing a completely different persona - she had such a punk attitude!
Posted by: Susan | January 28, 2007 at 11:25 PM
Susan, I learned a long time ago to sense possible distractions around me at the ballet before they spoil the show for me and move away. Whenever people come in with plastic bags or rattling jewelry you know they haven't even thought about what an irritation such things can be.
Once at the NY Phil a woman holding a plastic bag on her lap destroyed an entire Mahler symphony for everyone in her vicinity; people around her were glaring, shushing and nudging her but she was blissfully unaware.
The matinee was one of the best things I've seen at NYCB in the past few years. And you are right about Krohn finding the way to present those two ballets with just the right contrast. Kowroski was really 'on'!
Posted by: philip | January 29, 2007 at 08:59 AM
Oh, I saw Amar and Jennie in the Saturday matinee -- thankfully, because Amar is one of my favorite men in the company :), and they were brilliant!
The checking the voice mail IS unforgivable, Susan! You should have said something!
Posted by: tonya | January 29, 2007 at 05:30 PM
Somogyi and Amar danced together briefly in FEARFUL SYMMETRIES last season and I thought they had a huge chemistry going; I had really been looking forward to seeing them dance together again.
Amar looked super at the Sunday matinee - one of NYCB's most charismatic dancers.
Posted by: philip | January 29, 2007 at 06:27 PM