Saturday April 28, 2007 (evening) - Another all-Balanchine evening at NYC Ballet which featured some outstanding dancing. APOLLO is one of Stravinsky's most attractive scores and Maestro Karoui gave a wonderfully detailed reading. Nilas Martins has been dancing Apollo for the last few revivals at NYC Ballet and while it would be great to see some other men try out the role, I have no problems with Nilas. He looks like young god and seems very comfortable in the role, especially in the pas de deux. I don't recall ever seeing Nilas dancing with Maria Kowroski before; they might seem like a mis-match but in fact they really looked fine together and made their duet the highlight of the piece. Maria was on spectacular form as Terpsichore tonight, the clarity of her dancing and the beauty of expression and gesture were thrilling. Jennie Somogyi and Rachel Rutherford were really enjoyable to watch.
AGON looked super tonight, especially Andrew Veyette's cool, defined dancing and Teresa Reichlen's incredible poise and endless extension. I've probably seen a score of Wendy Whelan AGONs and she makes it a fresh revelation every time; tonight she and Albert Evans made the pas de deux seem both extremely risky and wonderfully controlled. They clearly enthralled the audience, which responded with a long applause; Wendy & Albert stepped forward to bow twice. Seth Orza and Amar Ramasar were sexy and easy in the pas de trois with Reichlen; fine timing of the final toss. Ashley Laracey and Savannah Lowery were also excellent.
In SYMPHONY IN C, with the same cast as last night, it seemed to me that Maestro Karoui was taking a slightly more retrained approach to tempi though the opening movement still seemed a little rushed. Scheller was spectacular; Sylve was a little unsteady in the big balance sequence but otherwise fine. Aside from Faye & Pauline in the adagio, Saskia Beskow, Glenn Keenan, Lauren King, and Devin Alberda stood out in demi roles tonight, and Kaitlyn Gilliland continues to attract my attention in the corps.
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