Saturday May 24, 2008 matinee - This is probably the most inviting of the all-Robbins programmes being offered by New York City Ballet in their season celebrating the late choreographer's 90th birthday. The great appeal of MOTHER GOOSE is the attractive Ravel score and an opportunity to see several soloists and corps dancers in featured roles. Tiler Peck as Princess Florine danced with lightness and clarity - and she can skip rope, too. Kathryn Morgan was perfectly cast as Beauty and she aroused the beast in Adrian Danchig-Waring. Gwyneth Muller was a poised Good Fairy, Tyler Angle a noble Prince and Jason Fowler and Savannah Lowery vividly cast as the Serpent and Laideronnette who start out ugly and are transformed by bathing in magical waters - we need to find these waters and bottle them. Faycal Karoui and the orchestra luxuriated all afternoon in the sensuous, colorful sounds of the two French masters: Ravel and Debussy.
The central part of the programme is devoted to the two Robbins-Debussy ballets, the hothouse atmosphere of AFTERNOON OF A FAUN and the unique appeal of ANTIQUE EPIGRAPHS with its sisterhood of Grecian beauties dancing in their own private world.
I have always smiled to myself at Robbins' not-so-subtle reference to Nijinsky's scandalous final gesture at the premiere of L'APRES MIDI D'UN FAUN which rocked the Parisian arts world and created the kind of publicity Diaghilev adored. Today, in the very different Robbins setting, Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici seemed to make the audience hold its collective breath; there was a feeling of time suspended. Janie, who is slowly working her way back into the repertoire after a long injury hiatus, showed the lithe look, hypnotic style and spectacular hair that make watching her so thrilling. Sebastien hasn't danced for a year and he looked great, partnered Janie to perfection and captured the narcissism and moments of stillness ideally. Rising into a peerless attitude pose at one moment reminded me of why Janie Taylor is so high on my list.
ANTIQUE EPIGRAPHS usually features four principals or soloists and four girls from the corps. Today's soloists, all of whom should be principals, were Sara Mearns, Teresa Reichlen, Rebecca Krohn and Rachel Rutherford. Rebecca led off with the first solo and she impressed me so much today with her technical poise and the increasing assurance of her stage presence. With her long legs and 'prima ballerina' face, Rebecca makes me look forward to each role she undertakes. Rachel continued her impressive season with another elegant performance and Teresa Reichlen danced serenely on the music, radiating a sense of calm. Sara Mearns had a lovely floating quality in her solo which drew strong applause. NYC Ballet does not announce cast changes among corps dancers but in a ballet that only has eight women in it, it would have been nice to have been told that Faye Arthurs was dancing in place of Saskia Beskow - especially since she gave such a fine performance. Speaking of long legs, Ellen Ostrom was very impressive and Gwyneth Muller and Savannah Lowery enhanced the lyrical quality of this ballet in which you almost expect the girls to start singing. There's nothing else to be found that's quite like EPIGRAPHS - always a pleasure to see and hear.
Closing the matinee was Ravel's glorious day-at-the-beach ballet, IN G MAJOR. I realized that I'd never seen the Erte backdrop for this ballet because I've always seen it from upstairs. The drop with its stylized sunburst, clouds and waves serves this airy ballet perfectly. Pianist Cameron Grant along with Maestro Karoui brought out all the rippling motifs as well as some jazzy effects. At the center of IN G MAJOR is a very long adagio which Wendy Whelan and Philip Neal danced with lustrous poise; they are so perfectly in-sync. Wendy radiates her steps and gestures thru the music; I love the way she is able to use a slight rubato to give a sustained, dreamy quality. Philip is on peak form, so effortless in his partnering and expansive in his combinations. I doubt if spinning en attitude is considered difficult, but does any male dancer do it so beautifully as Philip Neal? He and Wendy won a sustained applause after the adagio and were called out twice - quite rare mid-ballet at NYCB. The boys looked sleek in their bathing costumes; it was good to see Craig Hall onstage again. Faye and the other girls breezed thru the steps and seemed to be having a good time. (all NYCB production photos by Paul Kolnik).
The afternoon opened with a film clip of Jerome Robbins coaching Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins in AFTERNOON OF A FAUN. Rob, who has only recently started going to NYCB, couldn't get over how beautiful Peter looked. In the audience: Allegra Kent.
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