Damian's Farewell

Wednesday June 18,  2008 - Damian Woetzel in a Bruce Weber photo. Tonight's farewell evening at New York City Ballet was a happy event with a great dancer bowing out at the peak of his powers by dancing 2 (and 1/3) of his signature roles with complete technical and artistic mastery. Damian is the perfect Dancer's Dancer and the State Theatre was filled with his colleagues; the house in fact was a star-gazer's paradise: Lourdes Lopez, Kyra Nichols, Margaret Tracey & Russell Kaiser, Kathleen Tracey, Alexandra Ansanelli, Sarah Ricard & Seth Orza, Wendy Whelan, William Lin-Yee, Miranda Weese, Helene Alexopoulos, Nikolaj Hubbe, Amar Ramasar, Jonathan Stafford, Christopher Wheeldon, Robert LaFosse, Kyle Froman, Rebecca Krohn, Allegra Kent, Ethan Stiefel & Gillian Murphy, Angel Corella, Paloma Herrera, Savannah Lowery, Craig Hall - and those were only the people I noted. I ran into Faye Arthurs and Gwyneth Muller - both so lovely and kind. Albert Evans is handsomer than ever with a goatee coming in. And I finally got to meet Edwaard Liang. EVERYONE was there, and during the intermissions Evan, Tonya, Laurel and I were dazzled as one ballet luminary after another passed by. Evan has written about the evening here with some nice you-are-there curtain call photos.

My only wish for the evening was that a ballet could have been chosen in which the entire Company might have an opportunity to share the stage with Damian. He chose instead FANCY FREE and PRODIGAL SON with their relatively small complements of dancers onstage.

FANCY FREE is probably my least favorite ballet and despite terrific dancing from Damian, Joaquin de Luz and Tyler Angle my attention wandered; it seemed longer than PARSIFAL. Things perked up when Tiler Peck was onstage - what a performance she gave! - but even with the help of such glamourous gals as Georgina Pazcoguin and Briana Shepherd I couldn't wait for it to end.

The announced cast for RUBIES was Bouder/de Luz/Reichlen and Tess was gorgeously in place when the curtain rose. But then Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia materialized and later Bouder & de Luz were super in the pas de deux. I thought to myself: "Damian's going to finish the ballet". And he did, dancing the heck out of it and having a blast with Yvonne Borree - at her finest, very jazzy & secure - and egging on the corps boys in the 'pursuit' section. Then he spun across the stage in a series of turns, increasing speed til he swirled into the wings. Tess Reichlen held onto her role thru the whole ballet and it was the best performance of this role she's given to date because in addition to the legs, the 'look' and the line she has found ever clearer, sharper responses to the score's nuances. A tremendous, thrilling performance from Tess. Curtain calls were fun, especially when the four women stepped out in their red mini-skirts and a blaze of bejeweled headpieces.

Maria Kowroski and Damian in PRODIGAL SON (Paul Kolnik photo). Tonya and I were wondering if PRODIGAL was a good choice to end the evening; despite its uplifting final moments it is somewhat grim.  But powerful dancing and the superbly committed acting of everyone onstage made it an overwhelming climax to Damian's career. The score is masterly in its rhythmic and harmonic richness and Balanchine has set the story with such clarity and economy, especially the poignant ending. Nothing is extraneous here.  Damian has of course made the role one of his most memorable and he danced it with all the passionate physicality that is his trademark.  Maria Kowroski's Siren was magnificent; I've seen her dance this a dozen times but when she stepped out onstage tonight I knew she was going to take it to an even higher level. Both from a technical standpoint and in terms of iconic presence, hers was an unforgettable performance. Ask LaCour's profound stillness effortlessly commanded the stage as the Father. Dena Abergel and Pauline Golbin as the Prodigal's sisters create an atmosphere of great tenderness when they find their brother has come back. In their combative duet Adam Hendrickson and Sean Suozzi as the Prodigal's faithless servants danced strongly.

At the end there was an enormous ovation; all the ballerinas he's danced with brought Damian huge bouquets - including Alexandra, Miranda and Kyra - and Jenifer Ringer and Jennie Somogyi appeared. Then the entire Company filled the stage; Damian bowed deeply to his colleagues as gold and silver confetti fell and he was pelted with a thousand flowers. Coming before the curtain he made sweeping gestures of gallant gratitude to the house. I yelled til I was hoarse but instead of 'bravo' what I really wanted to say was: '"Thank you, Damian, for a wealth of wondrous dancing!" (Photo: Bruce Weber)

Partnerships: Paul Kolnik photographs of Damian Woetzel with Miranda Weese, Jenifer Ringer, Alexandra Ansanelli and Wendy Whelan. All four ballerinas were onstage to honor Damian during his farewell ovation.

Comments

[Deborah]

Damian. Damian, Damian. What more can you say? I, like you, yelled (and cried and
so much more) thanking him for lending himself to us. Susan Stroman was there -- (loved their tap riff) as was Chris W.
and too many others to mention (you mentioned most of them). I totally lost it when Wendy came out. And wasn't Yvonne gorgeous? She's never danced better!
I know that life (and ballet) goes on (and thank goodness we we have so many oustanding dancers -- more now than in a long time --but after Jock's retirement (sob!), Damian
is my favorite male dancer (and you're right -- Albert was gorgeous!). Nicolaj
was there too (so handsome!) on stage. I don't recall Damian doing Rubies in years, but my, my -- he showed up the youngster! We are the luckiest people in the world to have our company. And thank you Peter (he never gets enough credit!) for everything you do for NYCB. A small note: I love Fancy and Prodigal, but Damian could have read the phone book and I would have been happy. Special shout out to Maria and Tess. WOW!! Thank you for this wonderful recounting of last night.

[Philip]

In the last few years there have been so many great dancers at NYCB either retiring or going elsewhere. They are irreplaceable...but fortunately there always seem to be exciting new faces and forms coming along.

[Laura]

I was lucky enough to get to pelt the stage with flowers at the end, standing with the other volunteers near the stage at the right side of the Orchestra. It was great being so close to all of the dancers as they made their way across stage! They all looked gorgeous and it was truly an honor to be there that evening.

[Sarah]

What a night!

I LOVED the experience, but I'm sad about the outcome. Can it really be true that we'll never see Damien on that stage again?!?!?

I know I said I wasn't going to blog about it, but I managed to get off a couple of decent photos so here they are...
http://allwillknow.blogspot.com/2008/06/goodbye-sweet-damien.html

[Philip]

Thank you for the link, Sarah...and the photos!