Sunday December 7, 2010 @ 5:00 PM - Today's treat (above): candied flowers! Would that New York City Ballet served cupcakes during intermission rather than wrapped candy products: cupcakes are silent, candy wrappers are the bane of theatre-goers. It's a shame NYCB continues this distracting practice; do the nickel-and-dime profits outweigh the value of hearing the music without a crinkly obbligato? What would Mr. B say?
Well, candy wrappers were only a part of the audience distractions today. Even before the show started I had moved from the normally-safe 5th Ring, which this evening was over-run by small children ("We can't see the stage!") but standing room was no refuge for the person intent on enjoying the ballet. People now tend to behave as they do at the cinema: eating, chatting, getting up and shuffling to the bathroom whenever. Cell phones rang - one woman actually answered - and another woman was filming the performance.
So amidst all of this I spent most of Act I leaning against the back wall and enjoying Faycal Karoui's many felicitous interpretive touches in bringing Tchaikovsky's score to life. I only watched the dolls - Callie Bachman, Sara Adams and Anthony Huxley, all excellent - and the snowflakes (with Georgina Pazcoguin an unannounced bonus among them). I debated leaving at intermission but I had come to see Teresa Reichlen and Amar Ramasar in the pas de deux and Erica Pereira's Dewdrop and I decided to grin and bear it.
Tess danced the opening Sugar Plum Fairy solo beautifully and she and Amar were really wonderful in the adagio to which Amar brings some very welcome courtly touches. Tess flew onto Amar's shoulder twice and the two flurries of pirouettes which melt into backbends were truly pleasing, both dancers savoring the drama of the moment. Erica's delicate charm and her especially lovely attitude turns were highlights of the Waltz.
Brittany Pollack (above), one of the brightest lights in the Corps, was thoroughly delightful in the Spanish dance with Christian Tworzyanski as her very fine partner. Rebecca Krohn's Arabian has lots of sex appeal and star quality. Antonio Carmena was the lively Tea, but I am glad to see that he is soon to escape his Chinese box and perform the Sugar Plum cavalier (with Ashley Bouder). Allen Peiffer took over Candy Cane from Sean Suozzi and nailed it. Ashley Laracey's outstanding qualities are always enjoyable in Marzipan, but could we please see her Dewdrop soon? Cameron Dieck's Mother Ginger was a witty assumption, and Amanda Hankes and Gwenyth Muller as the demi-Flowers in the Waltz were just peachy.