Inspirations

“Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée’,” “Rococo Variations,” “The Chairman Dances,” “Stars and Stripes”
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
February 7, 2008

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

Christopher Wheeldon’s work in the classical idiom seems to be wrapped up in some sort of search. Perhaps it’s for relevance; maybe for a specific voice – what marketing geniuses would call “branding” – I wouldn’t put it past Wheeldon to think of branding as well.  “Rococo Variations,” Wheeldon’s new ballet to Tchaikovsky’s cello variations of the same name, was ultimately frustrating because of the search for a brand, yet there was no product on display at the end. 

The work is for two couples, Sara Mearns with Adrian Danchig-Waring and Sterling Hyltin paired with Giovanni Villalobos.  Struturally it’s quite straightforward, a series of solos, duets and quartets unspools to the music.  Holly Hynes clothed the dancers handsomely, coffee colored dresses for the women and antique gold tunics for the men.

Wheeldon has a gift for spotting talent. Both men are still in the corps; both gave performances indicating their readiness to take on bigger assignments.  Wheeldon’s bright but delicate duet for Hyltin and Villalobos was the best thing in the ballet.  The problem was Wheeldon’s vocabulary – not really a fusion of contemporary and classical but classical vocabulary with contemporary movement plopped awkwardly on top like a brooch that doesn’t go with the dress. Mearns entered in her tutu, and put her hand on her thigh (what is she wiping off of it?) and then did a contraction.  All right, but why?  The question was never answered; it was a contraction in a tutu for the sake of doing a contraction in a tutu.

Mearns and Danchig-Waring got the lion’s share of this neither-nor work (Danchig-Waring spent a lot of time on the floor). They didn’t come of as well as Hyltin and Villalobos as a result; Wheeldon made Hyltin look as handsome as she ever has.  It seems as if Wheeldon has decided this is his route to a choreographic voice, but his invention was self-conscious and forced.  There’s no reason why Wheeldon couldn’t push what he’s attempting into a style as personal as Ashton's but to do that, the choreography must have room to breathe and be the object on display, rather than his ingenuity.

Balanchine wasn’t infallible either.  At least at this performance, the beginning of the “Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée”’ felt bald right down to the undecorated bodices of the corps ladies (the costumes, currently uncredited, were originally Eugene Berman’s designs cannibalized from the lost “Roma”).  The choreography has a contrapuntal fussiness; the work seemed to be marking time and substituting craft for substance.  But as the ballet moved into the solo variations of the leads, it gained atmosphere.  The stage darkened and a searching, strange mood developed.  Megan Fairchild paired nicely with Benjamin Millepied in the lead. He allows Fairchild to dance “taller” than she does with Joaquin de Luz; her entry threading across the stage covered the space fully.  Millepied also isn’t flattened as he is by a steamroller named Ashley Bouder. 

Fairchild’s feet cut stencils with knifepoint accuracy to dance a perforated lace heart of a variation.  Millepied is a Martins dancer in his attack; stop or start and there's no medium speed.  But he gave the ballet his own punchy drama.  As he circled the stage at the end of his variation he searched the earth, and at the close of the ballet yearned to the skies as he and Fairchild walked towards parallel but opposing fates.  Paul Mann, guest conductor for the evening, had the corps racing in the coda.

Martins’ “The Chairman Dances” is a negligible work; it looks like it was tossed off in a couple of hours in 1988 to fill out the American Music Festival.  The John Adams score is infectious fun. The set by Rouben Ter-Arutunian manages to be part pavilion, part cruise ship; unfortunately the costumes – Red and Purple Detachments of Women – look like they were bought in bulk on Canal Street. The principal role, though it does have some complicated turns into arabesque at the end, is less a solo part and more of a leader of the pack, but it was a good challenge for Abi Stafford in her debut to try and make something of it.  She attempted this via a strong attack, but that can only go so far; to put this over requires presence and mystery.

The evening ended with “Stars and Stripes” in a performance of solid brass.  I have a soft spot both for the ballet and for Bouder in the lead, but amidst the enjoyment there was a hard edge to the performance.  Much of the gala audience for the Wheeldon premiere left immediately afterwards, presumably to go off to dinner, and both Bouder and Stephen Hanna seemed to be selling relentlessly to re-energize the house. It’s nice to see Jennifer Tinsley-Williams back on stage; both she and Savannah Lowery are believable as the American cheerleaders of the first two movements, but the “Tall Girls” corps was all over the place.  In the front of the men’s regiment, Daniel Ulbricht was bouncing about, forcing all the men to try and jump just one bit higher.

copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

Photos by Paul Kolnik:

Top: Sterling Hyltin, Giovanni Villalobos, Sara Mearns and Adrian Danchig-Waring in “Rococo Variations”
Middle: Abi Stafford in “The Chairman Dances”
Bottom: “Stars and Stripes”