“Circus Polka,” “Moves,” “The Cage,” “Four Bagatelles,” “Fanfare”
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
June 10, 2008
by Lisa Rinehart
© Lisa Rinehart 2008
Numerous adjectives accurately describe Jerome Robbins' choreographic legacy, but mediocre is not generally one of them. Sadly, this adjective comes to mind when sitting through New York City Ballet’s “Generation Next” program; an unlikely collection of pieces lumped together apparently to showcase students at the School of American Ballet. Plenty could be said about NYCB’s current marketing scheme of packaging ballets in cutely themed evenings (“French Cuisine,” “Russian Roots,” “Then and There”), but suffice it to say that wrapping two fine ballets in the trappings of a dance recital isn’t the best way to celebrate a man’s work.
OK, OK, “Circus Polka” is adorable -- particularly if your darling is one of the smiling, energetic tots skittering across the stage in a puff of yellow tulle -- but the dance loses much of its charm without Robbins at the helm. One can only imagine Robbins’ wicked glee in decking himself out in the fire engine red Ringmaster’s uniform, and cracking his whip over the heads of eager and obedient little charges. Originally created in 1972 for NYCB’s first Stravinsky festival, Robbins tipped his hat to the composer by spelling out the initials I.S. in the ballet’s closing tableaux, but a fluid repurposing for the Robbins festival gives us J.R. instead. Fair enough. Robert La Fosse is cheerful and engaging as Ringmaster, and rehearsal mistress Garielle Whittle has every tiny finger in place (no small feat), but “Circus Polka” is a lightweight piece at best.
Robbins tries to get heavy with “Moves,” a 1959 effort performed in silence. The dance is a labored study of alienation that’s looking pretty dated in 2008. Robbins tries to excise his inner gypsy, but we get torso clutches bursting into big open arabesques familiar from “West Side Story,” wiggling, jiggling hands known to fans of “Bring It On” as spirit fingers, and grim-faced dancers looking lumpy in Danskin sans Spandex. There are, however, two striking pas de deux, and a spirited dance for five men that make the ballet worth seeing. Rebecca Krohn injects an appealing femininity into her duet with an attentive Jared Angle, and Rachel Rutherford commands attention from Amar Ramasar, stomping her heel into the floor with savage passive-aggressive fervor. Robbins can’t do without a story, however, and many moments of “Moves” feel self-conscious and forced.
“The Cage,” a 1951 willis-gone-wild classic, avoids such pitfalls, and looks relevant more than fifty years after its creation. With her articulated musculature, Wendy Whelan was arguably born to dance the role of The Novice, a fledgling man-eater who dutifully grasps her prey’s neck between muscled thighs and snaps it like a dry twig. Teresa Reichlen is a sinuous Queen, and Sébastien Marcovici and Adam Hendrickson give virile challenge to crazed women pounding around in Ruth Sobotka’s exoskeletal unitards and teased up-dos. Some of Robbin’s most innovative choreography is in the fight sequences between the men and women, and “The Cage” remains a powerful metaphor for female revenge fantasies.
After such a psychological feeding frenzy, it’s hard not to laugh at Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia making googly eyes at one another in frothy peasant garb as they stroll onstage for “Four Bagatelles.” Bouder’s sprightly technique triumphs, however, and even Garcia’s less than eloquent line and spiraling down off demi-point in multiple pirouettes can’t diminish the pleasure of Robbins’ romp with Beethoven.
Finally, out come the students again in “Fanfare,” a truly inferior Robbins ballet made worse by unseasoned performers and garish, albeit original costumes by Irene Sharaff. Let me just say that no male should ever be required to wear a unitard the color of a yield sign. Ever. The students try their best, and there is plenty of talent on display, but if a ballet ever needed a professional touch, this is the one, and it simply isn’t fair to close a celebratory program with such a weak link. Robbins should be remembered by the many nuanced and sophisticated ballets he created, not with bottom of the barrel scrapings dredged up to suit a marketing plan.
Photos:
Top, Robert LaFosse and students in “Circus Polka”
Bottom, Wendy Whelan and the NYCB in “The Cage”
Photographers unknown
