“Chiaroscuro,” “Papillons,” “Concerto DSCH,” “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 17, 2009
by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2009 by Leigh Witchel
The Four Voices program at New York City Ballet returned a few disparate works to repertory. Peter Martins revived his “Papillons,” made for the Dancer’s Emergency Fund Benefit, back in 1994. A quartet set to Schumann piano pieces, it looks like the pièce d’occasion it was made as. The two women are demure in filmy white bodices and skirts; the men are in discreet black. The work is constructed in short dances and variationettes one after another. It’s short and slight, clever as Martins can be for better or worse, but inoffensive. There’s no reason not to bring it back on occasion.
Though three-quarters of the original cast is still with the company, the revival cast was entirely new. NYCB has always had sibling acts, but this is the first time that I can recall Martins putting the Angle brothers, Jared and Tyler (or J.Angle and T.Angle by the cast lists) together. Jangle and Tangle really dance like brothers. They move very similarly, but the giveaway is their conspiratorial smiles to each other onstage. The two women, Darci Kistler and Megan Fairchild, couldn’t contrast more. Fairchild buzzed her way through complicated turns and allegro work. She was paired with Tyler Angle and looked lovely with a partner tall enough for her to move expansively. When she isn’t the partner to the shortest men in the company by default, her dancing is far less tight. Kistler was enjoying herself and looked at ease, but the role is very carefully constructed and shields her. She became guarded on chainé turns or anywhere else the going got rough.
“Chiaroscuro” was also made in 1994, but has returned a few times since. Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s ballet for three men and three women is emotional, with strong hints of personality and situation but no plot. It all takes place beneath handsome artwork by Michael Zansky. The title is explicitly translated as “the play of light and shadow,” which assumedly gives us a hint why everyone is either high-strung and jovial or angst-ridden. Taylor-Corbett paints with a very broad brush but the strokes are too short to fill in the spaces of a personality. The responsibility falls to the dancers. Even if we don’t know what the narrative is entirely, we need to know that they do.
With the exception of Jennie Somogyi, the cast is also completely new. Sébastien Marcovici got the central role that was made on Jock Soto, who carried it through charisma. Marcovici did everything full out but doesn’t have Soto’s gift for connecting with the audience. Andrew Veyette also threw himself into everything and is being put in a lot of roles where his energy is shown to best advantage.
Janie Taylor is at her best melting into Marcovici’s arms. She’s brutally pale and thin right now: a remote white goddess. Faye Arthurs hovered over Marcovici, ministering to him but then evaded him, rolled backwards like a log atop on the other dancers lying on the floor. It’s one of the most emotionally rich things she’s danced her whole time in the company. Jennie Somogyi used her experience with the ballet to her advantage; things are going on above and below the neckline. Daniel Ulbricht projected as well, but it needs fine tuning. Everything he does is becoming about his jump, which is admittedly amazing but there’s got to be more to him. Ulbricht made the choice to do classical ballet, and he can push its limits or perhaps even re-define it, but not without patience and honesty.
Alexei Ratmansky’s “Concerto DSCH” is a floor wax and a dessert topping; it’s both a ballet and a portrait of a community. Packed with ingenuity and steps, it’s as hard to read the second viewing as the first. It never pauses for breath in the outer movements and the steps rain down on the dancers and the audience. Yet it’s still resonant, quite a feat. Ratmansky uses simple devices such as linked arms to convey familiar emotional states. He has more success than Taylor-Corbett with his mix because he pans farther back. He aims for the choreographic form to convey humanity, not specific humans.
The original cast danced the ballet except that Ana Sophia Scheller went in for Ashley Bouder. Scheller, like a few rare dancers at NYCB, makes everything look easy – sometimes too easy. Her turns look as natural as conversation. Joaquin De Luz unleashes his sharpest jumps and turns in tandem with Gonzalo Garcia. Garcia is a virtuoso himself but he hasn’t yet found his niche since his move from San Francisco Ballet. He’s dancing no worse than he did at SFB but he’s not used as astutely here. In the haunting second movement, Wendy Whelan and Benjamin Millepied instinctively got the balance of what Ratmansky tried to do and telegraphed a sense of community and custom.
The performance closed with “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet.” Abi Stafford, like Scheller, is a “first movement” ballerina: even-tempered and technically fluent with exquisite footwork. Savannah Lowery danced the second ballerina role and even with her raw quality, or perhaps because of it, is becoming an interesting dancer in “big girl” roles.
The second movement of “Brahms-Schoenberg” was Jenifer Ringer’s breakout role way back when. Even after a baby she’s looking as good in it as she ever had in a liquid performance partnered impeccably by Jared Angle. Yvonne Borree danced the third movement with Veyette; she had a panicky moment but recovered. Veyette danced the Andante full tilt, but he does everything that way, and it’s not “Chiaroscuro.” He’s come a long way but hasn’t yet gained stylistic variety. Maria Kowroski and Charles Askegard enjoyed themselves mightily in the finale.
copyright © 2009 by Leigh Witchel
