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Jill Johnston's Theatre of Life

The Essential Jill Johnston Reader

Edited by Clare Croft

Duke University Press, 2024

 

--By Tom Phillips

 

Everyone knows that post-modern dance began at Judson Memorial Church in the early 1960s, but few people today remember what actually happened there. Luckily, the Village Voice was on the story, and sent its most daring critic to cover it. Jill Johnston’s columns of the 1960s and 70s have now been collected in a book, an invaluable chronicle of dance in the context of a social/sexual/political sea change.   

One of the Boys

"Glass Pieces", "Chiaroscuro", "Cool", "Pas de Deux from 'Stars and Stripes'"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 25 matinee, 2025

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill

Andrew Veyette gave his last performance this afternoon, after 25 years with the New York City Ballet, 18 of those as a principal.  I first noticed him as the lead in “Two Birds with One Wing”, a ballet choreographed by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux for the 2006 Diamond Project.  Like many Diamond Project works, it flew once and disappeared, but I was very impressed by his strong beats and powerful presence; I was not the only one, I guess, since he was promoted to principal the next year.  Though he was a powerful classical dancer, his down-to-earth persona gave a special twang to ballets like “Stars and Stripes”, “Rubies”, and “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue”. He was especially vivid in Jerome Robbins’ works—his rhumba sailor in “Fancy Free” was a puffed up macho marshmallow, so gloriously confident he was impressing the ladies, and his hen-pecked husband in “The Concert” was a comic joy.

Andrew Veyette in "Stars and Stripes" photo © Paul Kolnik

Dark Times

"Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'", "When We Fell", "Chiaroscuro", "Odesa"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 24 matinee, 2025

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill

The program, officially called Eclectic NYCB, showed works from four very different choreographers (Balanchine, Kyle Abraham, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, and Alexei Ratmansky), but each piece used an element of darkness, either as a theme or a background, or both.  The result, thanks to some interesting choreography and some extraordinary dancing, was thrilling.

New York City Ballet in Balanchine's "Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'" photo © Paul Kolnik

Mountains and Valleys

"Beneath The Tides", "Solitude", "Mystic Familiar"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 17, evening 2025

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill

This program grouped three ballets choreographed in the last two years which pointed, presumably, to the future. Alexei Ratmansky, currently NYCB’s artist in residence, was the senior, with “Solitude” which was choreographed in 2024, while Caili Quan’s (“Beneath the Tides”) and Justin Peck’s (“Mystic Familiar”) works both premiered in 2025.  It was a case, though, of older being better, and “Solitude” towered over the other two works like a mountain surrounded by valleys.

New York City Ballet in Justin Peck's "Mystic Familiar" photo © Erin Baiano

Reveling in Ravel

"In G Major", "Sonatine", "Pavane", "Errante", "La Valse"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 15, 2025

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of NYCB’s Ravel Festival, the company has put together a program of five ballets set to the composer’s music, one by Robbins (“In G Major”) and four by Balanchine (three rarely seen brief works, ”Sonatine”, “Pavane”, and”Errante”,  and his stylish 1951 “La Valse”).  The music used for these works were written for the concert hall, which the exception of the second half of “La Valse”, which was commissioned but never used by Diaghilev, and the audience could certainly have enjoyed the evening with eyes closed, though no one would have wanted to miss the number of impressive debuts.

New York City Ballet dancers in Jerome Robbins' "In G Major" photo© Paul Kolnik

 

Old Friends

"Paquita", "A Suite of Dances", "After the Rain" 'Brandenburg"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 1, 2025

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill

Though still rare, non-Balanchine evenings are being programed at NYCB with more frequency (though Balanchine is referenced in the "Minkus Pas Trois" which opens "Paquita", the dance is a revision of Petipa's original).  The evening’s program featured older works by NYCB stalwarts Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon, and Alexei Ratmansky, whose reworking of Petipa’s grand finale of his 1881 version of “Paquita", new last season, returned, its full-blooded dancing even dancier.  Robbins got two works, "Brandenburg", his 1997 excursion into some of Bach Brandenburg concerti, which combined fine, spirited dancing with some overly repetitive choreography, and “A Suite of Dances”, another selection of Bach for an on-stage cellist (Hannah Holman) and Roman Mejia in his debut. Christopher Wheeldon’s 2005 pas de deux from “After the Rain” is a slow, languorous dance to slow, languorous music by Arvo Part, illuminated by the haunting presence of Miriam Miller’s debut.

Mira Nadon and Joseph Gordon in Alexei Ratmansky's "Paquita" photo © Erin Baiano