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New York City BalletJanuary 2008 New York, State Theater by Rachel Straus |
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Pardon the maudlin metaphor, but ballet dancers’ careers are “like candles in the wind.” Sir Elton John’s ode to Marilyn Monroe is apt in the case of Thursday night’s New York City Ballet program titled “Balanchine’s World.” In La Sonnambula Darci Kistler, with candle in hand, performed the role of the Sleepwalker, continuously stepping over the body of Nikolaj Hübbe, in the role of the Poet. They danced together like one quantity, knowing their interactions so well eyes aren’t needed. Both the Sleepwalker and the Poet characters exist in a nether world, between waking and sleeping, between being part and against society. Both dancers are also performing on the outer edges of their stage careers. Hübbe is leaving the company in February to take the artistic directorship of the Royal Danish Ballet. Kistler isn’t leaving, but her flickering bourrees around the perimeter of the stage conjured the inevitable extinguishment of the candle she held and her retirement from the stage, which will come. It’s difficult not to let the real world enter this romantic narrative ballet, made in 1946 for the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. Hübbe and Kistler’s interactions had a nostalgic quality made from the building up of memories: 14 years of performing together on stage.
Ashley Bouder’s candle is in full flame. In Tarantella, which she performed along side of Gonzalo Garcia, she stole all the fire. Like a firecracker, Bouder popped up from the floor. She moved with such lightening speed I never saw the preparations for her jump. They just happened as though she pressed a button. Throughout Bouder played the coquette athlete with the full wattage of a star in ascendance. Her eyebrows rose as a teaser to the zipping off of one pirouette following another. Her devil may care confidence could be construed as over-weaning pride, but I like it. Bouder enjoys the physical command of her body much like a fighter pilot takes pride in the stealth grace of his flying machine.
 © Carol Pratt
“Balanchine’s World” opened with the choreographer’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, a ballet without any lead parts. Pauline Golbin, whose 14-year warm presence in the corps continues, reminded me that time’s passage isn’t just sad. In the presence of so many passing beauties it's poignant.
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