Episodes, Symphony in C, Le Tombeau de Couperin, Duo Concertant

January 1999
New York, State Theatre

by Bruce Marriott

NYCB reviews Apollo Reviews Agon Reviews Concertant Reviews

Most of the major and less major companies in the world have some Balanchine and we have seen a fair smattering of his works in the UK over the years. Sometimes it has been mightily impressive and sometimes not. Of course one reads of Balanchine and hears from others that this or that could be better. Like many, I suspect, I rapidly concluded some time ago that the best way to enjoy and make informed observations about Balanchine's works was to see 'his' company - New York City Ballet (NYCB) - dance it.

This year is a good year for seeing NYCB - it's the 50th Anniversary of the company's formation and to celebrate they are dancing 100 different ballets from their repertoire. For comparison, I think this year the Royal are putting on about 29 Ballets. It's a major undertaking and the lists, mostly themed, (Balanchine, Robbins, Stravinsky, Tschaikovsky, American Music..) just make your mouth water. In next month's magazine we will be discussing more of what is on and how to get to New York to see it.

The start of 1999 featured the "Balanchine in Black and White" season - essentially a mini season of his leotard ballets and as such featuring many of his most famous works. It was an opportunity too good to miss and so we found ourselves booked into 4 consecutive nights of ballet, the first of which was on the day we flew over. Effectively we started watching NYCB for the first time after a very long day and when our body clocks were telling us it was 1 AM!

Of course cramming so much in inevitably means that things merge and blur. Some things will forever stick in our mind whereas other details on some new ballets are replaced already. It's not just ballets - there are the dancers themselves, the theatre and the whole ballet going experience that is different. Information-overload with a vengeance: we should be so lucky and what an excuse to go back. But do forgive an occasional less than perfect knowledge of everything we saw!

The dancers:
We were not entirely new to the look of the dancers: a small group of NYCB dancers visited London last summer. For various reasons (recorded at the time) a number of us felt more than a little let down by the programme, but it was obvious then that NYCB dancers are 'different'.

Seeing them en masse is quite amazing; each one seems to have been segmented in some way and every 2 inches a little sliver of extra 'body' added. The result is a long and athletic look and necks in particular are much longer, heads more erect and formal. We went to a Friends' (of NYCB) rehearsal and at the short talk beforehand NYCB dancers were likened to athletes and thoroughbred racehorses. It's a good analogy and muscles in the thighs and bums seem rather more developed than we would see in UK ballet companies (or many others for that matter). Given how they dance its amazing that they are not Mr Universes!

But I certainly went with a preconception that everybody would be thin(ish) and, ideally, tall. This is not necessarily so and it comes as a surprise to see a few 'big' girls as well - able to move like the rest it seems but definitely not so athletic in look - to my eye anyway. This was most noticeable in the corps but Darci Kistler was perhaps a bit of a surprise in the flesh - very broad. I should have realised anyway, since Darcey Bussell guested there and was very much admired.

The other noticeable thing was the relative absence of Japanese dancers in the company. Perhaps it's a function of generally going for a more muscular look or perhaps it's that the Japanese are not so appreciative of neo-classical dance. Probably a combination of the two.

The theatre and things:
NYCB's home is the New York State Theatre, part of the Lincoln Center arts' complex. It was built in the 1960's and it's quality architecture that has worn very well. There is lots and lots of circulation space for the 2,900 audience and it's easy to get drinks, coffee, ballet videos, books, whatever. The auditorium was modelled on a jewel box and there is much use of deep red and gold, with lights acting as jewels. It sounds corny but believe me it isn't. The stage is broad and deep, and as we saw on a backstage tour (thanks, Jim), there is lots of room in the wings for the dancers to limber up or whatever - the joys of a purpose-designed dance theatre.

The audience is a mixture of New York's great and good and ordinary folks. While most people in NY are nice and very welcoming, the stalls (or Orchestra as it is known there) appeared to us a pretty silly place at times. Although the seats tip, it is obviously considered de rigour not to bother getting up to let other people get to their seats easily. And just what infuriates us at Covent Garden continues in the land of the free - those who see themselves as a cut above seem to think that adjusting a toe a half inch allows sufficient room for people to get through. Plain bad manners it seems. Perhaps, though, as its not my city or country, I should not say so much until I know it better.

The performances we went to all started at 20:00 hours and the intervals, usually two, were shorter than we would expect - 15 minutes maximum I think. The result is that you have to drink quickly and many more people stay in their seats than we are used to and the night does not end too late either. It seems a business like approach to dance and perhaps less of a full-blown night out.

On programmes, it's good news, bad news. The good news is that they are free - produced by a company called Stagebill that seems to have much of the market. The bad news is that they were effectively the same programme each night and feature precious little information about the ballets being performed or the dancers in them. Instead there are a couple of generic pieces about the company, a dancer or the 50th anniversary season. I guess you get what you pay for (or don't pay for in this case).

The ballets:
The unfortunate news was that Peter Boal and Monique Meunier were both ill/injured. We saw Boal in the summer, when he danced a fine Apollo and he is clearly a mainstay in the company. Meunier has been widely talked about by many for ages and is the companys newest principal (perhaps something we will be able to say about Sarah Wildor before too long). Hopefully we will catch her another time. But companies this size - about 90 strong - inevitably have the strength-in-depth to cover such eventualities, so no need to feel too perturbed.

The hit on the first night (Tuesday 5th January) was the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with Isabelle Guerin, Wendy Whelan, Nilas Martins and Jock Soto. It's a good place to start because many of the dancers turned up more than a few times later in the week.

Guerin is guesting from Paris Opera Ballet and it was interesting to see the difference in style with Wendy Whelan. Whelan is so skinny and pared down it's scary, though one adjusts to her look and the speed she moves at. Guerin, as you expect is a bit more rounded of body (but not much - viewed against anybody but Whelan she would be declared skinny if muscular) and style; not quite so fast but they still looked good in their own ways. While NYCB has a fast and pacey look with Guerin it was possible to see that others can slot in - indeed as Darcey Bussell has in the past.

Whelan danced with Soto a lot in the week and they made a fascinating combination; she all pared down and he very chunky and looking a bit like Captain Kirk! Soto joined NYCB in 1981, but he can still move fast and is a splendid partner for Whelan and others. Guerin's partner, Nilas Martins, is Peter Martin's son - Martins being the NYCB Ballet Master in Chief (or Artistic Director as most other companies would say). Being the boss's son must make for interesting times occasionally. Again he cropped up much during the week because he was often the replacement for the injured Boal. Martins (the dancer) is tall, blond and can dance rather well - possibly with greater conviction in some things than others. Unfortunately he looks a bit vacant and detached at times though - but not the kind of 'detached but with a will' look that is the hallmark of many at NYCB.

Early on we also saw Christopher Wheeldon, recently promoted to soloist (and who gave us an interview while we were over). Wheeldon started out with the Royal Ballet and is also developing a name for himself as a choreographer in the US and on Royal Ballet Dance Bites tours. He appeared in a group of 4 (male) dancers, who were immaculately together. It was a real thrill seeing the four (in a diamond formation) all jump as one. They jumped high and their legs were all pointing backwards (sorry don't know technical terms!) in perfect unison. It was a special moment that seemed to encapsulate why we had spent such a long day to get there. But much else going on on stage was impressive even if we were pretty tired.

The last piece on the first evening (and also on our last evening) was Symphony in Three Movements. It's a relatively late piece of Balanchine's (from the 1970's) that has many roles for principals, soloists and corps members. I think Stravinsky's music is 'big' and more accessible than many others of his works used by Balanchine. The beginning and end are fast and feature a long diagonal of pony tailed girls; this was one of the few bits of raggedness we saw all the week. But I love the energetic sideways jumps that feature prominently. The second (middle) movement is a slow pdd and featured Miranda Weese and Albert Evans. They are an impressive couple, both being precise but mannered and seeming to have perhaps a bit more control than the others. But you feel that Evans could go off like a cork form a Champagne bottle at any time. The 'swimming' in this pdd brought to mind last year's Birmingham Royal Ballet choreographic evening and a piece by Olive Hindle (to Vivaldi) and featuring some slow deliberate swimming. Both were sublime.

I've left until last the pieces that pleased us least on the opening night.. and the first two pieces to be danced which was perhaps unfortunate. Monumentum Pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra appeared to be some kind of appetisers. They last but a few minutes each but on a first showing I found little to enjoy. To be honest it seemed a poor choice for the opening of the season - surely what people want is something exciting to get pulses going and make people sit-up?

On the Wednesday we got Agon, Concerto Barocco and The Four Temperaments. It was the first of two Agon's (same casts) with Whelan and Soto and Maria Kowroski and Sebastien Marcovici (both Soloists) replacing Meunier and Boal. Christopher Wheeldon was also dancing a principal level role in the piece - a real step up for him and in an important ballet like Agon. Kowroski is a tall and 'big' girl with amazing long legs. I only realised how long when she wrapped them back and around her partner and they went further around then I've ever seen before. I think she is rather taller and bigger than Darcey Bussell. Worth catching.

I don't know about others but it's always the pas de deux in Agon that I remember and which makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. If I had a pin I would hear it drop during this. Doubtless this is all because I'm a man! The alternative title for Agon is The Contest (it's what it means in Greek) and this is it. A powerful contest between Whelan and Soto and danced with a commitment I don't think I've really seen before. If nothing else is good I can go home happy I thought.

That said, Concerto Barocco brought some needed relief from the Stravinsky - too much of it can be a bit oppressive I find. The music by Bach is light and accessible and to match Balanchine has his dancers do a lovely loop movement with their feet. I've never really seen it before, and can't describe it I'm afraid. But it's a simple reminder, as we found in many of the performances, that dance movement comes in infinite variety and even the simplest movement can register and fascinate. Seeing a new company like this really brings all this home to you.

The Four Temperaments I found a bit of a disappointment on a first showing. With a theme and four variations featuring different dancers, there is apparently lots to see. My notes say things like 'semaphore and precise angularity' but little still registers other than Kowroski's long legs where I noted that her legs grow (truly!) every time they move from the vertical and do anything. Amazing dancer (or legs really).

The next night we had Apollo, Episodes and Symphony in C. The NYCB Apollo no longer has the prologue which is something I miss compared with the version the Royal Ballet has. Balanchine was forever tampering with ( sorry - adjusting!) his ballets and this being one of his oldest works (premiered in 1928 by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes) it has been through at least 3 revisions. The programme, for once, has a lovely Balanchine quote:

“I look back on Apollo as the turning point of my life. In its discipline and restraint, in its sustained oneness of tone and feeling, the score was a revelation. It seemed to tell me that I could dare not to use everything; that I, too, could eliminate.”

After seeing so many pieces featuring many sections and an apparently endless number of soloists and principals in various combinations, the focus on 4 dancers in Apollo was welcome. It's also one of my favourite pieces of Stravinsky and Balanchine... and was a sad disappointment when the NYCB 'Stars' came to the UK last summer (when the only NYCB dancer in it was Boal, good though he was). Martins replaced Boal on the night and danced with Yvonne Borree (Terpsichore), Jennie Somogyi (Polyhymnia) and Pascale van Kipnis (Calliope). Goodness knows what regular NYCB goes thought of it, but we were transfixed, particularly by van Kipnis and the level of rehearsal and polish that seems to have gone into it. Apollo though is slower and plays well (or should play well) in other companies with less athletic dancers. It belatedly occurred to me that it was not so important to see it done by NYCB. Perhaps not so important, but a joy none the less.

Episodes was to some rather quirky Anton von Webern music and was to celebrate the composer's works and something in which Martha Graham joined - the premiere was 1959. Darci Kistler and Soto seemed to lead, but Weese, Whelan and Evans were in there with some other principals as well. I think I would need to see it a few more times to make sense of it, though the pdd picked out in follow spots against an otherwise black stage registered.

After the strangeness of Webern the joy of Bizet and Symphony in C. And tutus for goodness sake as well! Damian Woetzel led off with Miranda Weese The only note I put down was 'excellent!' - I think by now I was starting to just enjoy myself rather then think about describing the nitty grity to anybody else!

The last night was Le Tombeau de Couperin, Due Concertant, Agon and Symphony in Three Movements, the latter two of which I have covered already.

Couperin is to a piece of Ravel and unusually, in this season at least, is very much a piece for the corps - certainly not principals. In all eight pairs of dancers are involved in what is basically a short sunny and uncomplicated frolic. A fun piece that lifts the spirts.

Due Concertant turned out to be the absolute hit of the trip - not something I would have expected before we went, I have to say. We helped sponsor the triple bill when Duo Concertant was taken into the RB a few years ago, danced by Viviana Durante and Bruce Sansom. It's a piece I have always enjoyed, but what Yvonne Borree and Nilas Martins served up was just stupefying. It was like watching a new ballet. After a few nights of seeing nifty footwork, the speed and attack of Borree rocked me and I could not understand why we had not seen more of her.

But Martins too was going for it and it was deeply impressive to see him as a big man get his legs around all those tiny movements - 'bouncy fast' I put. I don't think I have ever seen anything like it and it rams home why Balanchine pushed so hard for speed and attack. The only thing I could fault were the arm movements at the start. I've always loved these mirrored movements, but they somehow seemed different and less good than the ones the RB have. But overall I'll take this performance every time and it has gone into my handful of greatest performances ever seen.

That seems as good as any place to stop. If you have ever wondered about going to see NYCB you should go - it's different and it's good!

It was a lovely trip and made all the merrier by Patricia, Amy, Jim and Louis. Thanks for all your help, company and lovely things and we look forward to seeing you all again before too long.