In recent years, New York City Ballet has paid a lot of attention to new voices, commissioning lesser-known choreographers and choreographers known for their work in forms other than ballet. Faithfully, at Thursday’s Spring Celebration, Little-known Canadian choreographer Alisa Pires, her first job at the company.
But the program also had its premiere by Christopher Wheeldon. This is his 22nd production with the company. Wheeldon has been involved in ballet for his 30 years, first as a dancer and then as first resident choreographer at City from 2001 to 2008. At that time he was a newcomer. Today, he is established and present throughout the world’s top ballet companies, which have expanded their territory to include Broadway.
So maybe Thursday’s show, which closed with Justin Peck’s 2017 sneaker ballet “The Times Are Racing,” had a changing-of-the-guards feel of drama old and new. Instead it was a fun evening. A masterful composition that was both easy to see and easy to get off was premiered. What surprised me was the contrast, lack of risk, and uniformity.
Wheeldon’s “From You Within Me” is number one. It is set in Arnold Schoenberg’s “Night at Night”. In this work of 1899, a stormy late-romantic wave spurred Freudian turmoil in highly dramatic dances such as Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire. To this, Wheeldon adds the mood setting of her artwork by Kylie Manning.
I have two paintings that are huge and full of life. One is a vortex of ocean blues and forest greens that translates into a translucent scrim in front of the stage, reminiscent of coastlines and turbulence, and his other background is closer to a peach and turquoise cloudscape. Thing. You can see the dance starting from the front scrim. The scrim later rises to reveal a clear stage and background. Its color changes with the lighting of Mary Louise Geiger.
Wheeldon primarily responds to whirlpools. There are so many turns in this dance! The cast begins and ends in a circular mass that rolls like a wave, with dancers gushing upwards or stretching outwards one after another. But in between, the flow of work flows one after the other, one section flowing into the next.
There are short solos and duets, some of which are of the same sex, not uncommon in modern city ballet, but absent or underemphasized in other works by Wheeldon’s company. Megan Fairchild and Indiana Woodward enter gently, and the central character, a lone wolf played by Sarah Menes, begins wearing an inky red stretch net unitard like the rest (outfitted by Manning and Mark).・Happel). ), but changes from blue to a purple version near the end.
Wheeldon shows susceptibility to Mearns, who has just returned from a six-month vacation due to depression. But he shows her poise, not her wildness. For all of its movement, the entire piece is restrained, understated, well-behaved, the music expressive, and soft-focused even after the scrims are lifted. Wheeldon gives the score a moment of transformation in the background, leaving both the dancer and us to stare in wonder. The moment resonates, but it’s like a choreographic cop.
A hint of the story in Mearns’ role — the L shape she makes in one solo is easily complemented by the shape of her partner Roman Mejia. That costume change—remains subdued and melancholy. Schoenberg churns, Manning’s brush may be rough, but Wheeldon remains smooth.
Pires’ “standard deviation” is brighter and more lively. Benefit from an exciting original score. Jacques Frere Chris Hemingway’s saxophone playing, in particular, combines boom-crash orchestration with Uzi portamenti and jazz elegance. Frères’ music gives Pires a more defined structure than Schoenberg gives Wheeldon, and she dances to showcase an impressive grasp of her architecture. A quasi-martial arts group formation, with arms behind their backs, that changes shape as the dancers pivot, peel, and cross the stage. With a line like a squeegee.
A few principals get a little extra attention, like “From You Within Me,” where Adrian Danchig-Waring and Mira Nadon are a couple, and Tiler Peck is herself. In the unitard of color, there is light above darkness, and principals are distinguished by color and cut.) But this distinction is more formal than the definition of character or the exposure of dancers. It’s one of the many tools Pires deploys to keep things interesting and moving forward.
At 32, Pires is young, but she is not new to ballet. She has worked with the National Ballet of Canada and her experience shows that. “Standard Deviation” doesn’t herald radically new voices, but it’s a work of fine craftsmanship, and it seems we’re still undecided on what to say. yeah.
“The Times Are Racing” is a work of high standard by Peck, who was involved in the selection of Pires as the company’s current resident choreographer and artistic advisor. Driven by a grimy anthemic score recorded by Dan Deacon, it features the youthful impulses and co-inventions (kaleidoscopic group patterns, bits of silent tap dancing) that launched Peck as something new ten years ago. I’m here. Many of his works torment and arrest. Humberto Leon’s streetwear outfits don’t need much to say, despite the political tagline, but it’s the most poignant of his three works on the programme.
Curiously, all three share choreographic ideas. Fountain-like masses that open Wheeldon also open pecks and appear in Pires. There are always clichés, but they emphasize commonalities and impressions of the echo chamber effect. What was fresh when Peck was new became commonplace.
