Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz, Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3. Click for more photos.
Joaquin De Luz was one of my favorite dancers at ABT and I remember his great work in Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. He was always precise and exact in his movements filled with substantial athleticism in this challenging piece. Happy to report that 12 years after leaving ABT at age 39, he still has it, giving a great performance Saturday evening.
The company performed Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 Saturday. Balanchine’s first use of music from Tschaikovsky’s third suite for orchestra was in 1947 with Theme and Variations. In 1970, Balanchine choreographed Tschaikovsky’s entire suite, incorporating Theme and Variations as the final movement with minor variations from the original.
Joaquin whipped through the difficult sections with ease: the floating sissonne step (see video link to Baryshnikov in the same role), repeating double pirouettes to a rhond de jambe, and the very challenging double tour, pirouette combination. Joaquin was controlled throughout with a nice double tour to the knee at the end of the combination.
As is frequently the case, he was partnered with Megan Fairchild, back from her stint in the Broadway production of On the Town. Nice to see her back at Koch Theatre. She gave a fine performance Saturday, although not as sharp as I have seen her previously. At times she seemed to struggle to keep up with the brisk tempo from conductor Daniel Caps.
The prelude pieces to the main event were fine. I particularly liked Daniel Ulbricht and Erica Pereira in the third section, Scherzo.
Liebeslieder Walzer was the first piece of the evening. I find it pretty…boring. I guess I’m not into German waltz ballets, regardless of how pretty they are.