Sara Mearns and Russell Janzen. Click for more photos.
NYCB presented an all Balanchine program Saturday night with Donizetti Variations (1960), La Valse (1951), and Chaconne (1976).
Donizetti Variations is a bright, cheerful, and light piece with Ashley Bouder and Joaquin De Luz as the lead couple. Balanchine created the ballet in 1960 for Salute to Italy, a New York City Ballet program celebrating the 100th anniversary of Italy’s unification. Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) composed the music for Don Sebastian de Portugal.
Supporting Ashley and Joaquin were six female dancers and three men, all clad in Coppélia-style costumes with a bright blue background. I liked Ashley’s phrasing and precise footwork, with elongated pauses in arabesque, flowing arms, exaggerated shoulder and head movements, in synch and complementing the beautiful music. Her high pas de chats were impressive as her lead leg was head high. She was very confident and assured during this impressive performance.
The solo work for the male is more technically challenging. One tricky section consisted of four controlled pirouettes to single pirouettes in plié, all with arms in second position (to the side) with palms facing out on the singe pirouettes. Notable was the rapid speed of Joaquin’s turns. He also performed turns in second position in a similar aggressive, quick style. At the end of the piece, Joaquin performed 10 consecutive single tours, punctuated with a double tour to the knee. Like the pirouettes, he performed the tours with arms in second position. A single tour is a very basic step for male dancers, but stringing together 10 in a row ending with a double tour is challenging, particularly when a smile and pleasant facial expression is required. The male solo has a lot of beats, punctuated with double tours and Joaquin’s articulation on the beats was quite clean. I don’t know how old Joaquin is, but he is probably on the wrong side of 40. However, he demonstrated that he still has what it takes in this very impressive performance.
La Valse featured Sterling Hyltin and Jared Angle with Amar Ramasar as the Death character. In the ballet, Jared’s character is attracted to Sterling, who is seeking her true love. Ultimately, she discovers that she is drawn to the Death character. In the end, Death wraps his arms around Sterling and she collapses. It is a historically important ballet, created for Tanaquil Le Clercq; however, I find it beautiful and pretty…boring. Not one of my favorites.
Chaconne is set to beautiful music by Christoph Willibald von Gluck with a blue-sky backdrop with clouds. Leads Saturday were Sara Mearns and Russell Janzen. The piece is technically straightforward, but requires precision and phrasing to the soft music. Each step is completed with purpose in connection with the others, all with a regal, ethereal demeanor. Russell and Sara pulled it off nicely as both have the technique and gravitas to command the stage. The male solo is fairly straightforward and Russell performed it well; I look forward to seeing him in more challenging solo work. Lauren King and Antonio Carmena also had a nice pas de deux, featuring several tricky promenades.