Ashley Bouder and Anthony Huxley, Square Dance. Click for more photos.
New York City Ballet presented Masters at Work Friday evening: Square Dance (1957), The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1975), Le Tombeau de Couperin (1975), This Bitter Earth (2012), and The Concert (1956). Balanchine choreographed the first three works, Christopher Wheeldon the fourth, and Jerome Robbins the last piece.
Square Dance debuted in 1957 with musicians on stage with a square dance caller that called out the steps. Balanchine restaged the piece in 1976 without the caller and with the orchestra in the pit. According to the program notes: “…Balanchine joined the traditions of American folk dance with classical ballet. He felt the two types of dance, though widely different in style, had common roots and a similar regard for order.”
The piece is set to beautiful chamber music by Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi, with dancers clad in simple off-white leotards with a plain blue background. The lead couple, Ashley Bouder and Anthony Huxley, was joined by six couples. With the classical music and minimalist set design, the link to square dancing is not obvious and I would not have guessed the piece relates to square dancing without the title.
The piece is a celebration of simplicity with recurring, rudimentary steps throughout. Jumps to second position, échappé sautés, jetés for example. In some sections, the leads demonstrate simple steps, followed by the supporting cast. For example, the lead male performs a simple tendu rond de jambe à terre followed by a jump to second, pas de bourrée, followed by the supporting men. Simple steps you would see in a basic ballet class. Likewise for the women, the lead demonstrates tendus in plié followed by a pas de chat.
With a lead couple and six supporting couples, there are many variations presented in this 25-minute piece; the six couples dance together at times with and without the leads, at times men (women) dance together, with and without the lead male (female).
The solo for the male is a somber wondering adagio, with pauses in positions and extensions. Ashley and Anthony were good, with Ashley handling the tricky phrasing and quick pointe work well.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier takes place in a living room at Christmas with Nutcracker-type décor. Hans Christian Andersen’s tales inspired Balanchine and this 11-minute work tells the story of a toy soldier (Daniel Ulbricht) and his love for a paper doll (Erica Pereira). The work is set to music by Georges Bizet, the composer of the music for Balanchine’s Symphony in C.
The piece opens with Daniel with rapid, stiff, robotic, doll-like movements. He struts across the stage punctuated with nice pyrotechnics such as split jumps and double tours with one arm overhead and the other in normal second position. He finishes and salutes her.
Erica pulled off her solo with doll-like precision, blowing kisses and clapping in joy after her nicely done slow triple pirouette to soothing music. The soldier salutes, bows, and kisses her hand. They proceed to a doll pas de deux and the soldier falls in love with her; she is gleeful as she has found a new love. He presents her with a heart from his vest and they dance a rapid, frenetic section with opposing jumps and a barrel turn section by the soldier. She disappears into the fireplace with the only trace of her the heart he had presented to her. The soldier is sad, wiping away a tear as he joins his regiment and salutes.
Here is a YouTube video of Baryshnikov and Patricia McBride:
I liked Erica and Daniel’s version, particularly her pirouettes and his barrel turns. Although Daniel always does a great job in these roles, it is frustrating to see him type cast in short- guy doll/jester/Puck rolls. I would like to see him in more diverse roles and I enjoyed him in Prodigal Son last year.
Maurice Ravel composed Le Tombeau de Couperin as a commemorative suite for piano in memory of six friends who died in World War I. The unique aspect of Balanchine’s piece is that his ballet consists of corps dancers with no lead couple, all clad in minimalist black and white leotards with a plain blue backdrop. There are eight couples divided into left and right quadrilles and each quadrille forms geometric patterns as they dance in unison with the movements of the other side, according to the program notes.
It is fascinating watching the various patterns the 16 dancers make, sometimes dancing as couples and other times separated, in squares, diagonals, and circles, without the distraction of a lead couple darting in and out. The musical score is bright and cheerful, at times reminding me of Aaron Copland’s Rodeo. I had never heard of the piece before the performance; I find it a fascinating work that I would like to see again and explore the many patterns the dancers make.
Wendy Whelan and Tyler Angle, This Bitter Earth. Click for more photos.
Wendy Whelan and Tyler Angle performed Christopher Wheeldon’s pas de deux This Bitter Earth. The pas de deux is from his Five Movements, Three Repeats, originally created for Fang-Yi Sheu & Artists, a group led by former Martha Graham Dance Company star Fang-Yi Sheu that included Wendy and Tyler. The short pas de deux was beautiful and touching and the crowd gave Wendy and Tyler a standing ovation. Wendy gives her final NYCB performance October 18.
Jerome Robbins’ campy The Concert closed the program with Sterling Hyltin, Andrew Veyette, and Lydia Wellington as leads.