Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild, A Place for Us. Click for more photos.
Friday’s NYCB performance featured Christopher Wheeldon’s A Place for Us with Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild. The husband and wife duo will be separated onstage for a while as Robert will star as Jerry Mulligan in An American in Paris, which has its Broadway debut March 13.
A Place for Us is a 12-minute pas de deux, which premiered in 2013, set to Interlude from Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by André Previn and Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Leonard Bernstein. A Place for Us is a spontaneous, informal, jazz infused work in the mold of Jerome Robbins’ Interplay, Dances at a Gathering (Wheeldon dedicated the work to Robbins), and Balanchine’s Duo Concertant.
Tiler and Robert dance the work with great clarity and energy, particularly in Bernstein’s more upbeat, whimsical part. Both have great technique and an effortless quality even in the most demanding steps. The Bernstein segment is quick with plenty of action in a spontaneous manner. A sample of just one minute of action: they dance together; dance apart; she watches him dance; he sits and watches her dance; they dance together; she leaves the stage; he dances; she returns in a partnering section. And that was only one minute.
The steps are generally classical, with jazz inspirations such as exaggerated arm movements and turns. The first segment, set to Previn’s work, is more somber as the two dance an introspective slow dance with a mixture of ballet and modern dance inspired steps. Musicality and timing are key as the two move to the music of clarinetist Steven Hartman and pianist Nancy McDill, who are onstage.
Tiler, clad in a light blue dress while Robert was in white with a loose fitting shirt, danced in and interacted with geometric light patterns created on the stage. I’m not sure what the patterns represented and they vanished shortly after the work began.
I enjoyed the piece, but wonder if it would work with other dancers with a less compelling bond. Tiler and Robert have great chemistry, and their upcoming onstage separation may have added to their spark Friday. Without the energy, the work would just be a collection of ballet/modern steps set to beautiful music.
I enjoyed Peter Martin’s Hallelujah Junction, unlike most of his other work. The piece is set to a score of the same name by John Adams. The music was written for two pianos and named after a small truck stop near the California-Nevada border. The work centers on delayed repetition between to the pianos, creating an effect of echoing sonorities, according to the program notes. “There is a constant shift of pulse and meter, but the main rhythms are based on the rhythms of the word ‘Hal-le-LU-jah.’” Martins originally created the work for the Royal Danish Ballet in 2001.
The piece features a lead couple, Sterling Hyltin and Chase Finlay, with Daniel Ulbricht providing occasional solo fireworks. Four couples round out the cast. The piece is set to a dark stage with two pianos to the rear off stage. The music is unique, with recurring patterns throughout. Sterling and Chase have an introspective, intricate pas de deux to the complicated score. Chase was effective in partnering Sterling, saving her on an off-kilter supported pirouette. Daniel darted in and out of the action, doing what he does best, double sauté de basques, double assembles, turns in second position alternating in turns in attitude.
I enjoyed A Place for Us and Hallelujah Junction, particularly the latter with its interesting musical patterns and want to see them again. I can’t say the same for Goldberg Variations, the third work of the evening. I have seen it three times in the past two weeks and don’t need to see it again for a few years. I find the piece dull in the second section after over an hour of slow music.