Estancia at New York City Ballet
October 2, 2010
Christopher Wheeldon's "Estancia" at New York City Ballet, photo by Paul Kolnik
In its four-week season at Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet has brought back several of the new ballets from its spring season, many of which included collaborations with architect Santiago Calatrava. One was Christopher Wheeldon’s Estancia, which truly shined last Saturday afternoon. It has a lot of merits on its own, but next to Balanchine’s bizarrely anti-climactic Danses Concertantes and the dated Duo Concertant, it stood out as a fresh addition to the repertoire and hopefully one that will stick around for a while.
On paper, Estancia tells an old-fashioned love story: an eager Argentine city boy – vividly portrayed by Tyler Angle – travels to an estancia (ranch), falls in love with a feisty country girl (Tiler Peck) who tames horses, and then must win her over by learning the ways of the country folk. As soon as he successfully tames one of the wild horses, she falls in love with him and they remain happily together on the ranch. Alberto Ginastera’s score – also called Estancia – was colorful but not particularly danceable, and therefore provided a challenge for Wheeldon to create a variety of sections that conveyed the story: the ensemble of country folk going about their chores, the frenetic taming of wild horses, the city boy and country girl’s exchange after he successfully tames a horse, and a rapturous finale for everyone.
Tyler Angle and Tiler Peck in "Estancia", photo by Paul Kolnik
Though Calatrava is an architect, he offered painted set designs for this ballet, all of which beautifully captured the earth tones of the Argentine pampas – deep greens and browns in the trees and dusty road, and hints of orange and yellow for the sky. The scenery shown during the overture depicted wild animals, and when brought to life by several dancers that played the roles of horses, this was what made Estancia so unique. Andrew Veyette was superb as the wild horse, as was Georgina Pazcoguin as one of the additional horses. Wheeldon gave them movement that depicted the sweeping gallops and brusque head shakes of wild horses, while the taming involved intricate movement that swiftly shifted from the ground to lifts.
Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle are two of the company’s most expressive dancers, so they were well-suited for these roles. Peck’s edginess and impatience with Angle upon first meeting him melted away in their tender pas de deux, where they both showed wonderful fluidity and ease. In the joyous finale, they once again revealed a feistier side as they joined with the country folk to tame horses. The work never ends. Though not an original story, and one that easily draws comparisons to Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, Wheeldon’s ballet is a refreshing take on a classic.
Morphoses to Adopt a Curatorial Model
February 25, 2010
Morphoses in Christopher Wheeldon’s Rhapsody Fantaisie, photo by Erin Baiano
After an announcement earlier this week about Christopher Wheeldon’s departure from Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, which he established in 2007, the company released a statement today about its plans for the future. Here is the press release:
Lourdes Lopez, co-founder and executive director of Morphoses, announces a new direction for the company following the departure of founding artistic director Christopher Wheeldon, effective February 18, 2010. The company will now be known simply as Morphoses.
“Morphoses will adopt a curatorial model in which the company will invite artists from various disciplines to take on the role of resident artist for one season, leading the company’s artistic vision for that year,” said Ms. Lopez.
The embrace of a curatorial model is a natural evolution and expansion of the company’s mission and vision. To date, more than half of the company’s repertory is comprised of works by a diverse group of emerging and well-known choreographers that include Michael Clark, William Forsythe, Tim Harbour, Adam Hougland, Lightfoot León, Edwaard Liang, Pontus Lidberg, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Liv Lorent, Emily Molnar, Alexei Ratmansky, as well as Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins; the balance of the works were created by Christopher Wheeldon.
Morphoses has become a robust platform for some of the most talented choreographers in contemporary ballet, enabling them to create work with a versatile company of dancers. Collaborators have included such artists as Los Carpinteros, Francisco Costa, Hugo Dalton, Narciso Rodriguez, Joby Talbot, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, and Martha Wainwright.
“Christopher’s artistic vision and talent has helped make Morphoses one of today’s most important dance companies,” said Ms. Lopez.
By adopting this curatorial model, the company will afford artists the opportunity to use Morphoses as a stage to forge dynamic creative partnerships that will produce innovative works for the dance world. This model will enhance the company’s capacity to reach out to a larger, broader audience and engage a younger generation. The company has begun the process of identifying the roster of resident artists for the upcoming seasons and will be announcing plans in the near future.
“In addition to its artistic achievements, Morphoses has established a successful business model and self-sustaining administrative structure that allows the company’s resources to be focused on its artistic goals, bringing forward a new generation of talent to younger audiences,” added Ms. Lopez. Since its founding, Morphoses has achieved artistic and financial success through annual seasons in New York and London, domestic and international touring, and private and institutional support.
“The company has built up a reserve of funds to support the curatorial model,” stated Catherine Gildor, a member of the board of Morphoses. “We see this as validation of the crucial role that Morphoses has taken on in the world of contemporary ballet and are therefore committed to building upon our success.”
Morphoses’ mission is to broaden the scope of classical ballet by emphasizing innovation and fostering creativity through collaboration.
Morphoses, Year Three
November 6, 2009
Morphoses in Christopher Wheeldon’s Rhapsody Fantaisie, photo by Erin Baiano
During its third season at City Center last week, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company offered six ballets over two programs, along with behind-the-scenes videos of the dancers rehearsing at Martha’s Vineyard, live music, and a pre-curtain greeting from Christopher Wheeldon himself. There always seems to be a lot of fuss (both good and bad) over this three-year-old company – the “Ballet=Sexy” motto sparked interest in its first season, high-profile costume designers and dancers got attention in 2008, and this year’s uninspiring videos received criticism for focusing on butterflies and blueberries instead of on the choreographic process – along with speculation about how Wheeldon’s choices shape The Future of Ballet. Once all of the excess is stripped away and the expectations about Wheeldon filling Balanchine’s shoes are set aside, Morphoses appears to be a struggling dance company with flawed programs and inconsistent choreography – not unlike many other contemporary ballet troupes.
Last Friday evening’s program started out strongly with Continuum (2002), part of Wheeldon’s trilogy of works set to music by Gyorgy Ligeti. Featuring four couples, a thornily intriguing piano score, upside down scissoring legs and spidery hands, the work was structurally and choreographically similar to Wheeldon’s 2001 ballet Polyphonia. The geometric partnering was set within a meditative atmosphere that felt otherworldly yet grounded.
Morphoses in Wheeldon’s Continuum, photo by Erin Baiano
Paul Lightfoot and Sol León’s Softly as I Leave You, second on the program, was an insincere, angst-filled portrayal of the end of a relationship. Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk are talented dancers, but this work, which used the unusual pairing of Bach and Arvo Pärt, mainly featured their high extensions and flexible torsos as they struggled in and around a coffin. They deserved better, and so did the audience.
Unfortunately, Wheeldon’s newest work, Rhapsody Fantaisie, was a lackluster close to the program. Set to a lush piano score by Rachmaninoff with a bizarre backdrop of windsocks by Los Carpinteros, six couples in deep red costumes swept through movement that combined ballet vocabulary with folk dance influences and imaginative lifts. But it was all a blur, rushing by so quickly with nothing and nobody catching the eye, except for the radiant Wendy Whelan in a duet with Andrew Crawford. Their pas de deux demonstrated how Wheeldon’s movement is most enlightening when it slows down and allows both the audience and dancers to pause and sink their teeth into his choreographic cornucopia.
Wheeldon recently confessed that he’s uncertain about the future of Morphoses, citing fundraising obstacles and the stress of managing a dance company while also choreographing for it. These are challenges faced by many choreographers who start their own companies, except that Wheeldon was already in the spotlight and gaining plenty of publicity when he founded Morphoses because of his time as a New York City Ballet dancer and resident choreographer. For Wheeldon to abandon Morphoses after such a short amount of time would be cowardly. There are countless other struggling companies – many of which have been around for much longer than three years – that have persisted with fewer resources and smaller budgets than that of Morphoses. The company has been extremely fortunate to have performed at Sadler’s Wells, the Vail International Dance Festival, and City Center over the past three years, and there are plans to tour to several cities internationally in 2010. Performing worldwide is impressive for such a young company, but perhaps Morphoses should focus on smaller, local projects before calling it quits so that Wheeldon can devote his energies to the choreographic process.
Symphony in Three Movements, photo by Paul Kolnik
Sunday afternoon’s program displayed disparate moods and movement, ranging from George Balanchine’s neo-classical to neo-romantic works, with a ballet by Christopher Wheeldon showing innovative choreography of this century. All four pieces featured superb partnering and a fresh beginning-of-the-season commitment from the dancers.
Symphony in Three Movements is one of Balanchine’s finest “leotard” ballets. This abstract work captures and plays with the endless complexity of Stravinsky’s driven score, so that with each viewing another astonishing nuance is detectable in the angular, jazzy movement. This time, the contrasts between piano and harp stood out, along with the way a trio of women – and later a trio of men – perform a few simple, alternating steps that each coincide with a distinct instrument. Sterling Hyltin and Daniel Ulbricht leap among the large corps of women with unstoppable power and pizzazz. With equal energy and a bit more control and precision, Savannah Lowery and Adrian Danchig-Waring are a commanding, cheery presence in the second lead couple. Although Abi Stafford’s delicate dancing lacks authority in the first section, she makes up for it in a mature, meditative pas de deux with Jared Angle. Just for a moment, rippling arms, head rolls, and fluid promenades replace the sharpness and flair of the ballet’s opening, before flexed feet and angular shapes re-enter the mix. The slower tempo and melodic flute solo allow both dancers to luxuriate in the movement.
"La Valse", photo by Paul Kolnik
Balanchine’s La Valse equals Symphony in Three Movements in its intensity, but due to its melodrama and tragic narrative set in a dimly lit ballroom, the former feels dated. Nevertheless, Ravel’s evocative, haunting score and the maddening whirl of waltzing couples among a menacing death figure are enough to transport the viewer to this mysterious, unsettling world. Janie Taylor, as the tragic girl in white, is utterly captivating as she succumbs to death’s seductive power. Rather than appearing innocent and naïve, Taylor portrays a young woman who is simultaneously terrified and fascinated by Death (an ominous Amar Ramasar) in spite of the presence of her adoring, devoted partner (Sébastien Marcovici). She is self-destructive as she determinedly dances with Death and allows him to consume her. The girl’s recklessness is reflected in Taylor’s flailing limbs and wild abandon. She is truly “dancing on the edge of a volcano”, as Ravel dramatically wrote in his notes on La Valse.
A small section of the score for Swan Lake lends itself to Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, a technically challenging duet that premiered in 1960. The music and structure of the piece could easily fit into a full-length story ballet, with the elegant partnering, bravura solos for each dancer, and a rousing finale. The music, in fact, is known as the Black Swan pas de deux, but this brief gem of a ballet benefits from no plot or long-winded court dancing. Megan Fairchild is relaxed and engaging, without being overly sweet (as she has tended to do in the past), while Joaquin De Luz is effortless in his airborne jumps. In spite of both being overzealous near the end as she dives into his arms, the dancers give a polished performance.
After the Rain, photo by Tristram Kenton
In the midst of this Balanchine-dominant program is Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain (2005). The second half of this two-part work is a duet set to Arvo Pärt’s “Spiegel im Spiegel”, originally created for Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto. It is performed often as an excerpt from the ballet, and although its otherworldliness and delicacy are exquisite on their own, the duet makes more sense when balanced by the work’s stormy first half. Under dim lighting by Mark Stanley, three women in blue-gray leotards stand perched over their partners as their legs rapidly circle the air like the hands on a clock. The six dancers work as an ensemble and in pairs to create a whirlwind of movement that compliments Pärt’s disquieting “Tabula Rasa”. Yet, some of the most intriguing moments occur when the dancers move in silence. As Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall reappear in the second half, the pace mellows and a sunnier background replaces the darkness of the first section. Whelan wears only a pink leotard and ballet slippers, with her hair loose, while Hall is bare-chested. Their intimate, sensual duet seems to occur in another stratosphere, far away from a theater filled with spectators. Both dancers are fully absorbed in each other, with Whelan’s ethereal quality and Hall’s grounded movement balancing one another. But like many of Wheeldon’s works, the man’s role here is mainly to lift and provide support for the woman. The audience sees Whelan as physical, emotional, and spiritual, while Hall is mostly just physical. A deeper development of the man’s inner qualities would surely reveal an even more breathtaking duet.
New York City Ballet’s Tribute to Nureyev
February 5, 2009
NYCB dancers in Douglas Lee’s Lifecasting, photo by Paul Kolnik
George Balanchine is a lucky man. Every year he receives a new ballet on his birthday, January 22, from New York City Ballet. This year, the company not only honored Mr. B. on its “New Combinations” program, but also launched the Rudolf Nureyev Fund for Emerging Choreographers with a matching grant from the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation. Nureyev never danced with NYCB; in fact, Balanchine told him, “You do not know how to dance the way we dance in our company.” However, Nureyev performed Balanchine works elsewhere, as the audience saw in some video clips before Tuesday evening’s performance. The program included works by choreographers from Russia, England, and France – the three countries most closely associated with Nureyev’s career.
The pas de deux from August Bournonville’s Flower Festival in Genzano was a pleasant opening to the performance. Abi Stafford and Gonzalo Garcia moved smoothly through the variations. They are both modest dancers, and their breezy movement quality lent itself well to Bournonville’s combinations of jumps and turns. The other pas de deux on the program, from Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain, was suspended between heaven and earth. To Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel for a solo piano and violin, Wendy Whelan and Sébastien Marcovici moved seamlessly and tenderly, luxuriating in each drawn-out moment. Her ethereality and his grounded quality balanced one another. Watching this heart-achingly beautiful movement made me forget that I was watching ballet in a large, indoor theater.
Balanchine’s birthday present this year was Lifecasting by Douglas Lee, a British choreographer and principal dancer with Stuttgart Ballet. After just one viewing, this ballet left me puzzled. It felt reminiscent of other angst-filled ballets with edgy movement and minimalist music (this piece was set to Steve Reich and Ryoji Ikeda), but was still intriguing and certainly deserves another viewing. A cluster of suspended stage lights and sleek, gold costumes created a desolate, eerie world controlled by the dancers. Robert Fairchild was explosive in his opening solo as he curved his spine and rapidly spun his arms, and Ashley Bouder approached every movement with ferocity. The series of duets, solos, and ensemble work never fully cohered, and sometimes there was so much occurring simultaneously that I had trouble taking it all in. This performance of Lifecasting did not particularly speak to me, but another one (or two or three) probably will.
Angelin Preljocaj’s La Stravaganza (photo at left by Paul Kolnik) had the opposite effect. It said too much too clearly, without allowing for any mystery. Yet, the concept was imaginative and the dancing was riveting. Six people dressed in modern-day clothing danced briskly to Vivaldi, but as a black curtain rose at the back of the stage to the sound of striking electronics, six dancers dressed in Renaissance attire appeared. Their stiffness and seriousness triggered curiosity from the modern-day dancers, and what began as tentative mingling developed into more ominous confrontations with violent undertones. Robert Fairchild, one of the “ancient” dancers, returned to his own world with Rachel Rutherford, a modern-day dancer. In the end, she re-entered her own world as an outsider, only observing from a distance. Preljocaj’s story of two worlds colliding is vivid and dramatic, but would have been just as effective – and more mysterious – without providing every detail.
The program closed with Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, set to Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3. This ballet is an exercise in classicism, with sparkly tutus, a court setting, and inventive choreography rooted in classical ballet technique. Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz are relaxed, effortless technicians who breezed through the trickiest pirouettes and jumps. They are also both very musical, which made their performance a joy to watch.
The three contemporary works sandwiched between two classical ballets created a diverse program. Balanchine would be proud to see such innovative choreographers – and talented dancers – at his birthday celebration.
