Tag: Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet

Posted on

YVONNE BORREE’S FAREWELL PERFORMANCE

 

On Sunday afternoon, principal ballerina Yvonne Borree gave her farewell performance at New York City Ballet. I always find farewell performances so sad, especially for the ballerinas, for some reason. And Yvonne just doesn’t seem old enough to retire! At all.

Anyway, it was a really lovely program and she looked beautiful. She danced the third, “Andante,”  movement in Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. She was partnered by Benjamin Millepied, a very good partner for her, as she looks very comfortable dancing with him, and when they first took the stage, the audience really went wild with applause — and really wouldn’t let up! That’s uncommon for NYCB fans – even with a farewell performance; they usually save their applause until the very end. And the applause wasn’t just clapping; people were really whooting and screaming and calling out “Yvonne, Yvonne!” I think I am not the only one who will miss her. At the end of each section, she got more applause and at the end of Brahms, she and Millepied got three curtain calls. She deserved it. And he did too — I think Natalie Portman is giving him some acting lessons because he’s really doing much better, not just dancing (he’s always been a good dancer) but really projecting as well.

Then came Wheeldon’s new Estancia, which grew on me. I think the dancers found the humor in it — or maybe they did before and I was paying too much attention to the choreography to notice, but it seemed they really vamped it up, with Tyler Angle failing hilariously miserably at taming Andrew Veyette’s “horse,” letting Veyette get away after Tiler Peck roped him all up nicely, then Tyler being felled and rolling around the floor, nearly sweeping Tiler off her feet (in a bad way). It was really cute. And the dancing is really marvelous.

Then, the performance ended with Yvonne doing a pas de deux with Jared Angle — another good partner for her (for everyone really) – Balanchine’s Duo Concertant, which I love.

 

I love how the couple interacts with the onstage violinist and pianist, with the music, and with each other, and yet it is at times a very abstract ballet with lots of angular shapes. And the end is gorgeous but bittersweet, as the stage darkens and the spotlight begins to highlight only her, her head, then various parts of her body, ending with her arm, in the air, reaching upward and outward. It almost made me cry.

And of course the applause went on and on, and all of her partners (besides Nikolaj Hubbe unfortunately) came out onstage to give her a bouquet. Damian Woetzel and Peter Boal got the most whoots.

I’ve only been coming to New York City Ballet regularly for about the past three or four years and I feel I didn’t get to see enough of her. My favorite performances of hers are the delicate, ethereal sleepwalker in Balanchine’s La Sonnambula, which I think she danced with Sebastien Marcovici, and in that ballroom-esque ballet with the art deco mirror of Peter Martins that I love but no one shares my feelings about … 🙁 Can’t think of what it’s called right now but she was always Nilas Martins’s partner. I loved it. And now, my other favorite of hers is Duo Concertant, which I’d never seen her dance before.

Apparently, she’ll still be around. According to Oberon, she’ll stay at NYCB’s School of American Ballet and teach.

Photos by Paul Kolnik.

Posted on

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON’S ESTANCIA

 

Last Saturday night was the premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s new ballet, Estancia, at New York City Ballet. Everyone in the audience seemed to go wild over it. When it ended, I overheard people saying they didn’t want it to end, and others saying they thought it was his best work, and in the lobby, several of my friends said they really liked it. I thought it was so so. And definitely a departure from Wheeldon’s usual.

Estancia is a story ballet, set to to music by Alberto Ginastera, that takes place on a ranch (Estancia is Spanish for ranch) in the Argentine Pampas (countryside). A young city man (Tyler Angle) is smitten with country life, and a girl he meets there (Tiler Peck), particularly after he watches her tame a horse (Andrew Veyette). The ballet is his attempt to woo her, and of course at the start she wants nothing to do with him and his annoying urbanity (he wears a suit throughout), but eventually she overcomes her prejudices and lets herself fall for him. He ends up proving his adroitness at being a rancher by taming another horse (Georgina Pazcoguin).

The dancing was all very good — Pazcoguin and Veyette were wonderful as the wild horses, and the T(i)ylers were perfect for these roles. Tyler Angle is always so good at those deep longing romantic lunges toward his partner. For the most part, though, the choreography was a bit blah, I thought. Except for some interesting backwards walks, that looked at bit like moonwalks, performed by the “horses,” the choreography seemed like nothing I hadn’t seen before, which is unusual for Wheeldon. The romantic pas de deux  between the leads were pretty but the lifts were rather basic.

The Ginastera score was originally commissioned in 1941 by Lincoln Kirstein for a ballet to be made by Balanchine to be shown when Kirstein’s American Ballet Caravan toured Buenos Aires. But the Caravan disbanded and the ballet was never made. I feel like Wheeldon, or someone at NYCB, felt the need for closure on the project. It had the feel of something out of a bygone era, particularly with the horses – you really don’t see dancers galloping around stage these days in horse costumes. But it doesn’t seem as corny if you think back to Firebird, for example, with all the forest creatures.

The sets were designed by architect Santiago Calatrava (and NYCB is showing a short film about his work and his collaboration with the choreographers every time his sets are used this season). They consisted of water-color-looking paintings displayed on the back wall, one of a countryside, another more abstract one of horses (I think – because of the storyline, but maybe they were bulls … they seemed to have horns).  Anyway, all in all, it was a fine ballet but didn’t blow me away like it did many others.

Two other ballets were performed, both by Balanchine — Danses Concertantes, with my favorite, Gonzalo Garcia and Sterling Hyltin in the leads, and Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet in which Yvonne Borree danced particularly well partnered by Benjamin Millepied. It’s going to be sad to see her retire this Sunday afternoon.

Above photo by Paul Kolnik.

Posted on

New York City Ballet: Robbins, Chiaroscuro, and Sebastien Marcovici

 

Methinks with Seth and Nikolaj now gone, Sebastien Marcovici has kind of taken over as NYCB’s hunky male dancer. He shone in two of my favorite ballets from the past week anyway.

 

 

I went to City Ballet’s all Jerome Robbins program mid-week and today’s “Four Voices” — featuring ballets by four different choreographers (Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Peter Martins, Alexei Ratmansky, and Balanchine).

Both programs were excellent. My favorite ballet from today was Chiaroscuro by Taylor-Corbett, whom I’d never heard of before but whom I now won’t be forgetting.

Continue reading “New York City Ballet: Robbins, Chiaroscuro, and Sebastien Marcovici”