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By Henning Rübsam
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Published on October 31, 2023
"Emeralds." Photo by Erin Baiano
Diamond Jubilee: Jewels
New York City Ballet's 75th Anniversary Season (September 19 – October 15)
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City
JEWELS
Choreography: George Balanchine
Emeralds
Music: Gabriel Fauré
Soloists (Wednesday and Friday): Ashley Bouder, *Chun Wai Chan, Ashley Laracey, *Peter Walker, *Baily Jones, *KJ Takahashi, *Alexa Maxwell
Rubies
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Piano: Stephen Gosling
Soloists (Wednesday): Tiler Peck, Roman Mejia, Emily Kikta
Soloists (Friday): Megan Fairchild, Anthony Huxley, Mira Nadon
Diamonds
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky
Soloists (Wednesday): *Unity Phelan, Joseph Gordon
Soloists (Friday): Sara Mearns, Russell Janzen
*Denotes debut
In its Diamond Jubilee year, New York City Ballet makes headlines. Musicians of the NYCB Orchestra demand a fair contract and negotiate with the company executives and administrators. To keep up appearances and needed ticket sales (that generate approximately 40% of the company’s budget), the musicians decide to play during the season and orchestrate a strike in name only.
Music roots much of the company’s choreographic work and one is likely to take the costly tradition of live accompaniment for granted. Fitting for this Diamond Jubilee, George Balanchine’s Jewels opens this particular season with a full week of performances. Music director Andrew Litton conducts every performance of this ballet, which premiered on the same stage in 1967. The three-act work pays tribute to different schools of ballet and opens with the elegiac Emeralds to music by Gabriel Fauré. In the true spirit of French romanticism, the women vanish by the end and the men are left longing. Two principal couples immerse themselves in their distinct pas de deux. An audience member behind me notes that “there is more to Ashley Bouder than there used to be,” and I contemplate and agree. While she is struggling to get back into shape (after she tore the plantar fascia in her left foot in the fall of 2021), I see commitment. Bouder, partnered by Chun Wai Chan, has to work to make it through the material, and cannot comment on her own dancing, a habit which often used to keep her outside the heart of a creation. Things just came too easy for her. Now time and weight have transformed Bouder’s efforts and shape and give her a chance to discover artistry anew. How exciting that there is more to (and not just of) her. Bouder has addressed alleged “body-shaming” by the company, and I hope that neither the company nor she herself will stand in the way of a possibly new exciting chapter in her dance career.
In a duet for Ashley Laracey and Peter Walker, their limbs briefly move in a disconnected staccato like the chimes of a clock. I wonder what would happen if Laracey thought instead of a heartbeat that gives life and generates movement to correspond with Fauré’s music.
KJ Takahashi winsomely leads Baily Jones and Alexa Maxwell in the work’s trio. He lands his jumps softly and his effortless musicality makes an argument for not abandoning this otherwise seemingly old-fashioned chestnut. Except Bouder and Laracey, all principal and soloist roles are debuts.
While the same dancers happen to perform Emeralds on both Wednesday and Friday, the other segments feature different casts. On Wednesday, Emily Kikta towers over the other dancers as the soloist in Rubies. With her syncopated footwork and high leg extensions, she teases the American jazzy undertones of Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. Kikta takes risks and eats space. This sexy siren leaves the impression that she only leaves the stage to be showered in jewels once she steps off it. Fabulous!
Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia delight in each other’s company. Litton – not having to worry about these two – gets a most powerful sound of the orchestra. Peck plays with the music. She accelerates. She takes a breath and luxuriates. She falls behind and immediately catches up. Mejia gives her ample space and is there the millisecond he needs to be. With the perfect composure made up of alertness, relaxation, and elegance, he lets her take center stage. And then he explodes and soars with his own high-flying jumps that make this Lincoln Center stage almost too small. Mejia is not a tall man, but he dances with a big heart and exceptional technique. Peck responds and matches him. The two blow the roof off the theater. The crowd goes wild.
On Friday, Mira Nadon accentuates the playfulness of the soloist choreography in a less aggressive yet equally exciting manner. Megan Fairchild, partnered by Anthony Huxley, visibly enjoys herself. I am grateful that she found freedom in expressing her excitement in the latter part of her career. Always a fine technician, she now has - for a number of years - been able to take the audience on a journey. I suggest one goes to witness her artistry in the near future, since a dance career is finite.
Russell Janzen describes this finality eloquently in a recent New York Times article.
Unfortunately, I was not able to catch his farewell on Sunday afternoon, but instead caught his second to last performance the Friday just before. He partners Sara Mearns in Diamonds. Set to music from Tschaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 in D Major, Balanchine celebrates the Russian Imperial ballet tradition with ever changing patterns around the czarina. The work’s redeeming feature is its heavenly central pas de deux. Mearns and Janzen approach each other formally in a zig-zag pattern along a diagonal. While the importance of this meeting is made clear by the approach, the partnership in this duet is celestial. The dancers hardly ever look at one another and maintain courtly composure yet the effect is one of innate trust and therefore an intimacy is inherent that is not in any way commented upon. Janzen gallantly partners Mearns, who dances expansively and generously.
On Wednesday, Joseph Gordon (who made his debut in the role alongside Mearns a few years ago ( See The Dance Enthusiast interview here) gets to dance with Unity Phelan in her debut. At first a bit timid, her confidence blossoms during the performance. Gordon’s turns and jumps in his solo sparkle with precision and possess the confidence of a czar.
