New York City Ballet always premieres one or two new works per season, and on a balmy Saturday afternoon I saw both of the spring season’s new works. Christopher Wheeldon’s From You Within Me, and Alysa Pires’ Standard Deviation had premiered days earlier.
The good news: both are accessible ballets in the neoclassical style that is typical of the company. Some of the company’s most compelling, marketable stars were featured in both works. The program appeared to draw a slightly younger, more diverse crowd than the Balanchine repertory nights. Audience response was enthusiastic.
Wheeldon’s From You Within Me was the more substantial work. It was set to Arnold Schoenberg’s well-loved tone poem Verklärte Nacht. The dramatic, Romantic music was already used by Anthony Tudor for his classic Pillar of Fire. The scrim by Kylie Manning seems to show some turbulent waves. Scenery drops by Manning go from darkness to bright sunlight (get it? The night has been transfigured).
The ballet starts with a group of fourteen dancers huddled together. They are dressed in red unitards. Their bodies undulate up and down like sea waves. Gradually, individual dancers break off. There is a pas de trois between Indiana Woodward, Roman Mejia and Megan Fairchild. A pas de deux for Peter Walker and Megan Fairchild. A long, tender, same-sex pas de deux for Peter Walker and Aaron Sanz. The central figure of the ballet, however, is Sara Mearns. Mearns’ character is a solitary creature and she demonstrates that with a contemplative solo. At the end of the ballet, the fourteen dancers are back in the huddle, but Mearns departs and walks off into the unknown. To show off her individuality, she is no longer in the red unitard but rather a purple leotard.
From You Within Me actually harkens back to Wheeldon’s early days as a choreographer. The neoclassical style, the solemn tone. In recent years, he has become more commercial. He’s choreographed big hits for Broadway and focused on expensive full-length story ballets. (ABT is set to premiere his Like Water for Chocolate next month.) Wheeldon has drawn out the best from the performers. Sara Mearns anchored the ballet with her trademark dramatic sense and authority. Indiana Woodward, Megan Fairchild and Roman Mejia all threw themselves into the dense music and steps. Best of all, Peter Walker and Aaron Sanz showed an erotic charge that I had never seen from these dancers previously. The weakness is the same as other Wheeldon. The corps simply aren’t given much of interest to do. Wheeldon focuses so much on the solos and pas de deux that the corps work was formulaic.
Alysa Pires’ Standard Deviation had the opposite problem. It is set to a jazzy commissioned score by Jack Frerer. Almost all the interest is in the corps work. The middle section of the ballet is a slow, contemplative corps dance led by David Gabriel. The formations were interesting, the steps were dreamy and languorous.
Unfortunately, her work for the soloist (Tiler Peck) and the couple (Mira Nadon and Adrian Danchig-Waring) was not nearly as inspired. Peck was given steps that were almost too Tiler Peck, if that makes sense. A lot of jumps, off-center turns and of course, fouettés! It wouldn’t be Tiler without throwing in some fouettés, right? Nadon and Danchig-Waring are dancers with so much beauty and elegance, but their pas de deux made almost no impression. It was just busy steps.
Overall, Standard Deviation comes across as having appealing fragments and sections, but the ballet does not coalesce as a whole.
The afternoon ended with Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing. This is one of the rare contemporary ballets that has enduring, widespread appeal. Dan Deacon’s loud, catchy, pulsating score and Peck’s fast, hyperkinetic, sneaker-ballet choreography capture a sort of youthful angst that works every time. Even the occasional pretentiousness (the slogans like “Act” and “Defy” printed on the back of the dancers’ jackets) is swept away by the sheer energy of the work.
The chief dancers are a more traditional romantic couple and a gender-neutral “tap couple.” In the romantic pas de deux, real-life couple Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia were sexy and thrilling. They even made the numerous repeated one-armed running handstands look more powerful than repetitive. Unfortunately, the “tap couple” of Brittany Pollack and Peter Walker paled in comparison with memories of the roles’ originators Robbie Fairchild and Justin Peck. Pollack and Walker didn’t have the requisite speed and precision. Their tapping came across as tame, the steps merely penciled in. Still, this ballet has so much momentum that it sweeps you along to the thrilling ending. The audience loved it.
It's hard to predict which new works will have staying power. I think that the Wheeldon will be revived more than the Pires, but I’d love to be proven wrong.
