Any Alexei Ratmansky premiere is a big dance event, as he might be the premiere choreographer of the 21st century. NYCB was fairly crowded on a Saturday afternoon despite a weirdly designed program and absolutely frigid temperatures outside (colder than Antarctica today).
Ratmansky said in an instagram post that the ballet was meant to be a commentary on the current leader of the United States. It’s a droll, pithy explanation but also a bit simplistic. The Naked King is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes and also used the score of a 1936 ballet of the same name that premiered at the Paris Opera. Serge Lifar (the original Apollo and Prodigal Son) starred as the Naked King. So as usual, Ratmansky is combining ballet history with his own personal touch.
The storyline is simple: three swindlers (David Gabriel, KJ Takahashi and Daniel Ulbricht, dressed like 80s punk rock heartthrobs) convince a vain king (Andrew Veyette in a fat suit and a Louis XIV style wig) to commission an expensive new outfit. Meanwhile, the queen (Miriam Miller) is too busy dancing the night away with her lover (Peter Walker). The King’s new suit is revealed, where a boy runs onstage and yells “the King is naked!”
Ratmansky said in an interview with the New York Times that, “It just feels like, at least in my lifetime, the world has never been in such a bad place. It feels like everything is collapsing. To make another ballet to beautiful music with beautiful movements would feel a little strange, a little forced. But this ballet, this story does not feel forced.”
Yet the curtain rises and I was surprised at how much fun this ballet was. Jean Françaix’s tuneful score sounds like the soundtrack for a 1930s screwball comedy. Santo Loquasto’s sets and costumes also look like vaudeville. Andrew Veyette is absolutely the opposite of Trump or Putin: he’s a jolly, endearing king. More a vain fool than a malignant force. Veyette does some nice pirouettes à la seconde to remind us of what a fantastic dancer he was.
Ratmansky is always great at drawing out new qualities in dancers. Miriam Miller, who is often cast as the remote goddess, is genuinely funny in her shades and huge hat. Wicked comic timing. Peter Walker, often cast as the stolid partner, is actually hilarious as her obsequious lover. The pair of them doing the Charleston is by far the highlight of the ballet. Gave a touch of Astaire and Rogers. Audiences also loved the Three Stooges, vaudeville-like trio of swindlers, who perform typical male dancer gala tricks. Daniel Ulbricht got huge applause for doing repeated frog leaps but with little kicks of the feet in between.
So this is actually a love letter to cinema, to dance, to ballet history, rather than a sharp, biting parody of today’s world. Those expecting incisive satire will be disappointed. It’s a jolly good time. And that’s perfectly fine. We all need to laugh and have fun.
The program was filled out with two gala pas de deux and Justin Peck’s Everywhere We Go. Justin Peck’s Dig the Say is basically super couple Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia being … Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia. There’s a joke about a bouncing ball, lots of fouettés and fast chaîné turns for Peck, barrel turns and saut de basques for Mejia. Fun to see once, but shallow and slick upon repeated viewings. Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth is an overwrought pas de deux set to Dinah Washington’s This Bitter Earth mashed up with Max Richter’s ubiquitous On the Nature of Daylight (now used as a tearjerker in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet). But Sara Mearns absolutely wrings every bit of pathos possible from this piece. This is a classic case of a dancer giving more to the choreography than the choreography is giving her.
Justin Peck’s Everywhere We Go is one of his more appealing works. I really enjoyed Domenika Afanasenkov and Adrian Danchig-Waring in the moody central duet. There’s a plushness to her movements that reminds me of a young Sara Mearns. Emma Von Enck also made a huge impression as a last minute substitute for Megan Fairchild. She was fast, spritely, charming, just like a young Fairchild. The piece still goes on for too long, but there are many genuinely exciting bursts of movement.
