NYCB’s second Contemporary Choreography program was just as much of a hodge-podge as the first program. Four ballets with little to thread the needle except they’re all fairly new.
Have you ever watched a ballet and thought “great ideas, horrible execution”? That was what I felt when watching Pam Tanowitz’s Law of Mosaics. Tanowitz is a choreographer of obvious intelligence. She weaves together Merce Cunningham-like movements and randomized structure with contemporary ballet. She usually chooses cerebral music that adds to the “brain over heart” vibe of her ballets. She deploys dancers with some skill.
And yet her ballets are, in my experience, excruciating to actually watch. The chief flaw is that her ballets always go on for 15 minutes too long. Law of Mosaics started promisingly. It had an interesting mix of modern dance and contemporary choreography. The screechy Ted Hearne music mixed dissonant chords with baroque melodies. Miriam Miller had a spellbinding solo completely without music. Miller used her pointe shoes tapping on the stage floor to create sound. It was like Jerome Robbins’ Moves.
A duet for Gilbert Bolden and Sara Mearns that could have been done by Merce Cunningham himself. There was maybe Cunningham’s most famous move: the leg outstretched forward while on demi-pointe, as well as those famous “duck” jumps where one leg folds inwards. Gilbert Bolden himself looked like a Cunningham dancer. Tall and rangy, with a bold jump.
But Law of Mosaics went on. And on. In total it is over 40 minutes. By the final solo for Sara Mearns (with the violin score being extra screechy and dissonant) I was more than ready for the ballet to be over. Part of being a good choreographer is knowing when you’ve stayed too long at the party, and Tanowitz consistently fails in this regard.
I heard an audience member say after Law of Mosaics that they hoped the rest of the program was more appealing. It was. After intermission we got two miniature gems. Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth is a short pas de deux set to Dinah Washington’s immortal song. The music does most of the legwork in this piece. But the pas de deux is appropriately romantic. Unity Phelan and Andrew Veyette were lovely.
William Forsythe’s Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux has an element of playful competition to it. Anything you (the ballerina) can do, I (the danseur) can do better, and vice versa. Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia were delightfully showy. Dancers always say on Instagram that they “had a blast” dancing a ballet. But in this case, it actually looked true.
Kyle Abraham’s Love Letter (on shuffle) closed the program, and it might be my favorite post-pandemic new ballet.
Abraham is a very musical choreographer. You “see the music” (a collection of James Blake songs) through his movements, especially the solos he created for Taylor Stanley. Stanley is astonishing. Their two solos and final duet look so organic, so united with the choreography, that it’s hard to believe Stanley did not originate the role.
The curtain rises on Stanley and the song is Radio Silence. But Stanley’s body is anything but silent. Stanley’s limbs seem boneless, their extensions and muscle control endless. Their entire body sings. What I love about Love Letter (on shuffle) is how much it embraces Stanley’s identity as a non-binary dancer. The duet with Jules Mabie (set to the haunting Love Me in Whatever Way) is a male-male pas de deux that is not afraid to be erotic. When they link arms in silhouette at the end, it’s a genuinely moving moment.
Love Letter (on shuffle) is not just devoted to Stanley’s talents. There’s fun, bravura roles for a short couple (Quinn Starner and KJ Takahashi), and a moodier duet for the statuesque Emily Kikta and Peter Walker. The ballet ends with the company seeing Stanley and Mabie off as a couple (to Blake’s Atmosphere). They believe in love.
When I left the theater I put on my other favorite Taylor: Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poet Department on spotify. I skipped ahead to Track 5: So Long, London. And I realized that Love Letter (on shuffle) is like a Taylor Swift Track 5. Full of romance and longing and it makes its emotional impact every time.
