When certain dancers retire, it is sad but also clearly time. Their arabesques are lower, their backs stiffer, turns and balances are not as secure. Other dancers retire and one wonders why, as they are still in their prime artistically and technically.
I felt this way when I watched New York City Ballet’s Taylor Stanley making his debut in Melancholic in Four Temperaments. Why is he retiring? He still has so much to give. He was perfect in the Melancholic variation. The uber-flexible back, the way his arms are almost boneless in their ability to ripple along to the music, the unique musicality, the intensity, all made Balanchine’s abstract leotard masterpiece feel so fresh and immediate. It fit him like a glove. His imminent retirement is a huge loss for the company.
The performance of Four Temperaments had a freshness that has not always been present with this ballet. Maybe it’s the infusion of fresh faces? Domenika Afanasenkov and Victor Abreu were magnetic in the third theme. Afanasenkov has a plushness of movement that gave the intricate arm movements and leg kicks in this theme a sensuality. India Bradley and Eli Grushka were the opposite in the first theme: wiry and jagged.
Naomi Corti in Sanguinic also had a great debut. She’s a ballerina whose long legs slice through the air like a knife. If I have one small quibble, it’s that the gargouillades could have been more fully articulated. Last week, she was a sexy, dangerous Tall Girl in Rubies. She’s already dancing with principal authority.
The vets also gave performances that justified their longtime casting in the roles. Adrian Danchig-Waring danced his well-loved Phlegmatic, and while injuries have made him perhaps not as flexible as he once was, his musicality and dignity are still a joy to watch. Emily Kikta’s Choleric is also a well-loved portrayal. Her speed and fearless attack are hard to beat.
The evening started with La Source, one of those light, frothy Balanchine-cosplays-Petipa ballets. The Delibes score is lovely, the costumes very pink, the choreography always pleasing if not exactly as memorable as his choreography for his masterpieces.
Indiana Woodward and Anthony Huxley were the perfect dancers for La Source. Both are so light on their feet, so innocent-looking, with the kind of clean classicism that can sometimes make them look like outliers in a company full of spiky neoclassicists. Huxley is back after an ankle injury, but looked fully himself. Fast footwork, clean turns, airy jumps with absolutely silent landings.
Woodward is a very similar dancer to Huxley: clean, cheerful, bright, with pristine but unshowy technique. I love how happy she can make the most basic steps look: she has happy pas de chats, happy bourrées, happy relevés… Her happiest moment was the diagonal of entrechats in her second variation. One thing I loved was how much distance Woodward and Huxley covered in the many traveling jetés and pas de chats of their pas de deux. It was as if she was actually floating.
My favorite part of La Source is actually for the corps and the soloist (Olivia MacKinnon). The orchestra swells with Le Jardin Animé music from Le Corsaire. The ladies line up, backs to the audience, in a dreamy cambré as they bourrée backwards. It’s a breathtaking moment and a direct tribute to Petipa.
Robbins’ The Concert is a comic ballet that works best if the dancers really commit to the bit. Although Mira Nadon brought the requisite glamor to Hat Ballerina, she was more a nice girl than truly wacky. Beautiful manège around the stage in those Odette bourrées and arms though! Roman Mejia, on the other hand, embraced his inner weirdness as the Husband. He had wonderful comic timing in a role outside his usual wheelhouse of bravura roles. David Gabriel also hammed it up as the Student.
The jokes wear thin after you’ve seen the ballet a few too many times, but there are genuinely memorable moments of dancing too. The Mistake Waltz and Raindrop Prelude with the umbrellas are two such moments.
