[ad_1]
Dance, perhaps more than any art, is reinvention and renewal, and the fall season of the New York City Ballet showed this inevitable generational shift particularly clearly. It can be painful. When Lauren LovetteSaluting his spectacular farewell performance on October 9, he gave a small wave to the cheering crowd and then gave a determined nod to the wings—a signal to lower the curtain—I felt a hole in my heart. He is only 29 years old; While he is not giving up dancing completely, he wants to devote himself to choreography. His final movement on stage was a deep, underground sigh.
Then came Sunday Last performance of Maria Kowroski. When I started writing about dance, she burst onto the stage and I always felt a connection; It might seem impossible for me to pursue, but then I would watch Kowroski boldly step into a main role. Rightfully so, she became a dance royal.
Other dancers have also retired this season – lead singer Lauren King, who had enjoyed watching all season along with principals Ask la Cour and Abi Stafford, danced abandoned and felt gratitude. But on the Kowroski show, he showed his unique spirit by letting us soar in the same air as his last dance.
In the spiritual opening of the “Chaconne” it was so broad, so soft that the roar that greeted it at first was replaced by an ecstatic silence. While his long limbs left lasting marks, he took the stage with his partner, Russell Janzen, who both had a gentle, smooth vision of serenity.
In “The Tenth Street Massacre,” she revealed a different side of herself, and not just because she played stripper, bent a lot, and enjoyed the stretch with jovial lust. Clearly, he was having the time of his life. With Tyler in Angle’s arms, he kicked his foot into the air and crossed the stage, the audience shouted in approval. It was wild fun and full of abandonment; Kowroski may have performed for us, but he was dancing for himself.
By the time it was all over, Lincoln Center—the plaza, the sidewalks, even a nearby subway station—was packed with people, many of them dazed and red-eyed as they hugged their schedules and tried to walk in a straight line. A cheerful trio of male dancers carefully carried the bouquets to the venue for a farewell party. A year and a half ago, such a scene seemed impossible to understand. Everything was breathtaking, but strange, a little surreal. Like the season itself.
In the midst of the pandemic, I was reunited with an old friend from the experimental performance world. The Knicks brought us together. But our shared love for basketball did not turn into ballet. He refused it. But this fall I started taking her to City Ballet performances; invested in both dancers and the choreography of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. And what was most gratifying was that, as he wrote to me in an e-mail, “despite the seeming ease and fluidity of movement, the dancers realized that their meticulousness and labor did not escape the dance. They did the dance.”
This is how the season went: diligence and effort, expression of tension and sweat. Regardless – and through a collective effort that goes far beyond the dancers – the company gave us four weeks of live performance, a chance to witness what goes beyond what people thought they could achieve.
And beyond being a simple celebration, many of the performances—even in less-than-stellar ballets—are guaranteed, lively, and in some cases enhanced.. Unity Phelan was mesmerizing, dancing so fast and powerfully that it was as if she had been reborn. The same elegance and extension was there but infused with a different sense of purpose and authority that made the most of its extreme beauty. Sometimes I thought he was holding something back; but now she dances like she wants to be seen.
mid-season, it promotion to the principal along with the enthusiastic, creative Indiana Woodward. When dancers like this are successful, you feel confident; they are what true dancers should be: individual souls, musical, able to renew old ballets.
The same was true for another promotion – from Roman Mejia to soloist. She was expressive and playful when she danced with Phelan in “Western Symphony,” which is about Balanchine’s homage to cowboys and dance hall girls; He was truly fascinating, not in the eerie, winking way he was sometimes inclined to. Later in the season, Mejia seemed on the verge of new maturity, both with her partnership and the certainty of her limiting leaps, this time opposite Tiler Peck in Robbins’ play “Other Dances.”
But there was much more to feel hopeful about: Joseph Gordonfor his ever-growing range, which gives his cowboy in “Western” a sense of jazz sophistication and pioneers the depth and mystery of Jerome Robbins’ “Opus 19/The Dreamer.” Mira Nadon and Jovani Furlan with her chic elegance are definitely ready, showing once again that “Monumentum Pro Gesualdo” and “Movements for Piano and Orchestra” can create gaps like few others in the Stravinsky-Balanchine pairing. more.
And there are always generous dancers who stand out in a crowd: Savannah Durham, Davide Riccardo, India Bradley, Emma Von Enck, Olivia Boisson, KJ Takahashi. Chun Wai Chan, who started as a soloist in August, is promising. And Gilbert Bolden III was everywhere. In Justin Peck’s “Rotunda,” a ballet as light as “Pulcinella Variations,” Bolden in partnership with Sara Mearns was a dream: full of care and dynamism. He’s a big man! To love more. His strength is one thing, but his real talent is his agility.
Is it the start of the season? Saved for the last weekend Isabella LaFreniere He delivered every bit – and more – of the promise he made in “Chaconne.” This live performance reintroduced her as an important future ballerina: Being technically strong is one thing, she is strong; Having musicality and expression is another.
LaFreniere didn’t show up unexpectedly – as a student at City Ballet’s American Ballet School, she starred in Balanchine’s “Walpurgisnacht Ballet” in their 2013 workshop performances. But since joining the company in 2014, he has been plagued with injuries. His highlights were very few. I’ll never forget the authority and speed of Dewdrop in 2016’s “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” but he had to leave the 2017 and 2018 seasons with his big breakouts like “Firebird” and “Rubies.”
I held my breath despite the confidence and grace in her dancing in all her looks this season. In “Chaconne,” performing with Adrian Danchig-Waring, LaFreniere was thoroughly experienced, but never stereotyped. He played with accents, he took risks, he did the part himself.
With abundance and sunny charm, he moved beyond his positions, reaching for the arabesques and twisting and twisting until he was excitedly off balance; Without hesitation or clumsiness, he went through difficult changes of direction. He smiled all the way. It was as if he was speaking with his shining feet: Welcome to my dance! I’ve wanted to show you this for a long time.
It was worth the wait for LaFreniere to reintegrate. Suddenly City Ballet’s prospect of the winter season doesn’t seem all that cold, does it? This and the Knicks will bring me to spring.
[ad_2]
Source link