Dancing the Night Away with Classical Ballet

Last Thursday night, the New York City Ballet celebrated Balanchine’s 105th birthday with the induction of the Rudolf Nureyev Fund for Emerging Choreographers, part of the New Combinations evening. “Lifecasting,” a world premiere by Douglas Lee, was the first work to be supported under this new patronage.

Presented at the David H. Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater), the quintuple bill combined both traditional and contemporary repertory with mixed results.

Short film clips of Nureyev started the evening, one of which presented him with Maria Tallchief, an esteemed ballerina of that era, dancing Bournonville’s “Flower Festival in Genzano” in 1962. It was wonderful to admire Nureyev’s princely grace and athletic prowess once more.

The strong opening was a very difficult act to follow, especially for young corps members attempting the very same ballet. Kathryn Morgan and Allen Peiffer danced “Flower Festival in Genzano” with a youthful lightness, but compared to Nureyev and Tallchief, the couple lacked maturity and confidence in their movements.

The two pieces that followed, “La Stravaganza” by Angelin Preljocaj and “After the Rain (Pas De Deux)” by Christopher Wheeldon, explored more contemporary incarnations of ballet. In “La Stravaganza,” two sets of three couples moved with and against one another, as if from two separate worlds. An eerie and, at times, carnal sensuality pervaded the choreography, lending a sense of dark passion to the work. Tiler Peck, the leader of one of the groups, perfectly captured this mood in her dynamic dancing. “After the Rain” explored the softer side of passion with the airy and intimate pas de deux. Dancing to the angelic music of Arvo Part with a solo violin and piano, Wendy Whelan, ably supported by Sébastien Marcovici, awed the audience once more with her sinuous beauty and ethereal presence.

The premiere of “Lifecasting” came next. Lee, an English-born principal dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet, named the work after the sculpting technique that is used to create lifelike casts of bodies. The ballet exemplified its name with its statuesque sheer-gold leotards by Ines Ades and exposed artistic lighting by Mark Stanley. An ensemble of eleven dancers filled the stage with urgent angular movements accompanied by a driving score by Ryoji Ikeda and Steve Reich. The dancers displayed great technical skill and eye-popping contortions, highlighted by Robert Fairchild’s dynamic opening solo and Kaitlyn Gilliland and Maria Kowroski’s endless extensions. However, the choreography and music never developed beyond its original theme. After thirty minutes, both felt repetitive and overdone.

Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations” was the final performance. Abi Stafford danced her ballerina role with crisp technicality and a bright smile, though I wished there had been more softness in her pas de deux with Gonzalo Garcia, who was not always the stable partner Stafford deserved. The two brought the show to a somewhat less than impressive close.