American Ballet Theatre’s change of space brings inspiration and challenges

David Hallberg, principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, entered stage right in red booties and began to jog in circles. Stella Abrera soon followed in a red jacket zipped over a flowing white dress and serenely practiced tendus and pirouettes. When Gennadi Saveliev joined her, she paused to chat for a few minutes.

The dancers from ABT are making the most of a new dance space: Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, where ABT is performing for the first time this fall. The space, usually used as a concert hall, poses many challenges to choreographers and dancers—most notably, perhaps, the lack of a curtain and stage wings—and the three choreographers reacted to the unconventional space in diverse ways.

First on the program Wednesday night was Alexei Ratmansky’s “Seven Sonatas.” While the piece lacked the expansiveness and complexity of some of Ratmansky’s other works (“On the Dnieper” and “Concerto DSCH,” for example) it nevertheless demonstrated Ratmansky’s wonderful sensitivity to music. Here, he interpreted the subtleties of Domenico Scarlatti’s piano scores.

In a playful pas de deux, Xiomara Reyes’ giddy bourrées and boundless energy recalled the flittering heartbeat of a hummingbird, and in her excitement she seemed to skim over the music. David Hallberg, on the other hand, emphasized the syncopated rhythms of the music, controlling the speed and suspension of his movements with purpose and poise.

And what the piece lacked in scope, it made up for in its few moments of brilliance. One such moment: when Stella Abrera truly looked at her partner, Gennadi Saveliev, for the first time after having danced with him for several minutes. Another high point of the evening was when five of the dancers followed the sixth, Hallberg, around the stage, mesmerized as they watched him as if caught up in his thoughts, dreamy and nostalgic.

The second act included two pieces: Aszure Barton’s “One of Three” and Fokine’s “Dying Swan.” The latter, danced by Veronika Part, was an oddly traditional choice for a program consisting of new choreography. Still, Part danced it well, if in a somewhat reserved manner. Barton’s “One of Three” was an enjoyable piece, its dancers debonair and elegant. Cory Stearns in particular was successful in conveying a certain rakish, careless charm: dressed in a black suit, his gestures were appropriately smooth and subtle. Gillian Murphy, too, succeeded in evoking a sense of understated grace and elegance.

Benjamin Millepied’s “Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once,” the last and most ambitious of the three pieces on the program, often came across as busy and overcrowded: his ensemble of 24 dancers seemed too large for the stage, and his choreography tried to meld too many distinct ideas together, from military-style marching on point to windmilling arms to acrobatic jumps and turns.

The highlight of the piece was a listless pas de deux danced by Isabella Boylston and Marcelo Gomes. In a respite from the chaos of the rest of the piece, the two danced the slow choreography intriguingly and without affect, sometimes appearing too tired to go on as they stumbled, legs wobbling beneath them. Then, in a return to the madness, the piece ended with a spotlight on a spinning dancer before the lights dimmed.