Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Oct. 24--The New York City Ballet has come and gone, leaving behind memories of an army of magnificent dancers.
We were promised some of the world's best, and we got them. Thanks to Balanchine's training, Peter Martins' discipline and the company's lure as a magnet for talent, the troupe offers an onstage seminar in technique.
Every execution is graced with an astonishing follow-through. Movement that begins in the shoulder travels, almost as a visible electric charge, through the arm to the tips of the fingers and seemingly out into the air. Sure, there were ragged spots, even, I'm told, a fall at Thursday's matinee, but this was an engagement of breathtaking technical quality.
Of all her considerable performances here, Wendy Whelan delivered the most entrancing on Saturday in the excerpt from Christopher Wheeldon's "After the Rain." A study in sublime contradictions, "Rain" requires Whelan to indulge in what should be harsh, geometric and downright weird poses that uncannily morph into beauty and poignance. At times a human footstool, lifted by Sebastien Marcovici, at times a contorted figure held aloft, and always a creature with a strikingly supple back, Whelan intimates not just romance and sensuality, but frailty, a hunger to transcend ugliness and a desperate, universal longing of the soul.
Saturday also gave us "Fearful Symmetries," Martins' feverish, fast and flashy spectacle set to John Adams' music, a tad long, but marvelous and rich. It proved another fine outing for the show-stopping talents of onetime American Ballet Theatre dynamo Joaquin de Luz, and a glimpse of the flawless entrechats and legwork of Daniel Ulbricht, amid a fine cast including spellbinding Sofiane Sylve and magical Albert Evans.
Sylve, Maria Kowroski, Philip Neal and Edwaard Liang delivered a steely rendition of the late Ulysses Dove's irresistible final ballet "Red Angels." Dove clearly relished the balletic wonders the NYCB dancers afforded him, and left us a sharp, edgy, chimerical blend of ballet and modernity.
The company travels with its own orchestra, a costly but rewarding practice. Lush, sonorous music flowed from the Harris Theater pit, and, in the case of intense, animated violinist Kurt Nikkanen in "Duo Concertant," made for passionate onstage theater as well.
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
