NYCB|Kammermusik-Le Tombeau du Couperin-Antique Epigraphs-Raymonda

Review by Celia Ipiotis

Sleek and potent, George Balanchine’s 1978 neoclassical Kammermusik, No. 2 to music by Paul Hindeminth, streaks across the David H. Koch stage. Charged with the Principal roles, Emilie Gerrity, Mira Nadon, Chun Wai Chan and Ryan Tomash snap their bodies into swift footwork and directional changes. Dancing against a male corps, Gerrity and Nadon spring to attention at the start dancing in canon with each other. A little bumpy at first, they both settle into the mirrored movements executed one beat apart. Rather than employ the usual ballet vocabulary, Balanchine has the women flex their feet when raising their legs, walking in a humorous flexed-foot fashion or standing, parallel legs in front of men with arms folded chest high.

Some of the steps are just wild — men in a lunge, arms fluttering vertically up and down, angular legs, or spinning on heels –toes up. Nodding to American modern dance, the driving pulse of Kammermusik No. 2 registers most vividly in the male corps and the female duet.

A fun ditty, Le Tombeau de Couperin brings bright, Baroque dance forms to a piece scored by Maurice Ravel. Choreographed by Balanchine in 1975, Le Tombeau is a large ensemble piece that offers soloists and corps members an opportunity to shine. Set to lilting music, dancers join in partner dancing, duck under raised arms, swinging each oterh around by the waist, into sections where legs flipp back like poinies friskily playing in a field.

Jerome Robbins’ Antique Epigraphs choreographed in 1984 to Claude Debussy nods to the ancient Greek statues and friezes of graceful women in flowing tunics. An ensemble of eight ballerinas flow in seamless motion wearing gauzy, earthen colored tunics. At times the dancers fashion a two-dimensional frieze and simple, stately walking, tied to long, light  arabesques and  attitudes tied by stillness. Mira Nadon, Isabella LaFreniere, Naomi Corti, Miriam Miller wistfully helm the ballet.

The grand scale Raymonda Variations closed the evening. An early ballet created by Balanchine in 1961 and danced to Glazounov, it is steeped in the 19th century classical ballet idiom, demanding technical proficiency and charm. Led by Megan Fairchild (in her penultimate season) and Anthony Huxley, the pair execute the grand style with witty asides and lustrous technical aplomb. When not dancing together, Fairchild and Huxley taunt each other in a ballet battle. It inspires Huxley’s sprightly leg beats and traveling leaps to Fairchilds locked balances and turns unspooling like streams of sunlight.

Each soloist– Grace Scheffel, Mia Williams, Meaghan Dutton-O’Hara, M.T. MacKinnon, Kloe Walker — deals with tricky pointwork and musical nuances. Altogether, the pastel colored, tutu ballet lifted the chill, wintry spirits of the audience.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis