There is a time for dancing, and there is a time for applause. Sometimes they happen concurrently, but that isn’t ideal. George Balanchine, the founding choreographer of New York City Ballet, viewed the theater as a church. “You don’t applaud in the middle of a sermon or choral hymn,” he was quoted as saying in a book about the making of “Mozartiana,” his last major work.
That would apply to the opening of“Mozartiana,” created for the Tchaikovsky Festival in 1981. (Balanchine died two years later.) Set to Suite No. 4, Tchaikovsky’s arrangement and orchestration of several short works by Mozart, the ballet begins with a “preghiera,” or a prayer. It’s soulful, like a quietly shimmering dance hymn; the dancer even lifts her arms in prayer.
At the opening, a female principal, originally Suzanne Farrell, is surrounded by four young dancers, tiny versions of herself. The arrangement instantly settles the space. “Like picture — still, like in a church,” Balanchine said.
“Mozartiana,” which returned to City Ballet’s repertory this fall, led this season’s finest program, “Balanchine + Ratmansky,” like a ray of light. It’s a gorgeous ballet full of sadness, delicacy and vivacity. At the start of “Mozartiana,” the lead dancer rises en pointe to perform close-knitted bourrée steps. As she glides along, she seems like a vision: dancing on air.
With young students sharing the stage with professionals, “Mozartiana” also demonstrates how ballet is passed from one generation to the next, not through technology but through dedicated bodies and rigorous training. Over years dancers learn how to make the impossible not just possible but natural. Mira Nadon, in her debut as the lead, didn’t overdo it — she danced her age, her story, her “Mozartiana.”
Nadon, coached by Farrell, was remarkable. The open innocence of her preghiera was heart-stopping, and in her variations, she was both assertive and free of mannerism, quickening her footwork as the music brightened, moving her arms lushly and daringly leaning past safety whenever there was a moment of breath in a musical note. Near the beginning, she pushed a balance so far that she crumbled onto the floor and popped right up again, unfettered. It was like a cloud lifted.
Her partner, Peter Walker, redeemed himself somewhat from a rickety performance earlier in the season; in classical roles, he seems to be seeking refinement, but what could really help is more ease, more softness. In the gigue, Sebastián Villarini-Vélez was buoyant without turning the choreography into an acrobatic act; his presence was even slightly haunting, as if possessed by the spirit of a jester.
“Monumentum pro Gesualdo” and “Movements for Piano and Orchestra,” both Balanchine-Stravinsky works, gave the program a crisply cool centerpiece. On one evening, Nadon danced both with Adrian Danchig-Waring, but on another, casting was unusually split. In “Monumentum,” Miriam Miller, lovely if somewhat restrained, danced with Aarón Sanz, while in “Movements,” the pairing of Dominika Afanasenkov — transcendently switching between sharp and precise to rag-doll limp — and Davide Riccardo was full of steely grandeur.
The boisterous and touching finale, Alexei Ratmansky’s vibrant “Concerto DSCH,” set to Shostakovich, was further proof that his ballets fit City Ballet dancers like a glove. Emma Von Enck, one night, was a technical wizard — her jumps in échappé were so sharp they seemed to puncture the stage like open scissors. And in another cast, the trio of Indiana Woodward, KJ Takahashi and Victor Abreu, fantastic in an unscheduled debut, were a united front of jovial force, propelling “DSCH” into an even greater level of dance joy.
This program had much to say about the affinity between Balanchine and Ratmansky, the company’s artist in residence. Their work isn’t identical, but there is a kindred motivation behind it: finesse and attack, precision and polish, musicality and heart. They don’t just create ballets, they cast spells in dreamed-up worlds.
The fall season also celebrated Justin Peck’s 10th anniversary as the company’s resident choreographer with an “All Peck” program. With four dances and a film tribute, it was uneven and overlong, though his earlier works, “In Creases” (2012) and “Everywhere We Go” (2014) — a Sufjan Stevens commission — fared best. Both speak retrospectively of his promise and his youthful verve. They were made at a time when Peck, a former dancer, was experimenting with friends.
In a film that preceded the program, Peck talks about his aim, like Balanchine, to work at stretching his range by producing different types of ballets. But it takes more than a change of scenery or fashionable collaborator to create and sustain lasting repertoire and, increasingly, his dances borrow from one another more than they build on one another. (Peck, with his love of creating communities onstage, has always seemed to be more in conversation with Jerome Robbins than with Balanchine.)
Peck’s “Solo,” born as a digital work in 2021 during the pandemic and set to Barber’s slowly sweeping Adagio for Strings, is a dance of substance — so far — only when performed by Sara Mearns. She executes the movement calmly, without comment, and is bravely unsentimental. Without her touch, it turns into more of a dance for a competition. Naomi Corti, who made her debut in the solo, commanded the stage powerfully, but succumbed to feeling one too many feels.
And “Partita” (2022), set to Caroline Shaw, hasn’t improved with age. A sneaker ballet with a colorful set of hanging silky fabric by the sculptor Eva LeWitt, the work is more decorative than choreographically sound. In retrospect, it feels like a precursor to Peck’s Broadway show “Illinoise,” set to a Stevens album. (And that’s not a plus.)
The fall season coincided with the 90th anniversary of the company-affiliated School of American Ballet, where all but three of the company’s current roster of almost 100 dancers trained. A special program featured “Serenade” performed start to finish by students (some are now apprentices), for the first time on the City Ballet stage. To allow more students to perform, the principal parts were shared; while that interfered with the ballet’s logic and flow, the dancing was wonderful — and better than at the school’s workshop performances in June. A highlight was Kylie Vernia as one of the dancers portraying the Dark Angel: She was smooth, assertive and artlessly fresh.
Coming after City Ballet celebrated its 75th anniversary, the fall season had a back-to-basics feel, with many dancers performing roles we’ve seen them do in years past. Not having a new Swanilda in “Coppélia” was a waste — it’s not as if there weren’t options — but it did give Megan Fairchild another shot to dance the role. “Coppélia” is a romantic romp, and her humor and dancing depth remain entrancing in a role she was first thrown into as a 19-year-old in 2003. When at the fall gala Wendy Whelan, City Ballet’s associate artistic director, said City Ballet was now in the throes of “a spirit of ’76,” Fairchild came to mind. There she was all season long, leading the way with a smile.
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