The fall season at New York City Ballet was not always a triumph of programming, but it was a triumph of dancing. And by dancers who are currently fighting for better pay. (They boycotted the red carpet and dinner at the company’s recent fall fashion gala because of it.)
I missed the “Eclectic” program, though miss may not be the right word. It didn’t seem super strong on paper and included no ballets by George Balanchine, the company’s founding choreographer. It’s not really a post-Balanchine world when his ballets are still more innovative than most of the new ones kicking around today.
As for the dancing, the season was partly a celebration of Megan Fairchild, the longtime principal who is retiring in the spring. She bid farewell to Balanchine’s challenging “Theme and Variations,” dancing with the boundless energy and fluent feet of her early days. In a curtain call after her final “Theme,” she flung her arms into the air as if she had just won a gold medal at the Olympics.
Fall also featured the debut of Ryan Tomash, a principal at the Royal Danish Ballet, now on leave, who joined City Ballet as a soloist. He’s the whole package. Tall, he’s an effortless partner to tall women like Isabella LaFreniere and Miriam Miller, as well as a dancer alive to the fun or poetry of a role, as was apparent even in just a few sightings.
Last week, six new soloists were announced: Victor Abreu, Dominika Afanasenkov, India Bradley, Naomi Corti, Mary Thomas MacKinnon and Andres Zuniga. They’re all worthy, and Bradley made history as the company’s first Black female soloist. That is a win.
There were talented dancers before her who should have been promoted, starting with Debra Austin, the first Black woman to join City Ballet, who eventually became a principal at Pennsylvania Ballet. But Bradley is deserving, and she’s not alone. The makeup of the company is finally starting to reflect New York City.
And the company abounds with talent. When the eye keeps being drawn to the same dancer, that’s a sign, and this fall those signs were like billboards for standouts like Olivia Bell, Owen Flacke, Kennard Henson, Allegra Inch, Ava Sautter, Charlie Klesa, Grace Scheffel, Mckenzie Bernardino Soares and Mia Williams.
Below are highlights from the fall season.
Best program: All Balanchine II
Programming by a single composer or aesthetic theme has become a bore, a drain of sameness. But the lineup of “Square Dance,” “Episodes” and “Western Symphony” — three Balanchine classics with different looks and sounds — offered a fulfilling mix of music and mood. The range was the draw, going from the brisk, vibrant “Square Dance,” set to Corelli and Vivaldi, to the austere, frigid-cold world of “Episodes,” set to Anton von Webern, and then landing in “Western Symphony,” a slice of cowboy heaven.
With Karinska’s costumes — the details, the colors — and music by Hershy Kay, “Western” was a joy bomb. There were debuts. In the Allegro, Alexa Maxwell danced with sparkling glee alongside a vigilant Alec Knight. The Adagio featured Olivia MacKinnon, performing with more daring than usual opposite Victor Abreu, who dances big and with such good taste — even as a cowboy. And in the Rondo, LaFreniere, with an insouciance somehow elegant and loose, came to life with Tomash, who was wild yet classical. They were in it from the start, willing us to have more fun than they were having. It might have been a tie.
Romance, Mystery, Bravura: ‘Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3’
Balanchine choreographed “Theme and Variations,” the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3, in 1947. In 1970, he choreographed the rest of this Suite — three sections that take place in a dreamy ballroom. In the opening “Élégie,” Miller, dancing with Tomash, was almost unreal as she stretched her body to soak in every last note and lingered on the edges of movement that revealed the risk in her lyricism, the romance of dancing without boundaries.
In “Valse Mélancolique,” the second section, Emilie Gerrity, sumptuous, and Preston Chamblee, increasingly commanding as a presence and partner, danced with spaciousness and mysterious heart.
And in her “Theme and Variations “ debut, Indiana Woodward, opposite Joseph Gordon, was all glittering warmth. The tempo was breakneck, yet she brought her finesse and ebullience to the part, as well as her shining eyes, which are both welcoming and vulnerable as they show a touch of surprise at how Balanchine’s choreography lights up her body.
Two Sides of Bach: ‘The Goldberg Variations’
Sigh, programming. Pairing this Jerome Robbins ballet, which lasts nearly 90 minutes, with the already substantial “Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3” wasn’t the best idea. “Goldberg” is a stand-alone ballet, a two-part dance experience that washes across the stage with a subtle power. Are there sections that drone on? Sure. But by the end, it’s transporting, sometimes gloriously so.
It opens with a couple, wearing Baroque costumes, dancing to the music’s theme, before a youthful cast, in sleek modern dance wear, perform variations, some playful, some pensive. In Part One, David Gabriel displayed his usual classical radiance but also showed a kind of playful confidence that has been brewing all season. Ashley Hod and Emma Von Enck paired up for a duet in which they partnered each other with tender clarity. Holding hands — as one faces front and the other the back — they plié and rise while casually bumping hips.
The second half has a more classical, formal atmosphere with a new set of dancers in tutus and jackets. Over the course of three nights, it was rich with pairings, including Afanasenkov and Peter Walker; LaFreniere and Tyler Angle; and Tiler Peck and Chun Wai Chan. There was ease in the way they danced with the music instead of to it, which allowed the choreography to unfold with an unfussy naturalism.
A New Calling: ‘Voices’
The season needed more Alexei Ratmansky. “Voices” (2020), in which five women dance to selections from Peter Ablinger’s “Voices and Piano,” returned to the repertory. The voices are the recorded speeches of luminaries — many of them artists. Dancing to the voice of the jazz musician and D.J. Bonnie Barnett, Emily Kikta was a force, harnessing her strength with bursts of wild intelligence.
In another section, Nina Simone speaks about freedom. Corti, a newly appointed soloist, danced this section with bracing clarity, but the ballet took on a more yearning quality this time around. Now with rights increasingly under threat, the tone of the solos in “Voices” has changed — they seem more determined, more resolute.
In the final group section, near the end, we hear the voice of the painter Agnes Martin, who says, “You’re not a mystic when you respond to beauty.” Those words are a reminder that the beauty of ballet is a spiritual sensation as much as a visual one. It expands beyond the surface. And it is for everyone.
Gia Kourlas is the dance critic for The Times. She writes reviews, essays and feature articles and works on a range of stories.
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