“It was pandemonium,” Maria Tallchief wrote in her memoir about her “Firebird” debut, in 1949. “The theater had turned itself into a football stadium, and the audience was in a frenzy.”
The only thing that went wrong was that they hadn’t rehearsed the curtain calls.
Tallchief was New York City Ballet’s first star, a thrilling dancer and a part of why the company rose to become the most important in the country. This season, City Ballet paid tribute to Tallchief’s centennial with a program of ballets that George Balanchine created for her: “Scotch Symphony” (1952),“Sylvia: Pas de Deux” (1950) and “Firebird.”
Tallchief, of Osage descent, was a force, a testament to what American ballet could be. As the company’s associate artistic director, Wendy Whelan, said in a curtain speech, “Her discipline, musicality, power and integrity will forever be our north star.”
Throughout City Ballet’s winter season, there were performances that inspired real celebration, if not quite pandemonium — especially Alexei Ratmansky’s “Paquita,” a valiant experiment pairing Balanchine’s 1951 “Minkus Pas de Trois” with his own restaging of the Grand Pas Classique, the final act of “Paquita.” Ratmansky rejuvenated ballet while pushing his dancers to become better versions of themselves.
To witness each cast, especially the formidable Mira Nadon in the ballerina role, was enlightening because the dancing was so alive — a fresh take on how a ballet, even a historical one, could be progressive. The season’s other new offering, Justin Peck’s “Mystic Familiar,” was hardly that — its quest for innovation landed it in a place as earnest as its title.
I could have lived without the photographer Elizaveta Porodina’s banners and prints, presented as part of the company’s Art Series, which turn dancers into blurry, interchangeable beings. But the range and beauty of City Ballet comes from the individuals that make up its ranks, including two glamorous talents who were promoted to principal dancer this season: Miriam Miller, a towering, willowy blond; and Gilbert Bolden III, whose exceptional partnering and exuberant dancing make him indispensable. He is an artist who always gives his all.
The winter season wrapped up Sunday with “Swan Lake.” Here are some highlights.
‘Scotch Symphony’
Indiana Woodward and Jovani Furlan
Indiana Woodward, as a soft, floating sylph, and Jovani Furlan, the man she encounters in a misty Scottish forest, had a sweet lavishness in “Scotch Symphony.” Woodward, with exquisite detail and musicality, shone from her beautiful, open face to her finely etched arabesques and traveling bourrées, in which she drifted across the floor untethered by gravity.
‘Concerto Barocco’
Mira Nadon and Miriam Miller
The pairing of Mira Nadon and Miriam Miller in Balanchine’s 1941 classic set to Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D minor — the lead women, in a display of vivid syncopation, illustrate the violins — was a ray of sunshine. The two dancers, with Miller making her debut, performed with shining ebullience. The smiles! The camaraderie! As dancers in the corps de ballet, Miller and Nadon always performed with a joyful warmth; here, together, they turned the heat on high.
‘Sylvia: Pas de Deux’
Megan Fairchild and Joseph Gordon
This Balanchine gem, in the classical structure of a grand pas de deux, is 12 minutes of dazzling virtuosity made all the more piquant by the clean, effortless dancing of Megan Fairchild and Joseph Gordon. Fairchild, 40, who sometimes feels like City Ballet’s gracious, unofficial host, has announced her plans to retire in 2026, which makes her performances — including her eloquent “Divertimento No. 15” — treasured occasions.
THE STANDOUT
Mira Nadon
This young principal dancer exists in a category all her own. In “Concerto Barocco,” her sleek footwork mirrored the notes of the violin. In her star turn in “Paquita,” above, dancing with Joseph Gordon, she imbued the ballerina role with sophistication along with a sassy sort of swing. And in her “Swan Lake” debut, Nadon’s rich dancing was full of details and imaginative nuance; straightening her arms overhead like raised wings, she seemed to grow taller. Falling backward into the arms of Peter Walker, her distinguished Prince Siegfried (so improved in his partnering), she seemed weightless, as if she were suspended, for a fearless moment, in the air. Never static, Nadon possessed a wildness, too — a mix of the seductive and the serious that made every moment gripping and new.
THE NEXT WAVE
Dancers to Watch
The pleasure of City Ballet comes not just from the principals, but also from soloists and members of the corps de ballet who are always being tested. This season, there were many memorable standouts, including the lovely star-in-the-making Dominika Afanasenkov in “Paquita” and the Pas de Trois in “Swan Lake,” which also featured Allegra Inch, with her sparkling jump; Alexa Maxwell’s exacting and eerie rendition of the Novice in Jerome Robbins’s “The Cage”; Charlie Klesa and Andres Zuniga, green yet striving to meet the challenges of Balanchine’s “Divertimento No. 15”; Rommie Tomasini, debuting in the role of the small Scottish dancer in “Scotch Symphony” with pert sweetness; and the heaven-sent David Gabriel, whose detail and spirit in Balanchine’s “Minkus Pas de Trois” as part of “Paquita” were tremendous.
‘SWAN LAKE’
Debuts and a Radiant Veteran
Peter Martins’s “Swan Lake” never completely flies — the garish, squiggly sets and costumes are an eyesore — but there is more dancing than milling around (as you see in some productions), and that’s a good thing. And this year, there were five casts and an array of debuts to soak up, an experience that always feels like the thrill of the unknown. Of the Odette-Odiles, Nadon was like watching a dream, while Unity Phelan, so luxurious in “Paquita” earlier in the season, seemed harried and rushed. Tiler Peck, dancing with Roman Mejia in a stylishly understated debut, was less enthralling as Odette than as Odile. Miriam Miller and Chun Wai Chan — both new in this production — had breathtaking moments and room to grow. And then there was Sara Mearns, a veteran Odette-Odile, whose rendition was so fragile, so heart-rending, and was tinged with maturity and melancholy that my breath was caught for days. She was unforgettable.
A Farewell
Ashley Bouder
Ashley Bouder, a crisp, virtuoso dancer of daring and taste who spent 25 years at City Ballet, retired after a final, startling performance of “Firebird,” a ballet she was thrown into with little notice at 17. Vivacious and all the more splendid for it, she has never been the kind of dancer to take things slowly, but in this last “Firebird” Bouder fixated on the details with a quiet focus that honored Balanchine and his choreography — in a way, more than herself. During her final, heartbreaking exit, Bouder, arched in a backbend with her gaze tilted up and with a spellbinding pause, she accomplished the unimaginable: She stopped time.
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