There are local dancers and balletomanes who were not yet born the last time the New York City Ballet performed in Los Angeles with a full company, so its current engagement at the Music Center has been highly anticipated to say the least. During a four-dance program, the opening night audience was treated to a marvelous demonstration of the company’s strengths—their exquisite grace and precision, even to the edge of abandon.
Arlene Croce wrote that, for her, 1989—six years after the death of George Balanchine—was “the last year of ballet, the end of the wondrously creative and progressive ballet I’d known all my life.” It was the year Lincoln Kirstein, Robert Irving, and Suzanne Farrell all retired from City Ballet, and in years that followed, the company—which “once specialized in festivals of choreography”—was reduced to “revival marathons.” If—and excepting the work of Alexei Ratmansky—ballet has perhaps not been at the leading edge of dance for quite some time, these revivals are important for the generations that followed Croce, those of us who missed City Ballet’s golden age but remain partial to this legendary troupe.
And so the company brought Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels and Jerome Robbins’s A Suite of Dances (both from 1994) to the West Coast. The Dove is an artifact of its time that has not traveled especially well, but the Robbins—a solo for a male dancer, a choreographer in conversation with himself—remains a charged and moving work. Originally created for Mikhail Baryshnikov when the dancer was 44 and no longer at his physical peak, the work tracks as a Bach meets Broadway hoofer piece, danced with humor and laid-back charm by principal Daniel Ulbricht, joined on stage by cellist Hannah Holman.
The evening’s opener, Gianna Reisen’s Signs (2022)—set to music by Philip Glass that often suggested a rag—is an unmistakable tribute to City Ballet’s cofounder Balanchine with its circling formations and paired groupings. And, in turn, an explosive finale in the form of Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing (2017) captured and expanded on the teen spirit of Robbins’s West Side Story gym dance with chaotic flair. Driven by Dan Deacon’s propulsive music from his 2012 album America and standout dance work by principals Peter Walker, Tiler Peck, and Taylor Stanley, this masterpiece both explodes and focuses the senses as it builds to an ecstatic crescendo.
New York City Ballet is here for six more performances. See info and links below for upcoming performance details.
NEW YORK CITY BALLET
Program A:
SIGNS, RED ANGELS, A SUITE OF DANCES, THE TIMES ARE RACING
Thursday and Friday, June 25 and 26, at 7:30 pm
Program B:
CONCERTO BAROCCO, ALLEGRO BRILLANTE, THIS BITTER EARTH, CONCERTO FOR TWO PIANOS
Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28, at 2 pm and 7:30 pm
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
135 North Grand Avenue, downtown Los Angeles
Arlene Croce quotations from “Writing in the Dark,” her introduction to Writing in the Dark, Dancing in the New Yorker (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2000), 9.
New York City Ballet, from top: Peter Walker (right) and company in The Times Are Racing, choreography by Justin Peck, David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, Thursday, January 25, 2024; Signs (New York City Ballet Premiere), choreography by Gianna Reisen, music by Philip Glass, costumes by Marc Happel, lighting by Mark Stanley, pianist Michael Scales, New York City Ballet Fall Fashion Gala ’24, David H. Koch Theater, Wednesday, October 9, 2024; Emilie Gerrity and Davide Riccardo in Red Angels, choreography by Ulysses Dove, David H. Koch Theater, Wednesday, May 22, 2024; Daniel Ulbricht in A Suite of Dances, cellist Ann Kim, New York City Ballet Tribute to Robbins program, David H. Koch Theater, Saturday, May 13, 2018; Taylor Stanley and Tiler Peck in The Times Are Racing, David H. Koch Theater, Thursday, January 25, 2024 (2, Peck, center left, and Stanley, center right, with company in bottom photo).
Photos by Erin Baiano, courtesy and © New York City Ballet.
