NYCB 10/7
Violins and valedictory

Saturday evening's NYCB performance which was the Farewell Performance by principal dancer Rebecca Krohn, was danced to three violin concertos. John Corigliano’s The Red Violin was the inspiration for Peter Martins’ 2006 choreography of the same name wherein both music and dance began with inventive concepts but ran out of fresh ideas midway. Alban Berg’s concerto, which Berg wrote in response to his inconsolable grief over the death of a friend’s daughter, was Jerome Robbins’ choice of music for a sorrowful, anguish-filled ballet called In Memory of… which he created two years after Balanchine’s death when the company and much of the ballet world were still paralyzed by grief. Stravinsky Violin Concerto has just about everything that one could want in a violin concerto — pointed neo-classicism, hummable adagios, pounding feisty folk rhythms that make one think of Nijinsky madly hurtling through the air. Balanchine caught the irresistible pulses of this music with his sharp-edged abstract choreography and catapulted the whole shebang into the balletic stratosphere.

Unity Phelan, who doesn’t yet possess the cool control of the original interpreter Jennie Somogy, managed a strong debut as the lead in The Red Violin, if uncertain at times while being manhandled by one or more men. Taylor Stanley maintained his knack for making Martins’ choreography appear brilliant – he has an uncanny sense of how to emphasize certain aspects of a movement to make it look bigger and more dramatic than others before him. Megan LeCrone, Zachary Catazaro, Harrison Coll, Emilie Gerrity, Joseph Gordon, and Lauren King completed the cast. Lauren, despite a slip and fall, had full command of her choreography including the fast, compact chaine turns and striking battements to the front.

It was impossible to watch Maria Kowroski dance her heart out in Robbins’ In Memory of… without realizing that there is no other dancer in the company who has as exquisite an instrument. Her limbs convey a poetry unlike anyone else’s in ballet today. Certainly there are dancers with exceptionally long, thin, wondrously curved legs in many companies around the world, but the geometries that Maria creates with her limbs and torso are so uncommonly beautiful that they make one gasp. We see her late afternoon sun becoming even more beautiful as it lowers toward the horizon. We don’t want to blink and miss even a second of it.

But the sun did finally set on a wonderful career last Saturday. Rebecca Krohn, loved by purists for her the-steps-will-show-me-the-way philosophy in performing, closed out her 18+ year stage career with perhaps her best ever performance in Stravinsky Violin Concerto. In this age of high-pitched high-volume ballerinaism, Rebecca always allowed the choreography to speak for her, not her for it. In the company where the spotlight and stardom are thrust upon talented dancers still in their teens, Rebecca’s spotlight gradually glowed brighter at a slower, steady pace. Her career was almost evenly distributed among the ranks – 7 years as a corps member, 6 as a soloist, 5-1/2 as a principal dancer.

In Saturday evening’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Rebecca demonstrated that she was indeed leaving while still in top form. Her limbs stretched easily to lengthen the line of a tendu or battement. Her arabesque seemed as flexible as it was 18 years ago. Her musical punctuation was bold and her rapport with her partner Amar Ramasar was filled with warmth. Modesty and humility marked her personal celebration at the conclusion of the performance. The admiration of her colleagues was honest and heartfelt — which may be a good description of her dancing.

We are so very happy that this beautiful dancer will continue showing her artistry to us through the up and coming dancers who she will coach and mentor as NYCB’s newest ballet master. We look forward to seeing a Dark Angel who holds her arabesque like Rebecca did, an Elegy which we recognize as having Rebecca's graceful sweep and abandon, and the black & white repertory danced with her unpretentious precision. It makes us feel good about NYCB’s future. Our HH Pump Bump Award, a Jimmy Choo diamond stiletto with a myriad of strap paths that come together to form something beautiful, is bestowed upon Rebecca Krohn.