New York City Ballet could make hundreds of thousands of dollars by hooking up with Proctor & Gamble for a Pantene Shampoo brand that features the finale of Walpurgisnacht Ballet in a commercial. The hair, the music, the wild dancing, the purple – it all screams "buy me, buy me." Even bald guys would be lining up to buy it.
So good was the cast tonight that at the end of the ballet, members of the audience were doing their own Iggy Azalea hair flips while cheering. It wasn't just the ladies' hair — no, no, no. Adrian Danchig-Waring had some of best looking swinging locks that we've seen on a man in a long time.
Sara Mearns, Danchig-Waring, and Erica Pereira led the cast along with demi-soloists Alina Dronova and Kristen Segin, who P&G might also want for a toothpaste commercial. Twenty corps ladies joined them.
Oh, it all started safely enough with the ladies in neat ponytails, except for Sara who had her secure ballet bun which she needed in order to do a marvelous diagonal of about three different kinds of pique turns including a complete swivel with the foot to the back of the ankle. But when that Charles Francois Gounod music from Faust ramped up into full force, Satan took over everyone's hair. The ladies were flying in arabesque sautes and saute de chat. Such good fun, all of it.
Basically, the entire evening's cast was changed to the cast that should have performed on Saturday, but didn't because of this:
Sonatine received a lovely reading by Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz with pianist Cameron Grant on stage playing the music by Maurice Ravel. What is this ballet about? Who knows. Two French people kicking around with each other, answering each other's steps, allowing their romance to blossom — maybe. It doesn't matter. At times the choreography seems to be Balanchine answering Robbins, but it is all quite beautiful.
Mozartiana was the highlight of the evening with the luminous dancing of Sterling Hyltin, Daniel Ulbricht, and Anthony Huxley. When Sterling Hyltin was promoted to principal in 2007, Haglund was not yet a fan. In fact, she was very low on his list of preferred performers. But 9 years later, she is one glorious ballerina who can honestly run the rep at NYCB: from an insect in Robbins' The Cage with tentacles so real you can feel the sticky oozing out of them to a magical sylph who breaks your heart when she dies in La Sylphide to a tornadic force in Symphony in Three Movements. We cannot wait to be surprised with what she does in the Second Movement of Symphony in C shortly. Tonight her Preghiera and Theme et Variations opposite Huxley were utterly divine. The expressiveness of her arms and head, the twinkle in her eye, the smile of slight amusement, the crystal clear footwork were a sight to behold. Huxley was superb as well in his variations and partnering. This man is serious about becoming one of the greatest artists of his generation. Every appearance on stage shows growth and new understanding. He is clearly past the wiz-kid stage. Daniel Ulbricht was outstanding in the Gigue. His vitality, musicality, and consistency never let up. He's always on his A-game.
Symphony in C was okay, but it loses some of its brilliance when viewed from the orchestra level as it was tonight. This is one of those ballets, like Serenade and Concerto Barocco, that is best seen from the rings. Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia danced the First Movement. Her every movement sparkled while he had a fair debut. Gonzalo is not a pirouette specialist, and this role calls for that. His partnering was superb, however, and included a very nice save of one of Megan's pirouettes.
Teresa Reichlen and Tyler Angle delivered a flawless Second Movement. Erica Pereira and Antonio Carmena needed to strengthen their jumps for the Third Movement, but showed great vitality nonetheless. Brittany Pollack was outstanding in the Fourth Movement opposite an engaging Taylor Stanley. Brittany etched out the shapes and turns with ease and time to spare. We would love to see her take on Theme and Variations.
The HH Pump Bump Award, a stiletto of diverse creativity that maintains its fine gold structure, is bestowed upon Sterling Hyltin for her beautiful Mozartiana.