Black & White reigns supreme

Whew, what a week of American culture on the West Side of Manhattan. New York City Ballet wrapped up its first week of the spring season – all Balanchine classics – in fine form. Haglund managed to squeeze in six of the seven performances along with a trip to the new Whitney Museum of American Art that opened over the weekend. Artist Ad Reinhardt does abstract black impressively (6th floor collection galleries) but NYCB reigns supreme in Black & White.

On Sunday afternoon, the new god in town, Adrian Danchig-Waring, danced his second Apollo with a different energy. The wildness from his debut earlier in the week was contained and it all looked a bit safe. (See, that’s the problem – if you give balletomanes something they love once, they want it every time.) Adrian’s interpretation was vivid and danced brilliantly. He looked like a god, moved like a god, and when the pictures finally come out of him standing in fifth position with his arms raised lifting the sun, truth, music, and poetry above his responsible shoulders, none will have seen a better cut set of limbs.

Ashly Isaacs has put a terrific mark on Polyhymnia in her first two performances although Sunday’s was a little less tidy when it came time for those pique turns that opened to arabesque with the finger to the lips.

Saturday evening’s Square Dance led by Ashley Bouder and Taylor Stanley was much better than Thursday evening’s performance when Taylor seemed fatigued and not quite himself. On Saturday, his metatarsals snapped nicely into their arched forms as the feet pushed off the floor. Ashley also had much more energy than in the previous performance. It is thrilling to see her dance allegro on the front edge of the musical counts, and it would be more thrilling if the corps de ballet tried to do the same thing when dancing behind her. True, it takes more energy, but, like, so what?

Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar were on fire all week. She, a dynamo ripping through Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto and Symphony in Three Movements with pluck and vivacity; he, such a master of musical articulation in Agon and Stravinsky Violin Concerto opposite Maria Kowroski and in his Phlegmatic variation in The Four Temperaments.

Watching Lauren King’s steady artistic and technical growth in her soloist roles in Agon and The Four Temperaments last week has us excited about seeing her principal debut in Symphony in Three Movements tomorrow night in the role that Erica Pereira danced so vividly and with such energy last week. Erica’s partner, Daniel Ulbricht, clearly inspires her jets to fire along with everyone else’s.

On Sunday afternoon, Sean Suozzi had to step into Symphony in Three Movements for an ailing Andrew Scordato, and it was a thrill to see him cut through the choreography sharp as a knife and confidently partner Savannah Lowery.

The Corps de Ballet ladies in Symphony danced fabulously, particularly Ashley Hod, Megan Johnson, and Olivia Boisson – all so different, and yet so seamless in their ensemble work. Ashley’s work earlier in Agon in the Gailliard and Coda with Lauren King revealed that she possesses all of the ingredients to become a new master of the black and white rep. What a set of endless and articulate limbs she has!

These Black & White Weeks of repertory serve as a refresher course in what makes this company's clock tick. It's been a thrilling  start to the season. The one who most impressed us day-in and day-out over the whole week was Amar Ramasar, whose kinetic energy is most tightly coiled in the Black & White rep and who is dancing at the top of his game right now. The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a stiletto for our time, is bestowed upon Amar: