When Balanchine was still alive and in the several years following his death, it was pretty much universally agreed that people didn’t care for most of the choreography by Peter Martins. Some were even not very nice when saying so. Imagine that.
Decades later and considering the current choreographic trends of dancers running around to hit pose after pose or do a two-count trick along with all the manipulative, pretentious PdD that has become the angst and yank of contemporary ballet, a good amount of Martins' work is looking much better and is holding up better than some of the highly-promoted new offerings.
Friday evening’s program began with Martins’ Ash, created in 1991 to a driving score of the same name by Michael Torke. Surely, the choreographer was trying to recreate some of the energy and flow that he always admired in Balanchine’s allegro masterpieces such as Allegro Brillante and Concerto Barocco, and he seems mostly to have succeeded while also developing kaleidoscopic patterns that grow and evolve in a pleasing way. There is no story, no plot, no subtext. There is nothing going on in this piece except for hard driving, turbo-dancing.
Ashly Isaacs and Taylor Stanley, who led the cast of ten dancers, began the evening a bit studiously. After exiting into the wings the first time, they returned with a fresh, high-octane vivacity which they maintained for the remainder of the ballet. Haglund isn’t going to miss any of their subsequent performances, because he knows exactly how these two push hard to make each performance greater than the last. The partnering is especially tricky for the ballerina and not the type where the partner simply manipulates her limbs around. She has to be able to find and maintain her axis and gauge where her finishing points are long before she reaches them.
The four supporting couples were all stars, but Ashley Hod and Devin Alberda caught the eye because they were so attractive together and seemed to have a rapport with a tinge of competitiveness.
Also on the program was Richard Tanner’s Sonatas and Interludes which uses the John Cage score with prepared piano on stage. The prepared piano has objects – such as bolts, screws, erasers – stuck in the strings to create the strange tonal sounds. The choreography doesn’t come close to the music in terms of complexity. It’s very surface stuff. The two dancers, Tiler Peck and Anthony Huxley, in white unitards with gold braided belts, execute it all precisely and extract the maximum effect from it, but it’s fairly shallow content when compared to the music. At times it is imitative of Balanchine's leotard ballets.
Balanchine’s Tarantella got a blistering performance from Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz. The night before, the two were cast in Theme and Variations. There was a moment about two-thirds of the way through when Megan, fresh from her lengthy Broadway stint, suddenly remembered what a killer the piece was. Those lips were pressed together fairly tightly, and she truncated a line of virtuosic turns unexpectedly. But for most of T&V, her form was magnificent, if not better than we remember it. No problems with Tarantella last night. Great dancing, rich expression, and fabulous rapport with De Luz. We’re going to cut him some slack for not being 30 years old. He’s still awesome, a crowd favorite, and rips this dance as well as anyone has ever ripped it. He ain’t saving nothing when he’s on stage.
Justin Peck’s Rodeo, Four Dance Episodes and Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue completed the bill. In Slaughter, Tyler Angle’s Hoofer revealed a lot more of himself than usual following a near complete split of his pants. He worked it into the act brilliantly – occasionally covering his crack with his hands. His tap dancing just gets better and better. Sara Mearns’ Striptease Girl had sensuality and split kicks that would get her arrested in most joints in Hell’s Kitchen.
This ballet requires chewing scenery, and the dancers never let up trying to live up to the reputation of the times. David Prottas as Morrosine who sets up an attempted hit on the Hoofer, Aaron Sanz as the gangster who sits in the 1st Ring of the audience waiting for the right time to pull the trigger, Harrison Coll as the Thug who takes a fatal hit and gets dumped but miraculously comes back to dance in the Finale of the show, the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ballet, Big Boss, cops and bartenders were all fabulous. Haglund loves this ballet almost as much as he loves Serenade.
The evening’s Pump Bump Award, a Hell’s Kitchen Special, is bestowed upon the cast of Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.