A crime has been committed. New York City Ballet has gone full-frontal Trump with its gaudy, hideous re-design of Madame Karinska’s revered costumes for Balanchine’s Diamonds. What a way to destroy a tradition of elegance. Maybe the costume department was inspired by Trump’s decision to re-do the Kennedy Center in his own brand & image in order to put his own ugly mark and name on a treasure. So now instead of Madame Karinska’s beautiful tutus that are embellished with crystals, we have what seriously look like battery lighted baubles and coins embellished with some tulle along with circus pony headgear. The constant flashing is enough to trigger epileptic seizures. Do you want to know how to give an entire audience a headache? Put a stage full of this vulgar glitz in front of them. Even the women’s gloves, which had been white, now looked like beige bandages. WTF, NYCB?!
And the dancing wasn’t what it should have been either. This corps de ballet was woefully under-rehearsed or maybe their signals just got crossed from all the flash. For most of the season, we’ve been watching Gabriella Domini mess up counts, often when she’s in the front. Nieve Corrigan, after a long stretch of attentive musicality, was back to her disorganized solo-izing self last night. This is Balanchine’s Diamonds — where’s the respect? Why wasn’t Mary Elizabeth Sell anchoring the demis in this corps?
Mira Nadon and Peter Walker in the leads were superb in spite of the atrocious costumes. But it was hard to watch them. The flash kept obscuring Balanchine’s glorious choreography. Every time Walker turned upstage, we were blinded by the flashing across the back of his shoulders. Here were two extraordinary artists giving a very unique and particularly captivating interpretation of a masterpiece, and it was almost impossible to watch. While mesmerized by Nadon’s sparrow-like limbs and freedom of flight, we soon found ourselves deeply invested in Walker’s psyche as he pursued her. That, and the gorgeous assembly of his long legs in his double tours and his courageous manège.
Guest conductor and former NYCB Orchestra violinist Andrew Grams got it exactly right. We can trust him.
Robbin’s Dances at a Gathering received an average performance. An average performance of this ballet inevitably makes it feel ninety minutes long. The saving graces were Indiana Woodward (in pink), Olivia MacKinnon (in apricot), Anthony Huxley (in brown), and Hanna Hyunjung Kim whose hour long piano solo was as crisp and melodic as we could possibly want. Robbins famously maintained that there was no subtext to his choreography. It was simply people dancing and that whatever they made of it was what it was at the moment. These three artists possessed the imagination and quality of interiority that pulled us into their solitude. Their solos were polished as expected, and their interactions seemed genuine and spontaneous, not choreographed.
Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, from Badgley Mischka, is bestowed upon Indiana Woodward, again, who continues to deepen her artistry in ways we could not have imagined.
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