New York City Ballet: An all-Robbins program with Glass Pieces, The Cage, Other Dances and The Concert

(The opening part of Jerome Robbins' Glass Pieces. Photo by Paul Kolnik.)

Thurs, June 11 - New York City Ballet performed an evening of all Jerome Robbins ballets tonight, and it was my first time seeing all four of these works (though I have read much about them over time). It was a very well-balanced program, really interesting to watch, and with very good dancing all the way through as well.

Glass Pieces was first on the program, and it was my favorite work of the night. It was the only piece that was purely dance (the others had narrative elements, or was just a short pas de deux), and it was consistently surprising in its choice of movement and its use of the ensemble. The music was several compositions by Philip Glass, two sections from his 1981 Glassworks and some excerpts from his 1983 opera Akhnaten, creating a kind of space-age soundscape for the work. There are three parts to the work: the first has dancers wearing practice ballet clothes, and they simply walk across the stage, first one at a time, then suddenly all of them at once, criss-crossing around each other like the crowds in Grand Central Terminal's grand concourse. They are interrupted at various points by three different couples in shiny leotards, who perform brief balletic duets. The second part is quieter, danced against a glowing blue grid background – it is mainly a slow, leggy pas de deux for a central couple, who were Maria Kowroski and Philip Neal, giving fantastic performances tonight. Through this female corps, lit only in silhouette, slowly steps across the stage in a line, behind the pas de deux.

The most exhilarating part of the ballet is the third part, for the corps de ballet. Using percussive, highly charged music, the company basically runs through the last movement, constantly dashing from grouping to grouping as the music builds and builds. The section starts with the men in unison, jumping and turning, before the girls join and the ballet erupts in ecstatic movement. It was exciting to watch.

The Cage is fantastically odd ballet about a man-hating group of what appear to be alien, arachnid women. The stage design is dominated by a web of strings hanging above a dark stage, and the women are in yellow unitards accented by squiggly lines, their hair tussled and disheveled above their heads, and their faces aggressively made up with black eye make-up. The dancing in the ensembles is angular and jagged, matching the strings in Igor Stravinsky's score.

When a male dancer wanders onto the stage, the women attack, climbing onto him, twisting him into submission and ultimately killing him. We also see the tribe initiating the newest girl into their clan, but she clearly hasn't learned their ways when she finds herself attracted to another man that has wandered into their midst. They share a tentative, yet passionate pas de deux before they are discovered and the queen orders his death as well.

Janie Taylor was the novice and Sebastien Marcovici was the man in the pas de deux, and their performances looked really good tonight. Robbins' choreography here is inventive and dramatically interesting as well. Teresa Reichlin was a domineering Queen, a role that played well to her naturally leggy appearance and striking blond hair.

Other Dances was originally created as an occasion piece for Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, two mega-star dancers, and it is a short set of variations and a pas de deux set to Chopin pieces played by an on-stage solo piano. Presented here on a regular repertory program, I don't think it has quite the same level of excitement or interest to the choreography itself, however it did provide a nice vehicle for Ashley Bouder and Joaquin De Luz to show off. For whatever reason, Bouder hasn't been on stage much this spring season, after her very good Theme and Variations in February. De Luz is just a delight to watch in most of the things he dances, and he was an applause trap here with athletic, virtuosic dancing in his solo variations. Bouder was equally wonderful to see, with moments of speed poking out from the prettiness of the female choreography. Ultimately I thought the ballet itself a bit too slight for my taste, especially considering the other works on tonight's program.

Robbins' comic ballet The Concert closed the program, and it was a lot of silly fun. Robbins is a master at creating characters on stage just through their movements and movement quirks, and here he creates a charming bunch of earnest, individually odd characters who are gathering to hear a piano concert. As they arrive one by one and set up their folding chairs near the on stage piano (played by a pianist who is just as much a part of the action with her haughty, diva persona), they single themselves out as a girl who loves the music so much that she must physically sway with it, a rich husband-wife couple who hate each other, a nerd, a grouchy "serious" listener who demands that everyone stay quiet, the list goes on. And so do the antics, as the characters variously chase each other around the stage or meet for silly rendezvous.

The most sustained period of dancing comes with a mismatched group of eight girls who dance a ballet-school type ballet performance, only they can't keep in line with one another, a few forget and mess up the choreography in some parts, arms are pointing the other way in other parts. If there is anything to really complain about amidst all of the fun, its that the ballet is more of a slapstick sketch comedy that does not actually take the characters from a beginning to an end – only through unrelated jokes. For example, the nerd, early on, unexpectedly phwacks the passionate girl over the head and carries her off stage unconscious, but the next time they appear on stage it seems as though this funny episode never occurred.

Sterling Hyltin was the passionate girl (who also dons a variety of crazy hats at one point), and Andrew Veyette and Gwenyth Muller were the rich couple. The ballet culiminates in a dance for the whole ensemble, who have by now donned colorful butterfly wings, only to be chased off stage by the angry pianist, bearing a butterfly net. Silly fun to the extreme.