Featured image: New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Peter Walker in George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes/Photo credit: Erin Baiano
July 13, 2024 2:00 pm matinee
Once a several week residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), with as much Balanchine as one could possibly want in a season, New York City Ballet (NYCB) now performs for a handful of days. But what glorious days. The all-Balanchine program at SPAC was packed with gorgeous dancing. On this warm summer day, the company presented Swan Lake excerpts and Stars and Stripes, both choreographed in the 1950s, and the more recent The Steadfast Tin Soldier and Coppélia Act III from the 1970’s.
Swan Lake’s scenery by Alain Vaes is stark, huge paper cut-outs of cold colors—a bleak environment for the otherworldly swans in which to position themselves. Vaes’ costume for Odette shimmers, as does her flashy tiara. Von Rotbart’s dark robes portend menace and terror.
New York City Ballet in George Balanchine’s Swan Lake/Photo credit: Erin Baiano
The music, striking for its violin solos that eke out every note of vibrato, is a lovely match for Isabella LaFreniere’s poignant Odette. She plays a most convincing Queen of the Swans to Andrew Veyette’s stunning prince. Showing great control in her lower body, LaFreniere delivers quick balances, deep drops into her cavalier’s arms, precise attitude, crisp fouetté, and flexible feet—pointing as if a compass. With her emotive dancing, she also creates some of the most dramatic moments in the ballet. Kudos to Veyette as a trustworthy partner and also to the entire corps, with its willowy port de bras. All dance musically as when the black swans rush forward, spin, and drop.
A total crowd-pleaser, Stars and Stripes, concluded the program with a stirring spectacle of brilliant dancing. The first regiment, led by Alston Macgill, is near-perfect synchronicity. Macgill is a fierce turner, and bold, too—her grand jété, for example, broad and wide and so close to the ground. The corps is high-kicking, with plenty of energy, and impressive in turns.
The second regiment, led by Olivia MacKinnon, had ample high kicks, too, and rousing turns en ménage. A third men’s division of KJ Takahashi, subtitled “Thunder and Gladiator,” explodes on stage—spinning, jumping, turning.
New York City Ballet Soloist KJ Takahashi in George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes/Photo credit: Erin Baiano
The ensemble whips out double tours and turns en la seconde with great accuracy, and a proud Takahashi urges them on. It’s a thrilling display to watch.
The fourth campaign includes a tender pad de deux danced by Mira Nadon and Peter Walker. Nadon’s daring balance and high extension and Walker’s ballon and exacting turns provide for a showstopping variation that is high-speed and masterful.
New York City Ballet Principal Dancers Mira Nadon and Peter Walker in George Balanchine’sStars andStripes/Photo credit: Erin Baiano
The exciting finale is a fitting end to the spirited ballet.
Although not as animated, the Steadfast Tin Soldier gives us much beautiful dancing from the two principal dancers, the delightful ballerina doll Erica Pereira and her stalwart soldier, Daniel Ulbricht.
Daniel Ulbricht and Erica Pereira in George Balanchine’sThe Steadfast Tin Soldier/Photo credit: Paul Kolnik
And in Coppélia, the village wedding scene of swiftness and grace stand out.
The evenng performance is reviewed here.