\n<\/p>\n
For a company to unveil a decent new ballet is a strange and marvelous occurrence. To unveil two in one season? This is fantasy territory. Quality choreography that celebrates classicism, that highlights musicality \u2014 that even pushes the form into new realms \u2014 isn\u2019t the norm. But at New York City Ballet this season, two premieres were worthy of many more viewings \u2014 and in the case of Alexei Ratmansky\u2019s harrowing \u201cSolitude,\u201d set to Mahler, endless ones.<\/p>\n
Inspired by a 2022 photo of a Ukrainian father kneeling before the body of his dead son, the ballet<\/a> filled the stage with bodies expressing the tangible ache of grief and love. The first work Ratmansky has created as the company\u2019s artist in residence, \u201cSolitude\u201d more than lives up to the promise of his appointment; it speaks to the specific union of these dancers and this choreographer \u2014 the power, in other words, that they pull out of one another.<\/p>\n This was also true of the season\u2019s other premiere, \u201cConcerto for Two Pianos\u201d by Tiler Peck,<\/a> an emerging choreographer and longtime City Ballet principal known for the way she dances not only to the music but through it. In her effervescent \u201cConcerto,\u201d set to music by Francis Poulenc, the dancers didn\u2019t noodle through an approximation of balletic steps with earnest arms and wistful eyes; Peck made an honest-to-god ballet \u2014 a marriage of classical technique and musicality.<\/p>\n This was a relief after the winter season got off to a sludgy start: There were ballets by the company\u2019s former leader, Peter Martins (blah), and programs that fizzled, particularly those that featured Jerome Robbins but didn\u2019t show him at his best. The new ballets helped to lift the mood, as did the return of George Balanchine\u2019s dazzling \u201cLiebeslieder Walzer\u201d and \u201cBallo della Regina.\u201d Debuts \u2014 like Mary Thomas MacKinnon\u2019s, full of force and daring in \u201cBallo\u201d \u2014 made the stage pop. Here are some other moments that caught the eye.<\/p>\n In this Balanchine classic set to Brahms \u2014 told in two parts, to Opus 52 and Opus 65 \u2014 four couples explore all facets of the waltz, with the women first in dancing heels and then in pointe shoes. Before an injury took her out of the season, Tiler Peck, partnered by the scrupulous Tyler Angle, displayed a sweeping, unselfconscious musicality seemingly driven from deep within.<\/p>\n This sparkling Balanchine ballet was created in 1960, the same year as \u201cLiebeslieder,\u201d of which he said: \u201cIn the first act, it is the real people who are dancing. In the second act, it is their souls.\u201d In \u201cTchaikovsky Pas de Deux,\u201d a nine-minute display of virtuosic delights, the dancers are almost beyond real people: For it to work, they can dance only as themselves. Casts featured a rapturous, sweeping Unity Phelan with Roman Mejia and, in a spectacular end-of-season debut, Indiana Woodward with Anthony Huxley, above, each a vision of elegance and luster.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Christopher Wheeldon\u2019s 2003 ballet, set to Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns with text by John Lithgow, a young boy finds himself trapped at the American Museum of Natural History, where the people from his life \u2014 the librarian, the school nurse, his classmates \u2014 are transformed into animals. The ballet holds up! Even with an opening-night flub, Terrence Mann brought cheerful warmth as the Narrator; Unity Phelan was a luxurious librarian turned mermaid; and Sara Mearns, as the Swan, brought poignancy to her back, her arms and, as usual, her everything<\/em>. But little Oliver, performed by Hannon Hatchett<\/a>, a student from the company-affiliated School of American Ballet, was the ballet\u2019s heart: Acting through dancing and dancing through acting, his presence embodied the spirit of wonder.<\/p>\n The talent of this corps de ballet member has been apparent since he joined the company in May 2022, but it was on full display this winter, from a debut in Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSymphony in Three Movements\u201d \u2014 where his clear lines, mannerly power and springy jump showed his growing polish \u2014 to a comic role in Robbins\u2019s \u201cThe Concert.\u201d He even managed to energize Martins\u2019s \u201cHallelujah Junction.\u201d The clincher was his debut, opposite the lovely (and soon to be promoted?) Emma Von Enck in a beautifully staged \u201cBallo della Regina,\u201d above, which cemented more than just his promise. It heralded an auspicious future at City Ballet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Melancholic, the first variation of Balanchine\u2019s \u201cThe Four Temperaments,\u201d Mabie, another corps member, burst onto the stage with such authority and self-possession that it seemed the part was made on him. Moving with articulate fullness, he stretched beyond his body, using the arch of his back and the reach of his expressive hands to draw himself more deeply into the role. His falls to the floor in daring collapses came out of nowhere. In a way, so did he! With glittering intensity, he took up space.<\/p>\n In the two new ballets, pairs jumped out, grounding the stage with power and a palpable exchange of dancing energies. The lush grandeur of Sara Mearns (in dress), and Mira Nadon (in leotard) in \u201cSolitude\u201d was electric, making each dancer more arresting, more extravagant than ever.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And in \u201cConcerto for Two Pianos,\u201d there was a different kind of sizzle: India Bradley, in lilac, and Emma Von Enck, in a deeper purple, enhanced each other with fleet footwork and bright jumps \u2014 a persuasive, playful conversation of syncopation between bodies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Albert Evans, just the second Black principal dancer at City Ballet, died in 2015. Watching his spooky \u201cIn a Landscape\u201d (2005), to piano and violin music by John Cage, was like spending time in Evans\u2019s inner world. There was an earthiness, a sadness stirring up memories and questions \u2014 what was<\/em> behind his generous outlook, his perpetually warm smile? From the start, the ballerina slides across the floor, as if gliding along the surface of water. Both casts, young and accomplished, did well, but Dominika Afanasenkov, above, dancing with Alec Knight, managed to slow down time as she moved like silk: feathery yet grounded, delicate yet grand.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been rough. There are wars. The U.S. presidential election is looming and there is yet another round of Covid. The return of Robbins\u2019s comic ballet was a relief, especially with debuts by Mira Nadon, Alexa Maxwell, Harrison Coll and more. Maxwell, as she showed in debuts all season, likes to go for it physically and dramatically, but the happiest surprise was watching Nadon transform her glamour into something indelibly daffy. She has a way of laughing through steps, which was apparent in \u201cThe Concert\u201d \u2014 notably in a charmingly awkward duet with Gabriel, above \u2014 and in \u201cStars and Stripes,\u201d opposite a splendid Roman Mejia. He offered her some of his sunny gusto, and she grabbed it. Smart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u2018Liebeslieder Walzer\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u2018Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018Carnival of the Animals\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nDavid Gabriel<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nPairs<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u2018The Concert\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n