She was doing that thing: She was sharing secrets.Īt the moment, there are many levels of dancing experience at City Ballet, which still seems to be stuck in a liminal space as one generation leaves and others start to make their mark. In “Solo,” she was utterly solitary, but never lonely. Mearns, who has spent valuable time in the modern dance world, brings a mix of poise and patience to the way she proceeds from one task to the next, linking ordinary movement with brisk ballet footwork without giving either more or less importance. As for the performance? Her power and quiet authority diminished some of the solo’s sentimental anguish. When she appeared in the scaled-down costume - the roomy sleeveless jacket was paired with shorts and a vest buttoned high to reveal her midriff - the taste level was suddenly raised. For its stage premiere, Huxley performed at the fashion gala wearing a costume by Raf Simons that had way too much going on, including a red top and polka-dot tights. ![]() But what added another level to my admiration of Mearns was the way she handled Justin Peck’s “Solo,” a part created for Anthony Huxley, originally on film. Few ballet dancers are able to be transparent in everyday movement - standing, walking, getting up from the floor. ![]() She not only seems to be the least exhausted mother of three young children that I have ever seen, top ballerina or not, but she also epitomizes another Balanchine saying: “There is only now.”īut Mearns is in a category by herself: It is rare for a dancer in any discipline to bring such honest simplicity to movement. Dancing melts her stress away living gives her a reason to dance. (She is a dancer who can act, going back to Susan Stroman’s “The Blue Necklace” and, on Broadway, as Miss Turnstiles in “On the Town.”) But since the company returned from its pandemic hiatus, there is a sense that her everyday self and her ballet self meet in the middle each time the curtain rises. They are both so gorgeously free, but Fairchild makes my jaw drop at how casually she sails through the rigors of classical ballet.Ī principal since 2005, she has always danced with intelligence and, when it’s called for, wit. Balancing their crystalline footwork are upper bodies that sing, and step for step - in “Raymonda Variations” and the “Voices of Spring” section of “Vienna Waltzes” - they have offered some of the most stunning performances of the season. Its stars? An eclectic cast of dancers who are anything but machines.Īnd the dream team of Fairchild and Huxley is a delight. Feeling the Buzz: “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’” is back on Broadway.It will be one of the hottest tickets in town. Gustavo Dudamel: The New York Philharmonic’s new music director, will conduct Mahler’s Ninth Symphony in May.Rising Stars : These actors turned playwrights all excavate memories and meaning from their lives in creating these four shows, which arrive in New York in the coming months.Musical Revivals: Why do the worst characters in musicals get the best tunes? In upcoming revivals, world leaders both real and mythical get an image makeover they may not deserve, our critic writes. ![]() Emotions are fraying in everyday life everyone is overreacting and overacting. The approach can be sentimental or queenly, but it most always inches uncomfortably close to unbearable, injurious, if not to the steps themselves, then to something greater: the texture of the choreography and the light inside the dancing. There are dancers who choose acting over dancing, and it infuses their performances with artificiality. George Balanchine said, “The important thing in ballet is the movement itself,” but that’s not as easy or as obvious as it sounds. There were times when you just wanted to shut your eyes and fast-forward a few years. New York City Ballet is in a similar situation, judging by its fall season, which ended on Sunday. But if the city that never sleeps hasn’t fully come out of its pandemic slumber, there are signs of beauty and heart. That “start spreading the news” rumor that New York City is back in action still seems like a public relations fantasy.
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