In its second annual appearance at City Center, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company presented an evening of smart mergings of neo-classical ballet and modern music. Founded in 2007 by artistic director Christopher Wheeldon, the troupe offered top-flight renderings of Wheeldon's 2001 masterpiece, "Polyphonia," and two new ballets that premiered in London last month, one by Wheeldon and the other by Canada's Emily Molnar.
To see "Polyphonia" again, with the unparalleled Wendy Whelan reprising her riveting role in the ballet's final pas de deux, is to be reminded of how important a phenomenal dancer and a piquant score can be in inspiring choreographic invention. With Whelan's exquisite physical dexterity, Wheeldon crafts striking images set against spare musical passages that allow the viewer time and space to study the shapes and to appreciate the ballet as a meaningful work of modernistic formalism. Wheeldon's astute choice of accompaniment — a series of Ligeti piano pieces that vary widely in mood, meter, tempo, and tonality — emphasizes, not only the vast expressive range of the piano, but also that of the ballet vocabulary. In informed and imaginative response to the music, Wheeldon concocts myriad emotional sensibilities through strict employment of his neo-classical lexicon, with no acting or narrative suggestions in sight.
In Wheeldon's new work, "Commedia," an octet to Stravinsky's "Pulcinella Suite," the choreography takes a back seat. Isabel Toldeo's eye-catching commedia dell'arte-inspired costumes, set designer Ruben Toledo's cartoonish backdrop of big Pulcinella faces, Penny Jacobus's colorful lighting, and the jaunty music conjure a spirited atmosphere. The dancing, however, is less theatrical than one expects. It respects the formality and borrows the movements of aristocratic court dances, preventing its light-hearted, balletic tripping from venturing into the realms of comedy or sentimentality.
Molnar's sextet, "Six Fold Illuminate," to a Steve Reich score, places a peculiar emphasis on strength. The dancers' awesomely-muscled bodies pull and push their way through space, imbuing movements with visible force, and holding positions with solid effort. Only in its later scenes does the ballet become truly interesting, when the deliberateness of the choreography gives way to mysterious puppet-like movements and the establishment of tender, human relationships.
Presented by and at City Center, W. 55th St., NYC.
Oct. 1-5. Remaining performances: Fri., Oct. 3, 8 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 4, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 5, 3 p.m.
(212) 581-1212 or www.NYCityCenter.org.