New York City Ballet concluded its winter season at the New York State Theater with a radiant production of The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Peter Martins after Petipa, that is the most luxurious in the company's history.
We have seen countless versions of the popular ballet from Russia, England, and Canada. America first saw the full-length ballet in 1949, when Sadler's Wells Ballet (later the Royal Ballet) opened at the Metropolitan Opera House with Margot Fonteyn triumphant as Princess Aurora.
As a student at the Russian Imperial Ballet School, George Balanchine appeared in sequences that utilized children. He stated in his book "Balanchine's Tchaikovsky," which consists of a series of interviews with author Solomon Volkov, "Thanks to Sleeping Beauty, I fell in love with ballet." Balanchine also considered this "the greatest classical ballet next to Giselle."
Balanchine created a full-length Nutcracker after Petipa, but he never got around to producing a Sleeping Beauty. Lincoln Kirstein expressed the desire to see the ballet mounted for NYC Ballet. Peter Martins chose Kirstein's 80th birthday, in 1987, to announce that The Sleeping Beauty would be produced by the company.
Although Balanchine never produced the ballet, he did choreograph the "Garland Dance" for NYCB's 1981 Tchaikovsky Festival, and this has been incorporated into Martins' staging. Martins' streamlined, two-act version of the three-act original manages to incorporate all the important sequences. Still, it runs close to three hours.
The production is enhanced immeasurably by David Mitchell's three-dimensional scenery, Patricia Zipprodt's luscious costumes, and Mark Stanley's lighting design, which adds a magical aura so that everything proceeds as if in a spellbinding dream.
Act I, which details "The Christening" of Princess Aurora, "The Spell," and "The Vision," saw quite a number of newcomers in familiar solos. However, the wicked fairy Carabosse, as portrayed by Merrill Ashley, a former principal with the company, practically walked away with the first scene, dominating it with her hard glitter. She was the first Carabosse I have seen who possessed a sort of attractive appearance. When she mimed a curse upon baby Aurora, an invisible blaze seemed to take possession of her entire being.
Everyone waits with bated breath for "The Spell," which contains "The Rose Adagio," possibly the most difficult of scenes for a ballerina. The sequence where Princess Aurora is compelled to stand on one pointe in attitude quite endlessly while being drawn around in circles by four suitors, never breaking her pose on the one leg, is just about the ballet's most breathtaking sequence. It has been said that if a ballerina can sustain "The Rose Adagio," she can manage any role. Yvonne Borree as Princess Aurora could convince anyone that such was the case in her performance.
"The Spell" concludes with the evil fairy's curse taking effect. When Borree was handed the needle by the disguised Carabosse and felt its sting, the incredulous expression on the countenance of the heretofore sheltered princess was quite shattering. The Lilac Fairy counteracts the curse by stating that instead of death, Aurora will sleep for 100 years and then be awakened by the kiss of a prince.
After 100 years have passed, Prince Désiré, who has longed for an ideal love, is brought a vision of the sleeping princess by the Lilac Fairy. He is enraptured, and implores the fairy to lead him to the castle where the princess sleeps. Nikolaj Hübbe certainly made a handsome fairy-tale prince and, with Teresa Reichlen as the Lilac Fairy, performed the scene with utmost delicacy.
When the prince's kiss breaks the evil spell, the wedding concludes the ballet, but not before a variety of guests and fairy-tale characters come to honor the prince and princess and to entertain the court.
Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar, performing the White Cat and Puss in Boots, delighted with their exacting comic feline antics. Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz, who portrayed Princess Florine and the Bluebird, were admirable, with De Luz particularly air-bound. For comparative newcomers to the company, Austin Laurent, Allen Peiffer, and Aaron Severini as the Court Jesters displayed startling ballon.
In addition to "The Rose Adagio," the concluding "Grand Pas de Deux" by Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré was another astounding highlight. In it, Borree and Hübbe were required to maintain split-second timing as he caught her in a series of pas de poissons (fish dives). This "pas" in itself would be sufficient to send the audience away in a state of elation.
Peter Boal & Co. Debut at Joyce
Peter Boal & Company will make its debut at the Joyce Theater in mid-March. Fellow New York City Ballet dancers Wendy Whelan, Sean Suozzi, and Carla Korbes will join Peter Boal for the engagement.
Season highlights include the duet from William Forsythe's 1992 "Herman Schmerman," and Boal's first performance of Twyla Tharp's solo "Pergolesi," originally choreographed for Mikhail Baryshnikov. Two world premieres—one by John Alleyne and the other by Marco Goecke—complete the program.
Marking its first performance by a dancer other than Baryshnikov, the 1993 Tharp solo features Boal slyly teasing classical ballet technique through choreographed missteps and fancy footwork. The dance, brimming with Tharp's cheeky wit, is set to music by 18th-century composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Boal's costume is adapted from the original design by Isaac Mizrahi; lighting is by David Moodey.
Following the Joyce engagement, the company will be performing at the Biennale Dance Festival in Venice, Italy, July 30 and 31, and at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass., Aug. 4-8.
Venue: The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., NYC. Performances: March 16-21, Tues.-Sat. at 8 pm; Sun. at 2 and 7:30 pm. Tickets: $40, available at the box office, by calling JoyceCharge at (212) 242-0800, or online at .
Lydia Johnson Dance
Lydia Johnson Dance will be giving new and recent work at the Upper East Side's Dicapo Opera Theatre in mid-March. The program features two premieres (titles to be announced), including a work set to Henryk Gorecki's "Kleines Requiem fur eine Polka," a composition in four sections. A second premiere, set to J.S. Bach's "Three Part Inventions," which will be played live by Steven Masi, will also be seen. The company will also perform last year's "Langsam in Der Sorge," a dramatic work set to selections by Paul Hindemith, and "The Right Allocations," a dance for four women.
Venue: Dicapo Opera Theatre, 184 East 76th St., NYC. Performances: Thurs.-Sat., March 18-20, at 8 pm. Tickets: $25; dancers, students, and seniors $10; available by calling (212) 989-0989.
92nd St. Y Free Fridays
The 92nd Street Y is continuing its free Fridays at Noon series, an innovative program of thematically linked, informal showings of works in progress by emerging choreographers, coupled with post-performance discussions with the artists.
On March 12, from 12-1 pm, the theme is "developing a relationship between the dancers." Scott Rink shows a new duet for Richard Daniels and Mimi Quillin about the end of a relationship, set to music by Nurit Tilles; Maxine Steinman shows a new trio, set to music by Arvo Pärt, exploring the underlying issues in a relationship between three men; and Chantal Yzerman presents a new work in progress.
The subject on March 26 will be "text and movement." Marie Christine Giordano explores the relationship of text and movement with actor Jeffrey Frace; Kari Hoaas questions the myths of a consumerist utopia in her new multimedia work, "Paradise?"; and Lucia Rudenberg Wright combines structured choreography and improvisation with sound and text to create layers of meaning.
The programs are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
