Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Two iconic New York dance institutions return to in-person performances: New York City Ballet & The Joyce Theater

• By drediman
• September 27, 2021
• No Comments

Last week saw the return to in-person performances of two iconic New York Dance institutions when New York City Ballet and The Joyce Theater reopened their doors to live audiences. Here are my thoughts on these two joyous occasions.

NEW YORK CITY BALLET: CLASSIC NYCB I
David H. Koch Theater

Of New York City Ballet’s reopening performances last week at the David H. Koch Theater, I attended a program fittingly entitled Classic NYCB I (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). The program featured a trio of distinguished works from the company’s three pillars – George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Justin Peck. The intermission-less evening commenced with Balanchine’s timeless Serenade, a mysterious ballet filled with striking imagery, which the dancers portrayed exquisitely on Friday night. Although the reliable Sterling Hyltin and Adrian Danchig-Waring were ideally matched and danced masterfully, I was especially impressed and caught off guard by longtime soloist Megan LeCrone as the Dark Angel (one of her signature roles), who is now dancing with a newfound confidence and sense of freedom. The evening continued with Peck’s Pulcinella Variations, in my opinion one of the in-demand choreographer’s most underrated works. The ballet – which was dazzlingly performed by big guns like Tiler Peck, Sara Mearns, and an especially exciting Anthony Huxley – is in turn poetic and playful, and it’s refreshing to see Peck veer away from his usual choreographic territory to design some beautifully detailed solos and pas de deux. The last piece on the bill was Robbins’ Glass Pieces, a large scale ballet that thrills the audience with its stunning stage pictures. Although the ballet itself is arguably the star, particularly riveting in the piece were Amar Ramasar and Unity Phelan in the central pas de deux.

RAGAMALA DANCE COMPANY: FIRES OF VARANASI – DANCE OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM
The Joyce Theater

This past week also saw the return to in-performance at that wonderfully relentless dance presenter in Chelsea – The Joyce Theater. For its foray back to live performance, The Joyce intriguingly reopened its doors with Ragamala Dance Company’s evening-length Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim (RECOMMENDED), an elaborately staged (at least for The Joyce) production commissioned by the Kennedy Center, where it was performed earlier this year. The work is danced in the South Indian dance tradition of Bharatanatyam, which is notable for its rhythmic elegance, emphasis on gestural movement, and overall hypnotic quality. The ritualistically-staged production was created by the mother-and-daughter team of Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy – the artistic force behind Ragamala Dance Company – who also appear in the work alongside a company of disciplined, beautifully trained dancers. Although the piece could benefit from some more variety in its score’s musical selection and is in my estimation about 20-30 minutes too long, I was nonetheless mesmerized by much of its stately, deliberately paced choreographic progression and metaphoric expression of Hindi’s worldview and philosophy (e.g., the cycle of death and rebirth). No doubt, it will be exciting to once again engage in the wide spectrum of dance adventures that The Joyce invariably has in store for dance fans.