“Black and White” Ballets at NYCB (DanceTabs)

Here’s my of the Stravinsky/Balanchine “Black and White” program at NYCB (Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Monumentum Pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, Duo Concertant, Symphony in Three Movements.”

And here’s a little excerpt from the beginning:

“Ive noticed two troubling trends this season at New York City Ballet. Perhaps they are connected. The first is the creeping tendency toward stolid tempi from the pit, especially under the baton of Clotilde Otranto. The other is a kind of disconnect in the way different types of ballets are performed. The more percussive, high-intensity Modernist works (like Symphony in Three Movements and Agon) are as lively and focused as I’ve ever seen them, perhaps even more so. The dancers, across the ranks, are attacking them with a kind of hunger, engaging with the music, the audience, and each other. The audience feels it, too – applause erupts here and there, in lapping waves. But this electricity does not extend to the whole repertory. This unevenness might have something to do with the absence of some of the more vivid dancers in the company – Jenifer Ringer, Jennie Somogyi, Ashley Bouder, Sara Mearns, to name just a few – who are out on leave or injured or coming back from an injury. Some of the more delicate, subtle works, the ones that require the most imagination and nuance, don’t quite add up. The poetry remains elusive.”