BWW Reviews: Millepied, Wheeldon and Martins - A Mixed Bag for City Ballet

This spring the New York City Ballet is presenting 33 works as a part of its American Music Festival. This rather formidable feat encompasses a sweeping breadth of musical and choreographic history, and brings many cherished and rarely performed ballets back to the stage. On Friday night, the company honored three contemporary choreographers with varied success. The evening began with Benjamin Millepied's new work Two Hearts, followed by two stellar pieces by Christopher Wheeldon. The program finished on a high note with Martin's Hallelujah Junction. Though all choreographed by Europeans, these four distinct works highlight the potential of working with American music and (mostly) give me a sense of hope for the future of neo-classical ballet.

The feeling of hopefulness that this program left me with had little to do with Two Hearts and everything to do with the works by Wheeldon and Martins. In general, I thought there was too much going on in Two Hearts. It was far too busy; the viewer was never able to focus in on details. Too many, and too complicated, simultaneous movement patterns made the corps work look sloppy and unrefined. Hearts was also littered with a strange and ineffectual use of demi-pointe, which added nothing to the piece, apart from making the dancers look like they were marking the steps. Most of the work just seemed confused. In one section, Millepied had the dancers abruptly freeze mid movement. The effect was humorous, and humor is great, but it wasn't clear if this was Millepied's intention.

The music for the piece, a new score by Nico Muhly, was nice enough. Hearts concluded with a beautifully danced pas de deux by Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle, accompanied by the haunting vocal performance of singer Dawn Landes. As a stand-alone work, this pas would have been great. Placed at the end of the ballet, it merely added to a palpable sense of confusion. Waiting until the last four minutes of a piece to make such a drastic change in accompaniment seemed like a bad choice. While I'm on the topic of bad choices, I could write about the costumes, but I would much rather devote my time to discussing the merits of the other three ballets performed that evening

Christopher Wheeldon's Soiree Musicale takes the avid ballet goer into a familiar environment, a ballroom. Soiree accomplishes something fresh and wonderful, despite its rather tired setting. Wheeldon utilizes the strengths of the City ballet dancers flawlessly, melding classicism with modernity; it reminds me of Balanchine's work and clarifies why this young choreographer has quickly become one of the most relevant artists in the dance world. The choreography is challenging, yet evocative. His intent is clear throughout the work, and he definitely succeeded in getting more than a few laughs out of the audience. This seamless blend of drama and humor, alongside decidedly artful choices regarding the costumes and set, made Soiree an undeniable success

In A Place for Us, Wheeldon continues to show us exactly what is wrong with most contemporary ballets and what makes his the best. Place is crisp and clean. The costumes are simple and the dancing is demanding. The work is pure and unaffected, quite the opposite of Millepied's ballet. Tiler Peck was stunning in Place. It was nice to see her dancing in a piece in which she could truly shine.

The night concluded with Martin's Hallelujah Junction. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of Martin's choreography, but this ballet really surprised me. I found the starkness of the work quite effective and very much enjoyed his use of counterpoint. The work showcased the talents of the men in the company in a way that many Balanchine ballets do not--performing real virtuoso dancing. Daniel Ulbricht was stunning, as usual, and spun out some very nice a la seconde turns. There were lots of the hip thrusts and slightly off center movements that one grows accustomed to when viewing contemporary ballet, but Martins used them expertly. Junction was never gimmicky or overwrought, which are two issues I usually have with his work.

In terms of dancing, I give City Ballet an A+ for Friday night's show. With the exception of the first piece, the repertory was wonderful as well. The company is looKing Strong as ever, which is a good thing, considering the challenging season they have ahead of them. Earlier this year, the ballet world was shocked to learn of Millepied's appointment as Artistic Director of the Paris Opera Ballet. Let's just say, after Friday night's show, I'm a little nervous about what he has in store for the Parisians next season.