Balanchine's Dances, Kirstein Show Mark NYCB Feting of Founders

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on April 26, 2007.

April 26 (Bloomberg) -- What grand gesture can you make to honor the centenary of an icon's birth? The New York City Ballet is dedicating its spring season, which opened last night at the New York State Theater, to Lincoln Kirstein, co-founder, with George Balanchine, of the company and its prestigious academy, the School of American Ballet.

All this week, the programs will be devoted to 10 Balanchine works that define the choreographer's world-shaking development of classical ballet in the 20th century. They serve as indelible evidence of Kirstein's achievement in luring the choreographer to America and doggedly furthering his career for the decades it can take to make the public appreciate genius.

The ballets are, in order of their creation, ``Apollo,'' ``Concerto Barocco,'' ``The Four Temperaments,'' ``Symphony in C,'' ``Square Dance,'' ``Agon,'' ``Episodes,'' ``Symphony in Three Movements,'' ``Duo Concertant'' and ``Pavane.'' All but the last of them -- which simply provides a role suited to Kyra Nichols, the last ballerina Balanchine developed -- seem to sum up the classical-dance legacy Balanchine absorbed from the past and catapulted into the future.

The sentiment of the occasion is fitting. The pressing question is: How are these works being danced now? There has been plenty of complaint in the past two decades about the NYCB's custodianship of the Balanchine canon. The company's performances have frequently been criticized as slipshod.

On opening night, ``The Four Temperaments'' and ``Agon,'' two of the choreographer's most forward-looking masterworks, looked scrupulously rehearsed, clear and sharp-edged. Apart from some seasoned soloists, though, the dancers often seemed to be speaking a diligently learned foreign language, not their mother tongue. They looked far more at ease in the more conventionally classical ``Symphony in C,'' giving that extraordinary showpiece the unquenchable verve and soulful center it demands.

Subtle Dynamics

The rich, subtle dynamics that characterized NYCB performances when Balanchine himself supervised them were too often absent from the evening's program, as they have been for some time. But a handful of extraordinary talents often made the stage vibrant.

Maria Kowroski, sympathetically partnered by Philip Neal, gave a sublime account of the celebrated adagio movement in ``Symphony in C.'' Sean Suozzi brought surging energy and implicit drama to the Melancholic section of ``The Four Temperaments.'' In ``Agon,'' Teresa Reichlen deployed her elongated, eerily supple body with enormous intelligence and composure, while Wendy Whelan and Albert Evans were eloquent in the central duet, with its deeply strange erotic beauty.

`Pavane'

Oddly, ``Pavane,'' a bagatelle compared to the heftier works on the program, got the most memorable performance. Set to a sinuous Ravel score, this solo for a woman in a diaphanous white dress was danced by Nichols, who will retire at the end of the season after 33 years with the company.

Her movements emanated from a strolling walk laced with simple gestures in which she manipulated a swath of gauzy fabric so that it became a veil, a cloud, a banner -- perhaps an infant that has died. With her musicality and devotion invested in this simple though exquisitely calibrated piece, Nichols brought her lyrical, understated dancing close to perfection.

Even with less than ideal performances, Balanchine's choreography triumphs. In a single evening, it can make much of the dancing one has seen all year irrelevant.

Kirstein Show

Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996) was a bear of a man with a steel-trap mind, an instinctive feeling for what was next in the arts and the indomitable will and courage needed to bring it into being. While he possessed a general's gift for strategy, he also had a visionary streak that allowed him to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Though giving Balanchine the opportunity to flourish was undoubtedly Kirstein's greatest achievement, from the time he was a Harvard undergraduate, he made significant contributions to the advancement of literature and the visual arts as well.

His formidable presence is captured in an exhibition mounted throughout the State Theater's public spaces. Edward Bigelow, its curator, describes it as a mosaic. Ticket holders strolling past the disparate elements in the half-hour before curtain time or in the intermissions will see that they cohere.

An aerial view of Lincoln Center, informal shots of Kirstein and Balanchine, the two with Peter Martins, who leads the company today, and Kirstein surrounded by a flock of SAB children underline the fact that he built an institution strong enough to outlast its founders.

Even more stirring than the photos demonstrating concrete achievement -- shots of seven decades' worth of ballets that depended on his efforts -- are the portraits of Kirstein as a child and youth. The 4-year-old seated on his pony, sturdy body taut, gaze piercing, presages the man he would become. The shyly affectionate boy in a family portrait taken a few years later, and George Platt Lynes's poetic portrayal of him as a young man, complete the picture.

The New York City Ballet is at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, through June 24. Information: +1-212-721-6500; http://www.nycballet.com.

© 2007 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.