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<\/a>I have never been in Philip Johnson\u2019s immense second-floor lobby in the New York State Theater when it was empty of audience members. I\u2019m not familiar with the grids marked on its floor. Before the pandemic, it was a place where friends and colleagues chatted, compared notes, and maybe bought drinks during intermissions of the New York City Ballet\u2019s performances. (I usually remembered not to leave empty glasses on the pediment of one of Elie Nadelman\u2019s two gigantic white sculptures). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today I\u2019ve been there virtually, the lobby\u2019s vast space diminished to fit my laptop\u2019s screen. Miles away from New York City, I\u2019m watching Kyle Abraham\u2019s new\u00a0When We Fell<\/em>, filmed in black and white by director Abraham, Ryan Marie Helfant, and their crew. The eight dancers are about the height of my little finger\u2019s top joint, so you\u2019ll forgive me if I misapply their names. In alphabetical order, they are India Bradley, Jonathan Fahoury, Christopher Grant, Claire Kretschmar, Lauren Lovette, Taylor Stanley, KJ Takahashi, and Sebastian Villarini-Velez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019ve been rehearsing this ballet\u2014the third that Abraham has made for the company\u2014up at Kaatsbaan in Tivoli, New York and are now back on their home turf, even if they\u2019re not on the NYST stage. The black-and-white images may refer to the snowy winter days during which When We Fell <\/em>was created and when getting from their rooms to Kaatsbaan\u2019s theater, where they took class and rehearsed, involved bundling up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The filmed dancers enter the NYST lobby gradually and slowly, as if they were waking up to dancing. As if to take another\u2019s hand to support oneself on pointe were a kind of compact. Music accompanies the piece\u2019s three sections: Morton Feldman\u2019s Piece for Four Pianos<\/em>, Jason Moran\u2019s \u201cAll Hammers and Chairs\u201d from his album The Armory Concert<\/em>, and Nico Muhly\u2019s \u201cFalling Berceuse,\u201d performed by Stephen Gosling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the dark, before the spare piano music sounds, we hear what might be a storm, and Kretzschmer enters the space, seemingly from behind us. How careful she is, as if afraid of waking a sleeping giant! Joining her, Stanley is equally precise and careful, although he adds a jump. They fall into unison without fanfare, but may face in dissimilar directions. You begin to notice what makes Abraham\u2019s choreography differ from, say, Balanchine\u2019s. The dancers\u2019 legs articulate the expected ballet vocabulary, but their hips and shoulders often move in subtly sinuous ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>