NYC Ballet in Paris, PBS Feb. 17 and 24th, 2017

Ballet on TV is a questionable and usually dubious proposition:  if single dancers are isolated then one misses the corps, if the whole view of the stage is shown then everything is too small.  In the 70's George Balanchine did some versions of his ballets for TV; filmed in a studio they were either solos, such as the one in Tzigane, or pas de deux from more elaborate ballets.  Great Performances showed The NYC Ballet on a recent trip to Paris in two parts:  Feb. 17 had Gounod's Walpurgisnacht from Faust and Ravel's La Valse, while Feb. 24 showed Ravel's Sonatine and Bizet's Symphony in C.  All choreography was by Balanchine.  The only one of these that was at all effective on the TV screen was Sonatine, an elegant pas de deux by Megan Fairchild and a confidence-lacking Joaquin DeLuz.  Even in Sonatine director Vincent Battaillon had to choose sometimes to show only one of the dancers, when the two were very far apart.  La Valse worked when they were showing only Amar Ramasar and Sterling Hyltin in their dance of death,, Walpurgisnacht when they showed Sara Mearns, and Symphony in C when Teresa Reichlen and Tyler Angle danced the adagio.  Symphony in C has the largest cast of the four ballets --over 50 dancers -- and the last movement, with its intricate relationship between the soloists and the corps, was mostly a blur. The music was beautifully conducted by NYC conductor Daniel Capps.

I have heard it said that ballet on TV (of which there is not much)  attracts few viewers.  One can see why:  if one likes ballet it plays as badly on TV as baseball and if one is only mildly interested then one will not be convinced by TV performances.  The best we could hope for would be to re-choreograph for TV, as Balanchine did, though I rather doubt that even a "TV version" attracts enough viewers to make it financially feasible.  I would simply urge people to go to Lincoln Center to see the NYC Ballet live.  When the New York State Theatre was build Balanchine insisted on inexpensive seats with good sightlines and one can still see marvelous ballets there for around $25.  Outside New York companies such as The Los Angeles Ballet perform authorized versions of Balanchine ballets; there may not always be live music but the beauty of the choreography and the dancing is best experienced live.



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