The program Sunday was Valse-Fantasie, Kammermusik No. 2, and Union Jack, all three choreographed by George Balanchine. Union Jack, the last on the program, is such a stunning and overwhelming piece that one has a tendency to forget the first two.
It was windswept and buoyant, as the three women, costumed a la Russe by Barbara Karinska, shared one male partner.
--Joel Lobenthal on Valse Fantasie (Wilde Times, ForeEdge, 2016)
Valse-Fantasie is about eight minutes long and is dazzlingly beautiful as well as structurally complex. Sunday it was danced by Erica Pereira, who did her chaine turns with speed and precision and Daniel Ulbricht, who attacked his cabrioles with elegance and beauty.
Men, perhaps are more suited that women would be to the figurative atmosphere of the piece and to its blunt, thick strokes, its metronomic austerity.
--Arlene Croce on Kammermusik No. 2 (The New Yorker, Feb. 20 1978)
Kammermusik No. 2 is one of Balanchine's "modern" ballets; like his Stravinsky ballets it has turned-in legs, flexed feet and angular port-de-bras. It has an unusual (even for Balanchine) corps of eight men. The leads were danced by Emilie Gerrity and Unity Phelan, along with Jovani Furlan and Peter Walker, with the women dancing to Cameron Grant's piano solo rather like the two leads in Concerto Barocco. I found its jagged eccentricity quite charming.
Union Jack is looking better than ever. It was originally done in 1976, Balanchine's somewhat ironic tribute to the bicentennial; though Balanchine was in thrall to America he did spend some time in London choreographing revues and variety shows before coming to America in 1933. The first part is Scottish and Canadian Guard Regiments moving from walking ballet-like, toe to heel, and mixing regiments, to each regiment dancing, first separately and then together. The high-point for me is the "Regimental Drum Variations," led Sunday by Sara Mearns, consisting of wild hammering leaps. The second part is Costermonger Pas De Deux with Andrew Veyette and Megan Fairchild a tribute to the English music hall tradition from which Chaplin came; this is both poignant and funny, with a live donkey pulling two youngsters on at the end to join in the dancing. The final section is the Royal Navy, with lots of hornpipes and Teresa Reichlen leading Wrens to The Colonel Boogie March, the ballet ending with the cannon booming, the orchestra playing "Rule Britannia" and the entire cast doing the marine semaphore code spelling out "God Save the Queen." Much credit goes to Hershy Kay, the music arranger, who worked closely with Balanchine to produce the known and unknown Scottish military tattoos, folk-dance forms, sea songs, jigs and reels that make up the music for Union Jack, played beautifully by the New York City Ballet Orchestra, conducted on Sunday by Clotilde Otranto.
The three ballets on Sept. 29 demonstrate something of the range of Balanchine's genius: the classic, the modern and the spectacle.
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