New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center between West 62nd & 65th Sts. and Columbus & Amsterdam Aves.
Saturday, February 9, 2:00, and Sunday, February 10, 3:00, $29-$155
212-496-0600
www.nycballet.com
This week the New York City Ballet is presenting its Symphonic Balanchine program, comprising Western Symphony, featuring traditional American tunes orchestrated by Hershy Kay, Symphony in Three Movements, set to music by Igor Stravinsky, and Symphony in C, with music by Georges Bizet, all choreographed by NYCB founder George Balanchine, creator of the American classical ballet tradition. Demonstrating Balanchine’s love of music and mastery of multiple genres, from Stravinsky’s twentieth-century modernism to Bizet’s nineteenth-century Romanticism, the program showcases NYCB’s particularly strong corps du ballet this season as well as a well-rounded group of soloists and principals. Western Symphony is a lively production, with fanciful costumes by Karinska; the men wear cowboy hats and western shirts, while the women are beribboned, tightly encased in satin with showgirl flounces. Energetic and fast-paced, the piece is as American as Broadway, which is fitting, since Kay also did the orchestrations for On the Town, Once Upon a Mattress, A Chorus Line, and Evita, among many other musicals. Megan Fairchild and Jared Angle are among the high-spirited pairs who prance and twirl playfully against the western backdrop. The stark stage of Symphony in Three Movements could not be more different; with nary a prop in sight, the dancers wear plain white or black leotards, executing Balanchine’s precise choreographic architecture to Stravinsky’s stark modernism with grave precision. The evening concludes with a longtime favorite, Balanchine’s glittering tour de force for the corps du ballet, Symphony in C. Originally titled “The Crystal Palace,” Symphony in C sparkles this year in brand-new costumes liberally set with Swarovski crystals. With a cast of more than fifty dancers and a stunningly intricate finale featuring some three dozen dancers onstage at the same time, Symphony in C is, as Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins says in the above video, “arguably our signature piece . . . perhaps the most challenging ballet for the company.” The two-hour Symphonic Balanchine program continues on February 9-10 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.