Dances at a Gathering (Jennifer Ringer and Gonzalo Garcia) photos by Paul Kolnik

Seeing the two major works by the late, great Jerome Robbins presented by the New York City Ballet brought to mind some questions, the answers to which aren’t immediately forthcoming, but are worth considering. The NYCB in the closing weeks of its winter season is clinging to its theme format and the all-Robbins program displayed a great many of his charms and talents. “Dances at a Gathering,” his 1969 work represented his return to the classical ballet field after decades reaping just rewards on Broadway; and the “West Side Story Suite” gave a delicious taste of his work during that extended sojourn in the commercial theater.

Sitting through the performance of “Dances at a Gathering” this season I thought about how different casts present different arguments for a ballet’s perpetuity. Some works, such as Balanchine’s “Apollo” debuted so many decades ago, that its masterpiece status is only confirmed by the many danseurs and ballerinas who have assayed its elegant steps. But “Dances at a Gathering” is still a relatively young work. Was it the subtlety and personality of the original cast, whom many audience members remember, that made this work a classic or was it Robbins’ masterful command of the ballet vocabulary and his new-found zest for both the City Ballet Dancers--which would last until his death-that gave the work its long life? Judging from the matinee performance with a cast mined from the City Ballet’s principal roster, “Dances” seems somehow less a bonafide gem than a well-made ballet. Although all the ten dancers made positive impressions, they didn’t make a convincing argument for the work’s masterpiece standing. Oh, it was fascinating to see how Robbins created a community of dancers and how he found endless variations on gestures, manly jumps and rapid point work and how he constructed partnering as just a wispy continuation of holding hands and embracing. But this cast impressed as dancers and not as people for some reason.

Amar Ramasar, a newly-minted principal, was boyishly macho as the man in green and Gonzalo Garcia, in brown, added a little sex appeal to his thoughtful wanderings and partnering. The other men were technically fine, but a bit colorless--despite the color-coded costumes.

Among the women, Sara Mearns made the transition from the frothy girl in green which she performed sassily two seasons ago, to the more angst-ridden girl in mauve. Maria Kowroski, a fine classical dancer just didn’t quite get the off-the-cuff, “I don’t care/but I do” quality of the girl in green originated by the delightfully stylish Violette Verdy whose performance few can forget. Ms. Kowroski seemed more like a slightly silly adolescent girl at the prom than the flirtatious, but durable flibbertigibbet that the steps imply.

Even the daredevil tosses and leaps of the women into the men’s arms didn’t register as the giddy highlights they used to be. To be sure, the dancing was technically fine, the partnering a bit less so, but this particular cast just couldn’t find the right notes to raise this work from a seemingly endless series of pretty dances to Chopin into a coherent, yet diverse community of people who want to be with each other and express themselves solely in dance. Does this mean that “Dances at a Gathering” shouldn’t be performed because the current crop of dancers can’t do it full justice? Of course not. But attention--and serious coaching--will keep this ballet going for decades more.

It should be noted that Cameron Grant played the long Chopin score impeccably.



West Side Story Suite

The “West Side Story Suite,” on the other hand, has always had the air of being produced solely so that the City Ballet would have a popular hit on its hands. It was staged as an exciting change of pace for the ballet trained company members and, of course, as an audience pleaser. Nothing wrong with that. Except...these ballet dancers aren’t totally convincing as New York City gang members from the Fifties. They can’t help it. The original 1957 cast of West Side Story certainly was filled with ballet-trained performers, but they were of that period and also had the benefit of months of work under the task-master Jerome Robbins. A ballet troupe simply cannot give that much time to just one work and, let’s face it, Jerome Robbins is no longer around to push and pummel the dancers into transitioning from classical ballet into street-savvy gang members who easily convince us that they were born to dance to the incredible rhythms of Leonard Bernstein’s legendary score.

Benjamin Millepied was a handsome Tony and Andrew Veyette tried to add some menace to his Riff, but the rest of the Jets were lovely to look at and that’s just wrong. Amar Ramasar had some imposing moments as Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks, but wasn’t persuasive as a hot to trot Latino. His gang members had the benefit of the more colorful of Irene Sharaff’s costumes.

The women came out better somehow, probably because the steps for the girls are either softer or sexier than for the men as in “America” sung and danced by a scintillating Georgina Pazcoguin as Anita and a charmingly simple Gretchen Smith as Rosalie, the girl who wants to return to Puerto Rico. Kathryn Morgan, who actually had little to do, displayed an innate charisma as Maria.

Most of the singing was done by off-stage guest artists who acquitted themselves well.
Clotilde Otranto kept the New York City Ballet orchestra on its toes.

Of the seven numbers only the “Dance the Gym” generated some heat with the entire cast doing a reasonably sexy mambo. The “Somewhere Ballet” was moving, probably because its steps and patterns were closer to the ballets the company is used to dancing. And, of course, the song, itself, is touchingly poignant.

This “West Side Story Suite” is like an appetizer version of the full-meal Broadway musical West Side Story. It’s the kind of thing an aunt would bring her sixteen-year-old niece to to stimulate interest in the “real” West Side Story and other more challenging musicals. Not exactly inauthentic, but also not exactly authentic. Perhaps these dances can’t possibly live up to their vaunted reputation? “West Side Story Suite” is a change of pace and probably more colorful and sensual than a good deal of the NYCB’s repertory, but it proved to be a bit pallid in spite of itself.

This New York City Ballet season contained six weeks of “The Nutcracker” and other full-length ballets, all-Balanchine and all-Robbins programs and many other works by new choreographers making their marks, providing multiple challenges to this hard-working and brilliant troupe. Perhaps quantity is beginning to taint the quality and attention to detail that is so necessary to properly maintain all the details and delicious subtleties of such an extensive repertory. Nevertheless the New York City Ballet will always be world class and a classic in itself.

THE NEW YORK CITY BALLET
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, NY
November 2009 to February 2010
Tickets: nycballet.com or call CenterCharge at 212-721-6500