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Some Debuts (NYCB)by Mary Cargill
The past two weeks have seen some notable debuts at the New York City Ballet, with Miranda Weese dancing Ballo della Regina, and the young corps members Rachel Rutherford and Janie Taylor sharing the young girl in La Valse.
Ballo della Regina, set to Verdi's seldom heard ballet music for Don Carlo, so long associated with Merrill Ashley, is a technical tour de force. Weese did not quite match Ashley's clean, crisp, effortless footwork. But besides technique, the ballet needs charm--not just a charming face, but charming dancing. It is full of unexpected kicks and flicks and changes of direction. Weese bubbled through the part. In Ashley's absence, the ballet had been owned by Damian Woetzel, with his
fluid, exciting jumps, but with Weese in the role, the ballet is now shared.And what a beautiful ballet it is. With hints of an underwater grotto, the corps floats through a series of inventive poses and delicate arm movements. Four soloists emerge briefly in some beautifully formed dances. Jennie Somogyi was especially enjoyable in
her soaring, exultant solo. This is not a profound ballet, but it is full of charm and craft and Weese was delightful.La Valse, with its high-romantic "Der Tod und das Madchen" theme, is a much darker ballet than Ballo della Regina and much more difficult to perform convincingly. The wide, deep stage of State Theater is not the best place to see it, it my opinion; Pacific Northwest Ballet's
version at the more intimate City Center a few years ago was a revelation to me. It was so much more claustrophobic and menacing. But its combination of 1950's chic (all those ponytails and gloves) and the dark theme of youth destroyed can be very powerful wherever it is performed.The erie, yet elegant tone must be set at once with the three mysterious gloved ladies (one thinks immediately of the three fates) with their convoluted hand movements echoing each other exactly. Probably due to lack of rehearsal time, this sinister symmetry was not
always present. In the second half, the corps tended to dance with joyful grins and high spirits, which is not really appropriate. They are inhabitants of the Ballroom of the Damned, after all, hoping to increase their number, not dancing at their junior prom.As the victims, Rachel Rutherford and Janie Taylor gave different, but I think equally valid interpretations. Rutherford, with her exquisite, sophisticated beauty could not really be a complete naïf. She played her as someone eager for any experience, willing to try anything, more fascinated than repelled by the Death figure. As yet, she did not have all the reckless abandon needed--she put those black gloves on a bit carefully-- but it was an interesting, subtle portrait of youth semi-willingly seduced.
The very young Janie Taylor (she is practically a nonperson on the NYCB web site) was innocence destroyed. Taylor is a small dancer, beautifully proportioned, with a fresh stage presence. She danced the lead in last year's SAB performance of Gounod Symphony, and as a first-year corps member, giving her this role was quite a jump. But she seemed to have no nerves, and deserved the ovation she received. Pale
and deceptively frail-looking, she was terrified of her surroundings, and was very moving.The figure of Death was danced by Jock Soto, with Rachel Rutherford, and, another debut, Robert La Fosse with Janie Taylor. I think they would have been even more interesting had they switched victims. Jock Soto, with his dark, brilliantined hair and overpowering torso was truly sinister, and more purely evil, which would have suited Taylor's fear. La Fosse, even with his hair colored black, does not have the unalloyed menace Soto does, and was more seductive--someone who might attract a girl as eager for experience as the one Rutherford portrayed. I just hope they all get a chance to develop what are already interesting characterizations.