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Peter Martins' new “Friandises” “Friandises, ” “Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée’” and “Union Jack.” “Friandises,” a suite of dances composed by Christopher Rouse, had the first of two premieres in dance form Friday at the New York State Theater. In this instance the ballet was choreographed by Peter Martins. On February 22 the music will again be used in another new work, this time by Adam Hougland for the Juilliard Dance Ensemble. “Friandises” was co-commissioned by Juilliard and New York City Ballet, a highly unusual venture. It came about because Juilliard is one hundred years old this year and wanted something special to celebrate it. Rouse, a well-known composer who teaches at Juilliard, has long been interested in composing a dance work, and the joint commission made it economically feasible. Martins told the New York Times last week that he hesitated at the idea of joining an enterprise in which two works were to be choreographed to the same music at the same time, because it made them competitive. Then he decided not to worry about it. We will know soon enough whether he had cause to worry, but the chances are in the affirmative. Rouse composed “Friandises,” which means “sweets” or “delicate morsels,” as a suite of French dance forms. The five sections alternate between quick and slow tempos—an intrada followed by a siciliane, passepied, sarabande, and galop. Martins retained Rouse’s title, although he did not seem particularly interested in the French dance forms that Rouse used, at least in the sense of making direct references to them. Martins set the work for ten couples, all young corps members or soloists, led by Tiler Peck and the recently promoted Daniel Ulbricht. The curtain rose on an undecorated stage. The dancers, dressed in practice clothes in graphite, with bright, crayon colored waistbands, entered at high energy, the men first and then the women. This movement included battement tendues in various directions and for the men assembles into kneeling lunges. The sarabande was probably the most successful of the sections in terms of movement invention. It was a dance for three couples that consisted primarily of walks and lifts in a stately tempo. Here, and in a dance featuring Peck and Ubricht, Martins found a few pretty lifts in which the girls did combinations of steps, sometimes with quick direction changes, while being lifted by their partners. However, this was small compensation for what was generally predictable stage designs and unusually banal movement. Martins has rarely been an inspired choreographer but he is generally a competent one. He knows how to put steps together with relative sophistication. His fatal flaws are a deadening lack of texture and dynamic complexity in his dances as well as a lack of fresh insights into the classical vocabulary. Here, though, his skill in arranging steps nearly deserted him. It is the first time that I have seen him use what amounts to classroom exercises in his work. The real shock came in the finale, where he reverted to the hoariest of solutions—dancers criss-crossing the stage doing virtuosic steps. There was not even a modicum of attempt to work this into real choreography. Each dancer simply took his or her turn doing technical tricks. While it is very nice that Tiler Peck can turn like a whirling dervish and Daniel Ulbricht jump to the rafters, it is usually assumed that New York City Ballet choreographers will use the dancers’ technical abilities not as stunts but as an integral part of a larger artistic whole. Martins apparently knows his audience, though, because “Friandises” was greeted with wild applause and Martins, himself, looked buoyant and happy in the curtain calls. “Friandises” was bracketed by two Balanchine ballets, the “Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée’” and “Union Jack.” It always seems to me that the “Divertimento” confuses viewers. When Balanchine made it for the Stravinsky Festival in 1972 he set it to Stravinsky’s symphonic suite for the ballet and discarded the story-line of the ice fairy who kisses a baby lost in a snowstorm, sealing his devotion to her. What is left are dances for twelve peasant girls and the central couple. Stravinsky’s inspiration was Tchaikovsky and the ballet has the appearance of a typical nineteenth century ballet scene of village courtship. It should be all happy insouciance, but the score is so filled with sinister undertones that it greatly disturbs the tender playfulness. At the end the couple is inexplicably separated, and the part of the audience that doesn’t know the story is left to wonder. Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz gave tentative performances as the couple. I don’t know what is happening with Fairchild. Perhaps she has been brought along too quickly. She joined the company in 2002 and was made a principal last year, a meteoric rise by any standards. I saw her several weeks ago in “Ballo della Regina,” and she seemed overwhelmed by the tremendous demands of the ballerina role. The “Divertimento” doesn’t hold the same terrors, but she still danced hesitantly after a confident start. In part this may have been because she and De Luz are not really well suited. They are both short, which is probably why they are paired, but she still gives the impression on stage of being larger than he is because of his delicate build. He doesn’t partner her forcefully, either, which isn’t a help. Several times she slipped away from his grasp, and although this led to no calamities, it can’t have given her the physical and moral support she needed. De Luz is generally better when dancing on his own, and this ballet gives him one of the most interesting solos Balanchine made for a male dancer. It is filled with odd jumps and off-balance falls that make it more intriguing than the girl’s dances. De Luz executed the solo with technical precision and a dark moodiness that were exactly right. “Union Jack” is just tremendous fun from start to finish, and it gave a much needed lift to the evening. I was wondering how the company would manage the elaborate military drills that open the work. These need a level of rehearsal that the company rarely seems to have. But it all came off without a hitch and looked tremendously impressive. Once the company left the dignified entrance rituals to take up the reels and highland dances, the dancers appeared to be enjoying every minute. Benjamin Millepied and Damian Woetzel led the Scottish and Canadian Guards Regiments, Woetzel dancing with special panache and good humor. Next up was Abi Stafford heading the women of Green Montgomerie, then Philip Neal and Yvonne Borree led the Menzies and Dress MacDonald dancers in a mixed reel. Wendy Whelan never looked jauntier than at the head of the high flying dance for MacDonald of Sleat, while Teresa Reichlan led a more sedate ensemble representing the Royal Canadian Air Force. The surprise came in the second section of “Union Jack” in which Nilas Martins and Jenifer Ringer appeared as the Pearly King and Queen in the Costermonger Pas de Deux. I would never have pegged these two as great comedians, but they were delightful in this music hall turn. Ringer, who is a beauty, looked more like an aristocrat than a cockney, but she gave the part an earthiness that played off her sophisticated looks to excellent comic effect. As for Martins, he has never been more relaxed and playful. It was a sight to see from a dancer who in other roles is often wooden. The last section, Royal Navy, was dominated by Reichlen, who has recently been promoted to soloist and looked gorgeous in officer’s cap and white shorts. She is tall, blonde, and beautiful, and she danced with a sauciness that had the audience delirious. The only thing that could top her performance was the finale that Balanchine thought up—seventy dancers in navy blue and white, the British flag, canons, and semaphore. Photo on front page, of "Divertimento from 'Baiser de la Fee,'" by Paul Kolnik. Volume 4, No. 6
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