Ballet continues to dazzle at SPAC
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » With Richard Rodgers’ Broadway hits providing the theme for Saturday’s New York City Ballet Gala at SPAC, the evening’s smash was a tongue-in-cheek George Balanchine ballet that originated as the big finish for the 1936 musical “On Your Toes.”
In this Rodgers and Hart show, a tap-dancing Hoofer wins the male lead in a ballet company’s new jazz-flavored work, “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” opposite the star ballerina, who plays a Striptease Girl in a lowlife nightclub. His success infuriates the company’s principal Russian danseur, Morrisine, who hires a gangster to shoot the Hoofer during the ballet’s premiere.
“Slaughter” is a little “Swan Lake” sendup featuring Rodgers’s haunting melody and dissonant harmonies. The Hoofer falls for the Girl, and her jealous husband, the Big Boss, trying to shoot him, accidentally kills her. The Hoofer kills the Boss, and then must shoot himself.
But tragedy happily turns to farce when the ballerina, lying supposedly dead, anxiously waves a note informing the Hoofer of the murder plot. Snatching it, he keeps tap-dancing through several frantic encores until the police arrive.
Balanchine brought “Slaughter” into NYCB’s repertory in 1968 for Suzanne Farrell and Arthur Mitchell, and it has remained an audience favorite. A spoken prologue sets up the story and gives Daniel Applebaum comically haughty steps as Morrisine.
Maria Kowroski turns in a knockout performance as the Girl, flashing her long legs in fishnet tights. When
the Boss, Russell Janzen, lowers her from the nightclub stage to the floor, her toe rests on the Hoofer’s hand, which magically appears to support her as she floats downward.
For the Girl and the Hoofer, dashing Tyler Angle, it’s love at first step, and he lofts her in split-legged lifts. She kicks high, then skies her leg behind while plunging forward in supported penché. Later, in the jazziest section, she drops across his arm in a deep backbend and they advance dramatically along the floor, Kowroski kicking the moon at every cymbal crash.
Kowroski and Angle’s sultry chemistry makes “Slaughter” terrific fun and, when Rodgers’ main theme returns and the Hoofer partners the Girl’s lifeless body, surprisingly moving.
Legs flash galore in Peter Martins’ 2003 “Thou Swell,” a set of stylish, showy ballet-meets-Broadway dances for four couples to 15 great Rodgers and Hart songs. Robin Wagner has set it in a swanky nightclub, the men wearing black turtlenecks and the ballerinas in overthe-top Oscar de la Renta gowns.
Ask la Cour partners Teresa Reichlen sumptuously, long limbs sweeping the stage, while Jared Angle and Sara Mearns convey cool sophistication. Zachary Catazaro and Rebecca Krohn telegraph sexy adventure, and Chase Finlay and Sterling Hyltin embody youthful energy. High kicks forward and back, high lifts in splits, deep penchés, and savvy tempo shifts contribute to the pleasure of watching dancers cut loose and enjoy themselves.
Onstage, pianist Alan Moverman, bassist Ron Wasserman, and drummer James Saporito front the orchestra, conducted by Andrews Sill. Leah Horowitz and Joseph Eletto sing several numbers, and Angle tickles the ivories for one chorus of “Thou Swell.” Martins’ ballet celebrates not only Rodgers and Hart, but also Balanchine himself, who choreographed four musicals for the great songwriting team.
Christopher Wheeldon’s 2002 “Carousel (A Dance),” with Catazaro pursuing Tiler Peck, opened the gala.
The all-Richard Rodgers program returns Saturday at 2 p.m.