Fireworks
Alexei Ratmansky's Paquita at New York City Ballet Sunday, February 1st
Paquita is a ballet in which all is on display; short tutus that shiver when a dancer bourees, bright lights against a plain blue backdrop, classical steps with clear musicality. To be able to do it well, a dancer can’t hide, can’t hold back, but must go beyond the demands to meet the task with something like spitfire.
In Sunday’s performance of the ballet at New York City Ballet, the entire cast, from the corps de ballet to the principals, gave a more than adequate performance, full of attack and flair. It is especially exciting to watch such a fresh crop of corps members dancing their hearts out. Sometimes they were not perfectly arabesque-ing at the same exact angle. But this is not due to lack of skill (the corps more than proved themselves in the formations of Serenade, which was also on the program. I’ll be reviewing that soon), but because each dancer was pushing themselves to have that arabesque as high as possible.
Ashley Hod was clean and crisp in her variation, swiftly slicing through the air in pas de chats.
Emma Von Enck was incredibly spry and fast, smiling through a small spill at the start and staying on the music the entire time, jumping down to match the speed without sacrificing the height of her jumps.
The final variation was performed by Kloe Walker, who, following her debut as Dewdrop this past December is seeing steady stream of new roles; below, as a demi-soloist in Raymonda, and she is set to perform as the Fairy of Tenderness and Ruby in Sleeping Beauty. In her solo on Sunday, she was clean and calm, unafraid to bend every which way or throw her head back in a combré.
The star of the evening was unarguably Mira Nadon as the principal ballerina. Watching her in this ballet is like watching your favorite football player score touchdown after touchdown (I assume it is, at least. I cannot claim to know much about football). In the pas de deux, Nadon, partnered by Chun Wai Chan, was followed, or at least reflected, by the corps moving behind her, but she was not afraid to make her superiority known. She was regal in the pas de deux, from the near 180* penchés to the slightest tilt of the chin.
In the her harp solo, Nadon softened without losing her sparkle. The series at the beginning of consecutive arabesques was almost like a prayer, with her arms and gaze rising gradually to the heavens above. Even her double turns (from fifth!) were floaty and smooth. Chan was very suave in his solo, with clean turns and jumps, everything done with princely charm.
The finale was like a fireworks show, with gold bursts of soloists (how sweet to see Von Enck with her sister) and pure insanity from Nadon in her hops on pointe, moving backwards, with her back leg in a high arabesque before tilting forwards into a high penché. During her entrance into the finale, she flew through her sous de basques before running around, bouree-ing, and having a perfect, fiery moment of stillness before shooting into a knife-like tendu.
This ballet was so fun! Definitely agree that Mira was an absolute star 🌟
Wow so lovely!