Serenade
George Balanchine's Serenade at New York City Ballet Sunday, February 1st
The theater on Sunday was a buzz before the first ballet. I myself looked excitedly at the orchestra pit- just strings for this ballet- waiting for the first note of Tschaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings to reach my ears and give me chills, straight to the heart. The moment right before that note, the moment of anticipating descending notes and orange grove formation, that moment is humming with energy, vibrating like cello as a bow moves across its strings.
When it was announced that Megan Fairchild would be out of that performances cast, there were audible sighs at missing what would have been the long time principal’s last Serenade.
Fortunately, though, her replacement as the Russian Girl was Indiana Woodward. Woodward was spry and airy, flowing her arms through “skirtography” without sacrificing her backbone of steel or sharp passes.
However good the principals were, the real star of the ballet is the corps. They jump and run and turn and run and run and run, swirling their tutus and streaking across the stage. They were exacting in the shifting formations, and brought out a new musicality in both the backwards arabesques with switching arms and the “flower petal” section, when Woodward was lying in the center of a semi-circle.
Sara Mearns was the heroine, and she, ever the drama queen, went through all the feels. Confusion upon entering the formation late, joy during the Waltz, longing that dissolved into hopelessness during the elegy. Her famous Sarabesque (Emma Von Enck’s words, not mine) was high and lush as always. She paired nicely with Emilie Gerrity, the Dark Angel. Gerrity’s dark hair gave glamour to the role, but she also brought a vulnerability. She was not just a passive or foreboding presence draped over Davide Riccardo’s back. She had her own drama going on.
And ohmigod her arabesque!
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