They were all marvelous. The first, "Interplay" was joyful and breezy and uplifting, to music of Morton Gould. The second ballet was "Fancy Free" to Leonard Bernstein music, and featuring a sailor motif. The dancing was terrific, although there were a few awkward moments: one dancer, when jumping over a chair accidentally knocked it over; another dancer had a band of frayed material trailing from her skirt in such a way that I was nervous she would trip.
But the greatest piece was "I'm Old Fashioned". This ballet blew me away. It was an homage to the music of Jerome Kern and the dancing of Fred Astaire. It began with a large screen projection of the entire dance Astaire and Rita Hayworth do in this clip (the dancing starts a little over two minutes in). Then NYCB performs a number of pieces to Morton Gould's take on the music; lovely, lovely waltzes, with duets and solos. Finally at the end, they bring back the projection of Astaire and Hayworth, and the dancers all perform the same thing. It was a stunning affect, truly moving, and a wonderful end to the evening.
1 comment:
wow1--my kind of ballet--wish I could have seen it--did see one on tv once--sophisticated lady--which also brought back the old ballroom aura!
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