The Difference Between Art and Design

With the curtain raised, dancers warmed up in plain view as the audience filed into the Miller Theatre on Wednesday night. They sketched out center combinations on the new “marley” floor installed only five days ago. The performance venue, usually associated with classical music, offered the dance public a candid opportunity to see members of New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet together on the same stage. The grand occasion was a program called “Watching Ligeti Move,” a performance of three ballets created by Christopher Wheeldon to the music of Gyorgy Ligeti.Mr. Wheeldon has enjoyed a quick ascendancy within New York City Ballet, placing him among the august ranks of Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine as one of the most versatile and compelling creators for the company, a position summed up in his role as the first Resident Choreographer. The modernist constructions of his Ligeti trilogy strongly resemble Balanchine’s own leotard ballets to Stravinsky; both composers, emigres from Stalinist Europe, produced music that is richly assimilative of other traditions (ragtime, waltzes, and gamelan.) But the difference between Balanchine and Mr. Wheeldon is the difference between art and design – however good the design may be.The first work on the program, “Polyphonia,” takes its name from musical language, meaning many voices sounding at once. The opening tableau featured eight dancers rapidly striking poses as their shadows whirred behind them. Divided into 10 sections, “Polyphonia” followed closely the personality of the score, drawn from six of Ligeti’s piano works. In the third section, a modified waltz, Andrew Veyette and Miranda Weese jauntily borrowed phrases from ballroom dance, which returned in the vivace energico of the fifth section between Mr. Veyette and Jason Fowler.Perhaps more aptly, however, it was Mr. Wheeldon’s choreography to Ligeti’s dark and spare adagios that stuck out, most notably the duet between Wendy Whelan and Sebastien Marcovici. In a prolonged sequence of balances, Ms. Whelan contorted into spidery shapes, culminating in a back bend over her partner, a physical pun on the accompanying etude, titled “Arc-en-ciel.” The absence of Jock Soto, for whom Mr. Marcovici’s part was originally created, lessened a certain amount of the pathos. Likewise, corps dancer Glenn Keenan bravely tackled her solo to an excerpt of Ligeti’s “Three Wedding Marches,” but the lithe insistence of Alexandra Ansanelli was sorely missed – her bourrees and disconsolate spins, arms heavenward, gave the work a beating heart.In “Continuum,” choreographed for San Francisco Ballet, Mr. Wheeldon added an additional 12 sections. He used similar motifs, including the introductory wall of shadows, the revolution of arms like weather vanes, and the ponderous contortions of the adagio passages (especially in “Continuum for Harpsicord,” which repeats a single note for minutes). But there was more humor, and greater economy, too. Yuan Yuan Tan and Damien Smith knelt down and faced each other like cats; variations were completed with wry glances back at each other.“Morphoses,” the second work on the program, was the last to be created in the series. Set to Ligeti’s “String Quartet No. 1,” performed live by the Flux Quartet, the piece opened with the cast of four wreathing their arms together. In a compelling gesture of vulnerability, Amar Ramasar completed a difficult combination, and then teetered uncertainly. The image was repeated later as the two men hoisted up the women, who were buoyed with their arms outstretched, and passed each other like ships in the night.For the most part, Mr. Wheeldon achieved the dance equivalent of Ligeti’s compositional style, which Mr. Wheeldon calls “micropolyphony.” The majority of the musical selection emphasized two competing voices: one repeating a percussive refrain, the other introducing a melody. As the work progressed, the two voices coalesced to form a dense rhythmic texture of tone qualities.The approach is an alternative to more traditional forms of development, such as the progression of chords. It requires, above all, a stripping-down of the composition to its basic elements (pitch, volume, etc.), then rebuilding them in new ways. Similarly, Mr. Wheeldon distinguishes himself from other choreographers by his deft eye for recognizing and isolating movements to develop them in surprising directions. He avoids at all costs the “filler” that waters down so much modern ballet.But in light of the clarity of his recent work, what struck me about these pieces, especially “Polyphonia,” was Mr. Wheeldon’s lack of confidence in his ability to create larger relationships beyond the formal architecture of a phrase. He seemed so fearful of making a cliche that he cluttered his dance with original but non-sequential poses. The quirky group allegros grew tiresome, as did the prayerful contortionist duets and the doll-like inanimate lifts. Although each piece succeeded individually, when viewed as a trilogy, Mr. Wheeldon’s musings soon began to cloy and diminish in effect.September 30 & October 1 (2960 Broadway at 116th Street, 212-854-7799).

The Difference Between Art and Design

More from the New York Sun

Fauci’s Refusal To Answer Questions Matches Hubris of America’s Botched Covid Response

America Risks Falling Behind Communist China in the AI Development Race

State Department Tells Americans To Prepare To Flee From Middle East

More from the New York Sun

Fauci’s Refusal To Answer Questions Matches Hubris of America’s Botched Covid Response

America Risks Falling Behind Communist China in the AI Development Race

State Department Tells Americans To Prepare To Flee From Middle East

Trump Threatens to Revive Anti-Weaponization Fund as Blanche Nomination Stalls

Spain Claims Ceuta Crisis Easing, With Most Migrants Already Returned to Morocco

George Santos Agrees to $35,000 To Settle Federal Probe Over Kalshi Trades

Infantino Abandons Kushner Deal But Fails To Halt Global FIFA Uprising

Trump Lashes Out at Pirro Over Dropped Reflecting Pool Case: ‘I Disagree 100%’