Here, the cast wears Jermaine Terry’s costumes in shades of lavender - dresses with pleated skirts rising just above the knee and unitards for the men that reminded me of tuxedo T-shirts - giving them the look of a wedding party. The ballet would have seemed less skeletal with more bodies, especially in the end - a group unison passage that starts out as a choreographic sprint but soon starts to seem, in a good way, like a marathon. But the work also lacks structural variety: Picture a diagonal line with two women dotting the ends, performing basic pointe-work, and a man dancing his heart out in the middle. That makes sense - dancing in or choreographing for the pointe shoe is not part of Roberts’s lineage. “Emanon” is uneven the men’s dancing is more challenging, more expansive than the women’s. In this ballet, Fahoury is something from the real world: a plaintive, mournful hero, and the counterpart to another dancer, Anthony Huxley, whose lively, pristine dancing leans into the pleasure of catching the air and changing it, once again, into a place of balletic delight. He’s a superlative partner in general, as his recent debut in Balanchine’s “La Valse” made clear: He looks at the person he is dancing with, and that connection, in “Emanon,” gives the steps an otherworldly sweep as though the pair were gliding on ice. The elegant, compact Jovani Furlan is a courtly partner to Emma Von Enck. Gradually, with an underlying insistence, Roberts’s ballet begins to grow on you. ![]() (The lighting and scenery, by Brandon Stirling Baker, make the back of stage look letterboxed, with the bottom portion illuminated.) ![]() Next, Indiana Woodward takes over, her fleet feet crossing in the air. It’s a pretty, yet predictable introduction: Emily Kikta and Peter Walker run in and meet at the center. It starts with a solo for Unity Phelan that has her unfurling her long legs and swinging a foot down emphatically as her curving arms - more flowing than ever - frame her lovely face. But while the music has many moods, the dance - aside from a standout solo for Jonathan Fahoury - coasts along in an atmosphere of euphoria. Even as the dancers spin and soar, they sometimes strain to appear carefree. In “Emanon,” part of a program in which all the choreographers have roots in modern or contemporary dance rather than ballet, the stage can feel strangely empty. Part of that has to do with ballet’s sprightly tone - delight - in which dancers, often constricted to contained areas of the stage, dash off swift, articulate spurts of footwork. Much of his new ballet brushes the notes at their surface. In “Emanon - in Two Movements,” set to Shorter’s “Pegasus” and “Prometheus Unbound,” Roberts doesn’t exactly interfere with the music, though he doesn’t really reveal a different, dancerly side of it, either. I occupy myself with how not to interfere with the music.” George Balanchine once said of dance and music: “If you see music simply as an accompaniment, then you don’t hear it. At New York City Ballet, Roberts translates the need for pleasure into a dance in which the jazz composer Wayne Shorter’s music drives a cast of eight - first in solos and duets, then in trios and, finally, as a collective - to achieve a state of abandon. Who would disagree? It’s February, and the pandemic is still out there, faded but always looming. With several more open spaces, and so much talent between the soloist and corps ranks, the question remains: Who will be the next promoted? We’ll have to wait and see.Clearly, the choreographer Jamar Roberts had a feeling about what the world needed now: a lift, a boost, a jolt of hope. This creates a major change to the company’s roster, one shaped by Stafford and Whelan’s vision. Six NYCB directors will retire during the 2021-22 season In addition to the four mentioned, Gonzalo García and Amar Ramasar will give their final greetings in February and May, respectively. ![]() Roman Mejia at Balanchine’s Western symphony. The last female soloist to be named a principal dancer at NYCB was Lovette, in 2015. The next day, they also promoted Woodward, a brilliant soubrette. Phelan told the New York Times that Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan originally intended to tell you about Thursday, but the dancers’ performances inspired them to do so early. Phelan and Mejia got the news Wednesday night, right after dancing together at Balanchine’s. Indiana Woodward in Jerome Robbins Dances in a meeting. The news comes as several of the company’s principal dancers – Abi Stafford, Ask la Cour, Lauren Lovette and Maria Kowroski, as well as soloist Lauren King – say their goodbyes during NYCB’s fall season. On Thursday night, the New York City Ballet officially announced the promotions of three dancers: soloists Unity Phelan and Indiana Woodward as director, and corps of ballet member Roman Mejia as soloist.
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