More Balanchine

Readers of this blog will know of my fondness for the work of George Balanchine.   We went to hear and see a program of three pieces at the New York City Ballet.   The first, "Donizetti Variations", was designed by Balanchine as a kind of opening divertissement, set to some fairly generic ballet music from Donizetti's last opera.   But with Balanchine, there are always pleasures to be found, even with mediocre music.  Some of the subtleties of how he contrasts movement with music were exciting; there were some three part canons in the dance happening while the music was chugging along in some routine fashion.  Even the way Balanchine arranges his ensembles is endlessly inventive; in this case, the permutational possibilities of  corps of three men and six women (and two soloists) made for always unexpected groupings.  There is even a bit of slapstick humor when one of the dancers pretend to hurt her foot.
The last piece on the program "Chaconne", was set to Gluck's music from Orpheus and Eurydice.   It has a peculiar shape; it begins with a breathtaking duet, Orpheus and Eurydice seemingly in the underworld, one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen; after that, there is a long series of celebratory numbers from Gluck's ballet music for the last act.  It's the Orpheus story with the happy ending.    The structure is both unexpected and borderline incoherent.
The highlight of the evening was a piece set to Ravel's "La Valse" and other Ravel waltzes.  Vera really loved it.  It was much more dramatic than the other pieces; death makes an appearance.  There are  some very striking movements for the arms; and eventually the piece climaxes in frenzy of waltzing.   I usually don't think about the costumes; but in this case, they contributed a lot to the ballet; skirts that somehow changed colors with the movement.

So why do I like Balanchine so much?   There is something about the way he matches movement to music which speaks to me.  When I am fully engaged (and the dancers are), I experience the music and the movement as somehow being a single manifestation; escaping the reality that watching bodies move and hearing music in fact two very different kinds of experience, one involving the eyes and the other the ears.