RPO – A Night of Dance

Balanchine's Serenade is one of my all-time favorite ballet pieces – I've seen it almost a half dozen times at the New York City Ballet. I can't hear Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings without also picturing the incredible choreography – to me they are inextricably linked. So I was thrilled when I saw that the Rochester City Ballet would be performing it with the RPO on this program.

There is much debate in the dance world regarding who owns choreographed pieces – the choreographer or the company for which they are developed. For example, Martha Graham's heir lost a court battle with the Martha Graham Company, which retained the rights to most of her dances. George Balanchine must have had a different relationship with the New York City Ballet, because his pieces are all copyrighted, and the George Balanchine Trust licenses them, with the “responsibility of disseminating and protecting the integrity ... of (his) work in the present and for the future.” This means that any company wishing to perform a work choreographed by Balanchine must not only pay a fee, but must prove itself worthy, and apparently our local ballet company has!

My friend Linda accompanied me (as soon as I mentioned “dance” to my husband, he claimed he had something else to do...). The house wasn't full, but there was a healthy representation of young girls. I was looking forward to seeing the guest conductor, Daniel Meyer, since he will be conducting Concentus in our concert with the RPO in May. Unfortunately, he and the orchestra were obviously stuck in the pit, so we only got a peek as his head bobbed up to acknowledge the audience's applause.

The first RCB piece, choreographed by artistic director Jamey Leverett, was cute, but unexceptional. Oddly Andrew Russo, the talented on-stage pianist, was in street clothes, as if he'd forgotten his concert black. The second piece, presented by FuturPointe Dance, was just bizarre. The video projection, which went from pseudo-psychedelic to creepy, in disjointed randomness (hawks exploding, flowers blooming, a jellyfish floating, and lots of other unidentifiable stuff), was extremely distracting. It was a disservice to the dancers, who seemed very capable but were left mostly in the dark, overpowered by the moving images behind them. Someone obviously went to a lot of trouble to put the video together (and the hawk headdress costumes...), but why?

But then came the finale – Serenade. It was classic Balanchine – magical, sublime, transporting. It was pure joy to watch the RCB perform this piece; they were more than up to the task. And the RPO's performance of the piece, under Meyer's baton, was more subtle and nuanced that I remember the New York City Ballet Orchestra's ever being. Most Rochesterians will never experience the NYC Ballet performing Balanchine, and the RCB will probably only rarely present one of his pieces, so it was a true privilege for the audience, and I suspect for the dancers as well. They received a well-deserved standing ovation, and the orchestra even stuck around a while in the pit, since this was, after all, their concert, too!