Ladies’ Night

The New York City Ballet’s 2024 Fall Fashion Gala was once again a smashing fundraising success, pulling in 3.2 million dollars and packing the house with slew of well-dressed celebrities and socialites. It was also a feminist victory, with three female choreographers—Gianna Reisen, Caili Quan, and Tiler Peck—represented on a gala bill for the first time ever. The show itself was pretty, though safe. The choreography wasn’t as groundbreaking as the financial and sociocultural milestones achieved.

Performance

New York City Ballet: Fall Fashion Gala

Place

David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, New York, NY, October 9, 2024

Words

Faye Arthurs

Sara Mearns and Gilbert Bolden III in the world premiere of Caili Quan’s “Beneath The Tides” at New York City Ballet’s 2024 Fall Fashion Gala with costumes by Gilles Mendel of House of Gilles. Photograph by Erin Baiano

Giana Reisen’s “Signs” kicked off the night. I previously reviewed it when it premiered at the SAB Workshop in 2022, and not much has changed since then, even though Reisen stated that it “feels like a new piece” in a pre-show film. She might not have been wrong, but illness intervened and both lead female roles ended up being danced by their student originators, both among the youngest company members now. Olivia Bell nicely reprised her role as the wandering soloist, and Grace Sheffel stepped capably back into her pas de deux yesterday when Mary Thomas MacKinnon became sick. Also as in 2022, Mia Williams pulled focus in her explosive third-act solo. I liked this piece very much at the Workshop, and I still do, though it is decidedly more juvenile than Reisen’s other pieces for the company (this is her 4th fashion gala appearance), which makes perfect sense given that it was commissioned for the school. It still reads as a riff on a prom dance to me.

Reisen quotes several ballets in the NYCB rep, but the ones that stuck out to me the most at the gala were the Jerome Robbins and Justin Peck references. When the couples hunched over and bent their heads together with curved arms it was straight from Robbins’s “The Cage.” It was unsurprising that there was a “Glass Pieces” shoutout, since “Signs” was also set to the music of Philip Glass: when the cast walked like pedestrians back and forth across the stage in a vertical line and spun on their heels. The many times that one dancer became the pinpoint of an active circle evoked several of Justin Peck’s works.

Olivia Bell in Gianna Reisen’s “Signs” at New York City Ballet’s 2024 Fall Fashion Gala. Photograph by Erin Baiano

“Signs” perhaps also seemed extra youthful this time around because Caili Quan’s “Beneath the Tides,” which followed it, had quite a similar premise. But where “Signs” employed company newbies and a twist on classroom wear (artfully cut powder-periwinkle leotards by Marc Happel), “Tides” showcased two of the troupe’s most commanding ballerinas and the dramatic draping of Gilles Medel of House of Gilles. The women’s gowns were sexy and flattering, though not as sexy and flattering as the men’s toplessness above waist-cinching black corsets. A gray curtain billowed at the back left of the stage, we’d moved from the prom to the ballroom. Philip Glass’s repetitive scales were supplanted by Saint-Saens’s swooning Cello Concerto No. 1. “Tides” and “Signs” shared a lot of gestures, body rolls, contractions, and flat-footed accents, but where “Signs” was PG-13, “Tides” was a bodice-ripper.

Like Bell in “Signs,” Tiler Peck was the odd woman out in “Tides,” weaving through the party guests with sultry skirt swishes and pirouettes galore. She was attached to a bowing motif: she repeatedly performed a reverence, and the corps bowed to her as she passed through their ranks. She was like a paso doblé incarnation of the Russian Girl in Balanchine’s “Serenade.” Sara Mearns and Gilbert Bolden III were stunning in their moody pas de deux, which featured wraparound legs and rolled port de bras back. Aaron Sanz and Jules Mabie were fantastic as an athletic, tortured duo. I’m not sure what was tormenting them, but their long complementary lines and slashing legs were always a welcome sight. It was a treat to see all these exceptional performers strutting around in style. I did not understand the underlying impetus for their actions and interactions, but Quan moved her cast around seamlessly and surely. It was a solid, if slightly quizzical, premiere.

Mira Nadon, Chun Wai Chan, and the Company in Tiler Peck’s “Concerto
for Two Pianos” at New York City Ballet’s 2024 Fall Fashion Gala. Photograph by Erin Baiano

Tiler Peck’s “Concerto for Two Pianos,” which premiered to great acclaim last winter, closed out the night with authority and polish. Her entire cast, clad in chic yet danceable Zac Posen dresses and unitards, looked wonderful. Mira Nadon and Chun Wai Chan crafted a decadent and free partnership, and Roman Mejia thrillingly soared around the stage. India Bradly and Emma Von Enck were zippy and fierce in their wasplike interludes.

“Concerto for Two Pianos” also overlapped with the preceding pieces quite a bit. All three dances featured snaps and claps, and the latter two had numerous Latin accents and skirt play. Peck too quoted the hometown rep, with passages that called to Ratmanksy’s “Namouna” and Robbins’s “Opus 19/The Dreamer.” But in general, I’d say she follows in the line of the Balanchine-Ratmanksy branch of the City Ballet family tree. (And I’d put Reisen down on the Robbins-Justin Peck arm.) However, Peck’s voice is entirely her own. It is, as Wendy Whelan accurately noted in a mid-show speech, marked by musicality and precision, just like her dancing. In “Two Pianos,” Peck matched her audacious Poulenc score technically and dramatically, and she also refreshingly pushed back at it at times. On this fashionable evening, in her choreography and her dancing, Tiler Peck was a reminder of the power—and the rarity—of true personal style.

Faye Arthurs

Faye Arthurs is a former ballet dancer with New York City Ballet. She chronicled her time as a professional dancer in her blog Thoughts from the Paint. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Fordham University. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their sons.

comments

Ed October 13, 2024

Tiler Peck’s personal style, combined with her familiarity of the strength of the NYCB dancers, will be a big factor as she continues to contribute to the repertory.

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