Providing a lovely interlude, Stanislav easily tossed off Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E Major while the dancers readied themselves for “Episodes: Ricercata.” The full work was a 1959 co-production between the Martha Graham Dance Company and New York City Ballet, and though it was a collaboration, with each choreographer working separately on the two halves, Graham’s section was ultimately removed from City Ballet’s repertory after 1960.

Staged by Karz, Sébastien Marcovici and Janie Taylor, the ambitious work featured Annette Cherkasov and Szentes as the lead couple. Abetted by an ensemble of 14 women, it was set to Anton Webern’s arrangement of Bach’s fugally rich, “Ricercata,” from the composer’s “Musical Offering.” Cherkasov, displaying hummingbird-like feet, as well as high extensions, and Szentes, once more in bravura mode, demonstrated that classical ballet could, in fact, integrate a variety of moves without compromising its own practices. 

Again, the geometry of this leotard ballet—patterns form and dissolve like liquid—accentuated the tension between simplicity and pure lyricism, with the added corps, including, among others, Hannah Barr, Hayley Book, Daria Breslin, Taylor Nichols and Scarlett Learned, crafting the onstage action as a vortex of unfettered beauty, especially in their splendid unisons. 

Here, too, is contrapuntal corps work that not only imitates the fugue-like musical repetitions through interwoven paths and isolated body parts, but also in complex patterns, no less. Without live music—Makena James on organ—however, this burst of controlled spontaneity, this carefully hewn dance, would not feel as alive, further igniting the room with artistic gold, as it were. 

Not for nothing, then, did principal City Ballet dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring recently declare in a New York Times‘ article that “Balanchine’s masterworks are evergreen because they are rooted in philosophy, music theory, dramaturgy, mathematics, et cetera.” And as the times we live in are decidedly strange, being able to witness dance up close and of this caliber, is not only gratifying, but is also balm for the soul.