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Wild Things

Wei Wang begins as any faun does: alone and center stage, awakened from a reverie and looking a touch wobbly. For a principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet, moving with an artful awkwardness is an achievement in itself. In Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Faun”—a take on the often-referenced “Afternoon of a Faun”—Wang and demi-soloist Jacey Gailliard transform into beings of the forest.

Performance

Fall for Dance Program 4: San Francisco Ballet in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Faun” / Friedemann Vogel in Friedemann Vogel & Thomas Lempertz’s “ECHO:SOG” / Gautier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart in Hofesh Shechter’s “Any way the wind blows”

Place

New York City Center, New York, NY, September 30, 2026

Words

Rebecca Deczynski

Wei Wang and Jacey Gailliardin Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Faun.” Photograph by Steven Pisano

This is the opening to the fourth program of New York City Center’s Fall for Dance—and it’s the first time San Francisco Ballet has presented the work, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 2009. It’s a fitting contemporary reimagining of Nijinsky’s 1912 ballet, though where the original is angular and frieze-like, Cherkaoui’s is undulating and acrobatic; Wang tumbles and balances on his head.

Another significant departure from the source material is Gailliard’s role as a nymph who—unlike one might assume—is outwardly expressive and bold in her encounter with the faun. In fact, she is his equal when they move in unison, hands and heads to the floor. Sensual, exploratory partnering sequences lend the work an erotic tenor as the dancers snake around each other’s bodies. To be so fluid and slithering in their movements, they must be extremely strong. Gailliard and Wang are up to the task and fully embody their personas. It’s mesmerizing to watch the different ways they scaffold around each other, connecting in every way except for the obvious.

Friedemann Vogel in Friedemann Vogel & Thomas Lempertz’s “ECHO:SOG.” Photograph by Steven Pisano

Friedemann Vogel in Friedemann Vogel & Thomas Lempertz’s “ECHO:SOG.” Photograph by Steven Pisano

Stuttgart Ballet principal Friedemann Vogel follows with the world premiere of “ECHO:SOG,” a solo set to Bach’s “Chaconne in D Minor” for piano, choreographed by Vogel and Thomas Lempertz. It’s Vogel himself who wheels on pianist Abram Korsunsky before transitioning into the musically driven movement.

His technique alone makes the piece invigorating, with soaring développés in all directions. This isn’t pure classical ballet, though. With his hands and arms, Vogel finds modes of expression that are more emotive: with his palms flat together, he slides them around the perimeter of his frame. He hits just about every accent there is to hit.

Vogel projects ample power in his dancing, though he’s extremely controlled—especially in surprise challenges, like a headstand into a middle split. But more than any tricks, the moments that are most memorable in this work are those of raw emotion: Vogel, navel to the ground,  pressing both fists down to lift up his torso. 

There are moments in which sequences aren’t danced to completion—which seems attributable more to the pile-on of too many fast steps in a particular passage of movement, rather than to Vogel’s ability to execute. By the end of the work, it seems he’s danced himself to the point of exhaustion, but it’s more catharsis than collapse.

Gautier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart in Hofesh Shechter’s “Any way the wind blows.” Photograph by Steven Pisano

Gautier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart in Hofesh Shechter’s “Any way the wind blows.” Photograph by Steven Pisano

There is something ritualistic in all of the pieces in this program, though perhaps none so much as Hofesh Shechter’s US premiere of “Any way the wind blows,” performed by 11 dancers from Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart.

The work is unmistakably Shechter. (It is set to the choreographer’s own composition; he also designed the costumes with Kerry Rees and Christine Lange). We hear the sound of wind and the stage is dense with fog when the dancers, in two groups, move slowly: on stage right, they rotate in a slow circle with their hands joined, and on the left they stand in a cluster, pulsing their wrists in front of them, almost in simulation of horseback riding. As can be expected, the chaos begins shortly after.

Shechter is the master of controlled disorder. The dancers—all dressed in flowing pieces of street attire—move in layers, maintaining a sense of difference that’s deceptively organized. They shift with swagger, make the signs of the cross, and lean back while shuffling their legs in place. The score transitions to something rather baroque, and their movement takes on a kind of religiosity as the dancers wave their hands in unison. At one point, they all stop and stare up at the light, their mouths agape. The rave continues.

It doesn’t feel all that different from “Red Carpet,” the ballet Shechter created for the Paris Opera Ballet, which performed at City Center earlier this year—but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable, especially when the dancers of Gautier Dance seem particularly well-suited to the choreographer’s particular dialect. It’s a bit of an exorcism. It’s a bit of a dance party. All around, it’s a treat.

Rebecca Deczynski

Rebecca Deczynski is a New York City-based writer and editor publishes the newsletter Mezzanine Society. Her work has appeared in publications including Inc., Domino, NYLON, and InStyle. She graduated from Barnard College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in dance.

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