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Falling, Floating, and Flying

A smoky, orange hue hovers over the stage like wildfire smoke. A woman emerges from the flame, floating erect atop a crawling man’s back. She bends her knees and dismounts, arriving center stage, delivered to the audience like a queen. This striking moment comes from Andrea Miller’s “Sama,” which was performed by Miller's Gallim for the opening program of New York City Center's 2024 Fall for Dance Festival.

Performance

Fall for Dance: Program 1

Place

New York City Center, New York, NY, September 19, 2024

Words

Cecilia Whalen

The National Ballet of Ukraine in “War Elegy” by Alexei Ratmansky. Photograph by Steven Pisano

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“Sama” is a ferocious, hyperphysical piece full of contorted backbends, flying leaps, and ecstatic shaking. The piece, which premiered in 2019, attempts to challenge the supposed wonders of the digital age by showcasing the unmatched power of the physical body. The bodies of Gallim certainly exude power. The 14-member cast threw themselves in all directions, bending and vibrating to the point of exhaustion. The dancers’ energy was augmented by special effects such as the lighting and smoke, and a featured moment in which two dancers glided across the stage on enormous stilts. While perhaps contradicting Miller's emphasis on the astounding capabilities of the human form alone, these effects made for an exciting, explosive visual experience. 

“Sama” closed the first program. Preceding it were Alexei Ratmansky's “Wartime Elegy” and Tiler Peck’s “Piano Songs,” respectively.  

“Piano Songs” is a new solo performed by American Ballet Theatre principal Aran Bell, a tall, composed, technically brilliant dancer. Recently, Bell has been celebrated for his dramatic portrayals as Romeo, “Giselle's” Albrecht, and a variety of other princes. 

Gallim in “Sama” by Andrea Miller. Photograph courtesy of the artists

Peck’s “Piano Songs” is not a drama. Set to three songs for two pianos by Meredith Monk, the choreography is daydreamy and contemplative. Bell begins by tracing the horizon with outstretched fingers and an enamored gaze. His hands are sensitive and move softly as if through a cloud. Monk’s songs evoke landscapes (two, “Ellis Island” and “Paris,” are actually named after places). In turn, we see Bell travelling through different settings, painting pictures sometimes simply with his focus, other times, with silly little gestures, like a shake of the foot that might signal jiggling sand off of his shoe. 

Bell danced onstage with two live pianists, Derek Wang and Joel Wenhardt. In choreographed moments of interaction, Bell gestured playfully towards the musicians to soften or slow down. At times, he interacted with the instruments, too, leaning on a piano and then taking a seat beneath it. These moments appeared more staged than natural, but the relationship with the musicians underlined Peck and Bell's attention to Monk's rubato-ed, at times odd-metered, enchanting score. 

Alexei Ratmansky's “Wartime Elegy” opened the evening. It was performed by the National Ballet of Ukraine, which will remain in New York for its own residency at New York City Center Oct. 15 and 16. According to a New York Times article, the dancers were thrilled to be performing in New York, for obvious reasons, but importantly so that they could finally get a good night's sleep: “Even though we're working very hard, it’s like taking a break because we can finally sleep” without the constant din of bombings, one dancer said. 

The National Ballet of Ukraine has continued to perform in Kyiv despite the war, although the company performs for a limited audience: only as many people as can fit in the theatre's underground bomb shelter.  

“Wartime Elegy” premiered in 2022 on Pacific Northwest Ballet at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In setting the piece on the National Ballet of Ukraine, Ratmansky, who is from Kyiv but lives in New York, met the dancers in Amsterdam. 

“Wartime Elegy” is sparse, and rather simple. Set to somber music by Valentyn Silvestrov as well as Ukrainian folk music, it juxtaposes scenes of melancholic ensemble movement where dancers are dressed in black with small groups of joyful folk dances danced in traditional costume (costumes by Moritz Junge). 

The National Ballet of Ukraine in “Wartime Elegy” by Alexei Ratmansky. Photograph by Steven Pisano

Despite its melancholic sections, “Wartime Elegy” does not seem to be a dance of grief, nor one of despair: the folkdance sections make so that the audience and the dancers experience many moments of joy and laughter. Neither is it a dance exactly of hope: There is celebration in folk and cultural tradition, but it does not triumph over the somber sections. Instead, “Wartime Elegy” seems to be about holding on. The juxtaposing folk and somber sections couldn't be more different, but they share an important motif. 

In the “black” sections, dancers latch on to each other as they travel across the stage, freezing into an ascending formation that looks like an image of evolution. A dancer on one end has fallen to the ground, but each following dancer rises a level up from the one next to them. The last dancer is standing.  

In the folk dance, the men grab onto each other's arms. They create an effect of a large wheel, pulling each other down on one side and up on the other, making so that the connected dancers are constantly rising out of and sinking into the ground cyclically.  

Both of these instances create very different emotional effects— the first is solemn, and the second is comical. Physically, however, they require the same action: holding on tight. In “Wartime Elegy,” the dancers of the National Ballet of Ukraine are just trying to hold on—both in joy and in misery— to tradition, to memory, to life, and to each other. 

Cecilia Whalen

Cecilia Whalen is a writer and dancer from Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and holds a bachelor's degree in French. Currently, Cecilia is studying composition at the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance in New York City. She lives in Brooklyn.

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