May 19, 2015
New York City Ballet Reviews: ‘La Sylphide,’ ‘Bournonville Divertissements’ and More
by Robert Greskovic
Apart from the Bournonville aspects of the season, noteworthy performances of NYCB’s mainstay works, the ballets of George Balanchine, came from Ms. Bouder and Anthony Huxley, particularly in “Duo Concertante.” Both these outgoing dancers made fresh work of the initially playful and eventually solemn emphases that Balanchine arranged in 1972 to Stravinsky’s composition for piano and violin. In the perfumed garden atmosphere of Balanchine’s “Walpurgisnacht Ballet” (to Gounod), Sara Mearns held the center of its free-spirited sisterhood of 23 by spinning, reaching and flying through Balanchine’s wittily timed solos and meltingly calm supported moments like a force of nature that seemed to know no bounds.