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IMPRESSIONS: New York City Ballet in Jerome Robbins' "Dances at a Gathering" and George Balanchine's "Diamonds"

 

Winter Season 2026   

January 20 – March 1

David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center

 

FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 27, 7:30 PM 

DANCES AT A GATHERING: Woodward, Gerrity, O. MacKinnon, *LaFreniere, Afanasenkov, Huxley, Chan, *Mabie, Zuniga, Coll [Solo Piano: Kim] 

DIAMONDS: **Nadon, **P. Walker [Guest Conductor: Grams] 

 

SUNDAY MATINEE, MARCH 1, 3:00 PM 

DANCES AT A GATHERING: T. Peck, Nadon, O. MacKinnon (replaces E. Von Enck), M. Fairchild, Hod, Mejia, Tomash, Danchig-Waring, Zuniga (replaces Gabriel), Riccardo [Solo Piano: Kim] 

DIAMONDS: Mearns, T. Angle [Guest Conductor: Grams] 

* First Time in Role ** NYC Debut 

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Two glorious performances of Jerome Robbins’masterwork Dances at a Gathering paired with a newly costumed edition of George Balanchine’s Diamonds made the New York City Ballet shine and sparkle at the end of its winter season.

Not to worry, the Karinska design for the last gem in the Jewels- triptych is still the same. The fabric and the rhinestones are brand-spanking new, however; and when the curtain opens on the second half of this program, you wish you brought your sunglasses.  Mira Nadon and Peter Walker make their NYC debut in the leading roles, and deliver a stunning interpretation. Walker looks and acts confident. While he partners with aplomb, he knows when to focus on Nadon, and does not compete with her. He delivers long and clean lines in his solo passages; he nails multiple turns with a bravura finish; and his jumps possess a joyful spring. Walker has stepped out of the shadow existence of being that guy who was made principal because he was tall and strong enough to partner. He has now successfully embraced his role as a leading man.  

After a few seconds of an empty stage, Walker enters from downstage left a moment before Nadon, upstage right, faces him on the long diagonal. They step toward one another in a zig-zag pattern: their legs cross, cross, open. What makes this pas de deux so magical? It is not the length or the difficulty. It is the importance of gesture, the purposeful repetition of patterns, the momentary gravitas of her outstretched hand that almost touches his forehead as if to bless him. A simple walk in which the two hold each other with crossed hands repeats in two diagonals. They lift their joined hands, one after the other, creating hopeful arcs to walk under, only to bring their hands down again with the next two steps confirming their bond. Of course, there are fantastic extensions to admire, and the suppleness of Nadon’s upper body; and, yes, there is the excitement of two dancers exploring roles together for the first time and relishing every moment along the way.

In the final, Sunday afternoon performance, a different journey unfolds. Veteran principal dancers Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle know Diamonds inside and out. Mearns trusts she can depend on Angle, and she rides the movement leaning off-center with luscious abandon. If Friday’s performance is about discovery, then Sunday celebrates the holiness of a true partnership. Mearns and Angle breathe, push, pull, and extend as one organism in harmony with each other. Their artistry touches me deeply. 

The fantastic redo of the costumes for the whole corps de ballet looks like it cost a fortune. You know it is money well spent, when the audience can’t help but “ooh” and “aah’” applauding the first sight of the tutus when the curtain goes up. Stunning!

The choreography for the corps sections was never revolutionary. After all, it celebrates the Imperial Russian ballet with its hierarchical structure; and is set to the tunes of Imperial ballet composer Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky. I find the spatial exercises for the four-times-three women tame and boring. When two demi-soloists augment the proceedings, the tedium increases; and by the time the guys join them, and one counts 32 fresh-faced dancers behind the czarina and her supportive czar, I am ready for a revolution. The orchestra under the baton of guest conductor Andrew Grams sounds nothing short of magnificent, but Diamonds is a mixed bag. The unforgettable pas de deux is entrenched and embedded in less than exciting group exercises, now packaged in stupendously glamorous gear. 

Dances at a Gathering opens the program, and two different casts take on this reverie to Frédéric Chopin’s music interpreted by pianist Hanna Hyunjung Kim. Choreographed in 1969 (two years after Diamonds), the ballet celebrates community. Robbins, a US choreographer, has a more democratic view of society. Here everyone gets to hold hands and dance with one another. A circle at the end of the work tells me in the gentlest way that the student riots of 1968 were not for nothing. Perhaps the egalitarian worldview of modern dance has a chance to win over an audience, even in the corporate world of Lincoln Center, which otherwise reflects the pyramidal structure of an imperial regime. 

But socio-political concerns aside, let’s take a look at what NYCB pulled off in the last few days of its season. Sunday’s cast goes on with two replacements, but quite a few of the dancers debuted as recently as Thursday, when the program received the first of five performances. Among those debuts were Nadon (in mauve) and Ryan Tomash (in purple). The day after the season, Tomash was named the company’s newest principal dancer.

When Roman Mejia (in brown) steps on stage, he hesitates. The empty space is vast, and it takes a deep breath of courage to explore and take it in, and maybe conquer it. Mejia is wise to unwind here and there. He allows himself to experience the movement fully, and lets different passages guide him either attacking a step sequence or caressing the space in front of him with a soft port de bras, as if it were his imagined lover. The ensuing duet for Nadon and Adrian Danchig-Waring (in green) plays with the idea of canon, catch up, and unison. You show me, I follow you, we dance together. It’s as sweet as a first meeting can be, and prepares us to understand the work to come. At one point, he spins around with one arm in front and a leg behind him, as if he were Giselle spiraling out of the earth at Myrta’s call to join the undead. Much later in the ballet, Nadon repeats this motif in a stormy solo in which she seems to feel duress. 

Tomash lifts Tiler Peck (in pink) in the duet that follows, and tilts her to her side. She opens and closes her legs like a crab. The world is their oyster. A breezy, short solo by Olivia MacKinnon (in apricot) is accompanied only at the very end by Tomash. Robbins plays with form: solo, duet, duet, solo (with a guest at the end). After that, Robbins introduces uneven accumulation. A guy dances with two girls, who then cavort with three more guys building tableaux as if they had their family pictures taken. 

Different pairings and groupings throughout the piece allow the dancers to relate to various partners in ways that bring out new sides of their personalities. Robbins allows for a multidimensional human being with a range of emotion. The lady in apricot is mostly jolly, but the woman in pink appears contemplative or, at other times, euphoric. Indiana Woodward, on Friday, gives the feeling that Chun Wai Chan (in purple) could sweep her off her feet, and she would be happily airborne for the rest of her life. In another duet, she has fun challenging Anthony Huxley (in brown) to a duel of loving one-upmanship. Technically impeccable, Tiler Peck is unfortunately too much of an entertainer to just let go and have a role guide her, altering her chemistry with a partner from section to section. Her frozen smile keeps her emotionally safe, but since she takes risks physically and masters every hurdle, I applaud anyway. 

When Nadon is lost in a storm, and recalls the Giselle turn she witnessed her partner, Danchig-Waring, perform early in the piece, her reprise of it becomes a call for a supernatural power to restore harmony. Jules Mabie and Emilie Gerrity dance faultlessly in the same roles during Friday’s outing, but I needed to see Nadon and Danchig-Waring to make the connection. Isabella LaFreniere and Megan Fairchild alternate as the woman in green, and enjoy being the latecomer and odd one out. Andres Zuniga (in brick) does double duty; and Dominika Afanasenkov, Ashley Hod, Harrison Coll, and an especially elegant Davide Riccardo (all in blue) beautify their group. 

I look forward to seeing Dances at a Gathering many more times. There is always some detail to discover, and a new dancer to fall in love with, feeling at home in this community of dancers who share their art with each other and with the audience.

 

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