At City Ballets Season Opener, Dancers Like Greyhounds Unleashed

'George Balanchine’s choreography advertises dancers, glorifies dancers, gives dancers both their toughest assignments and their ultimate release. Balanchine (1904-83) was New York City Ballet’s founding ballet master, in 1948; when it dances his ballets, the most irresistible response is to talk about the dancers. It’s also the most superficial, but let’s attend to this surface level first. On Tuesday night, the company opened its six-week spring season at Lincoln Center with a program of three Balanchine ballets: Many dancers at all levels were like greyhounds unleashed.

Nothing was more sensational than Tiler Peck’s performance in the opener, “Allegro Brillante” (1956). This ballet has been a first-rate vehicle for this intensely musical virtuoso for some years, but on Tuesday she broke through to a new fire-and-wind level of fervor; her brilliance was fueled by both abandon and vehemence.

The performances of Sara Mearns (Sanguinic) and Teresa Reichlen (Choleric) in “The Four Temperaments” (1946) were quite as vivid. Ms. Mearns, pouncing breezily through the knottily rapid-fire steps, devouring space elsewhere with Amazonian boldness. Ms. Reichlen, coolly explosive, was rage and fate combined. These women were already exceptional: What ever has got into them now?'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/arts/dance/at-city-ballet-dancers-like-greyhounds-unleashed.html?