The New York City Ballet’s “American Songs and Dances” is an odd collection of dances. The program, seen on Saturday night at the New York State Theater, should have been much more fun and thought-provoking.
The dancers seem to have settled into Peter Martins’s “Thou Swell,” a celebration of the music of Richard Rodgers, snazzily arranged by Glen Kelly. The overall look was a good deal less fussy, and looks are everything here. The ballet’s series of duets and brief solos unfolds in a stylish, faintly Art Deco cabaret designed by Robin Wagner. Julius Lumsden’s costumes make the men look casually elegant and the lead women look glamorous, though the four corps women do resemble gnats.
The ballet opens magically, with the dancers slipping in from one or another of the set’s multilevel, mirrored crannies to dance the night through to heart-tuggers and rambunctious odes to love, sung with just the right piquancy by Betsy Wolfe and Mike McGowan. Nilas Martins, so good in relaxed, jazzy choreography, has a chance to do his easygoing thing in “Getting to Know You.” His partner throughout, Yvonne Borree, dances like an adorably impetuous kid sister who grows up to the sound of “With a Song in My Heart.”
Other standouts were Sara Mearns, new in her role, who was long, lean and luscious in dances partnered by Tyler Angle. Faye Arthurs’s liquid phrasing in “Blue Moon,” partnered by Charles Askegard, was another special pleasure in a fine cast completed by Darci Kistler and Jared Angle. The orchestra, conducted by Fayçal Karoui, seemed to be having as much fun as the dancers, with musical solos by Alan Moverman (piano), Ron Wasserman (bass) and James Saporito (drums).
Jerome Robbins’s “Ives, Songs” came next, sandwiched between Robbins’s “West Side Story Suite” like a portobello mushroom between slices of iced lemon cake. “Ives” responds to American themes, both musical and social, with typically thorny darkness in songs sung by Philip Cutlip to piano accompaniment by Cameron Grant.
The score seems an odd choice, though it allows Robbins to set up an unconvincing ballet version of “Our Town.” There are little girls in ruffled dresses, stomping boys, World War I soldiers and a few lugubrious adults (Wendy Whelan, Mr. Askegard, Ms. Mearns and Jared Angle). Dena Abergel and Jason Fowler wander through with the quiet, glowing resonance of memories, with a slow-walking Robert La Fosse doing the remembering.
“West Side Story Suite” should have been a fizzy chaser after all this, but it was not. Amar Ramasar made a strong role debut as Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks, in this reworking by Robbins of the Broadway musical for the concert stage. Mr. Ramasar’s chill dignity and innate authority, in his restrained dancing as well as his acting, made Bernardo more menacing than usual and, strangely, almost poignant. The always vivid Georgina Pazcoguin was new as Bernardo’s girlfriend, Anita, spitting the choreography out explosively.
It might have been a lingering lugubriousness from the “Ives,” but the rest of the lead cast — Benjamin Millepied as the sainted Tony; Damian Woetzel as Riff, the leader of the Jets; Ms. Arthurs as Bernardo’s sister Maria; and Gretchen Smith as her friend Rosalia — seemed slightly pallid. But Ms. Pazcoguin, Mr. Woetzel and Ms. Smith sang impressively. Those in the large corps took their unaccustomed roles and ran with them, however, with a nicely tough and tousled Jennifer Tinsley-Williams as living proof that City Ballet dancers can snap fingers with the best of them.
