Ballet’s search for the Next Big Thing can get as frantic as a speed-dating princess. Happily, New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck is no frog.
The 25-year-old choreographer has done three pieces for the company in the past year. “In Creases,” which headlined Wednesday night’s Art Series, is the best so far — solid, coherent work.
Peck talked onstage before the ballet, saying it explored attraction and repulsion. You can see that as the dancers — in pale blue — moved like molecules to a Philip Glass score for two pianos, attaching in quartets, breaking off and recombining into trios.
Some of the troupe’s lesser-known dancers had a chance to take the spotlight. Daniel Applebaum split wide in the air, then high-stepped through the others like the start of an obstacle course. Gretchen Smith and Brittany Pollack materialized out of the darkness, stalking en pointe as they tick-tocked from leg to leg.
But the star turn went to Robert Fairchild, who was the emotional center of the piece. He mirrored the mood shifts in the ballet from restless to contemplative, tearing from corner to corner or moving alone at center stage as the light went to dusk.
The additional ballets on the program showed the other paths the company’s wandered since founder George Balanchine’s death.
Ulysses Dove’s 1994 “Red Angels” has hot lighting, sleek unitards and a score for electric violin. The back curtains parted and a quartet of dancers stalked out from what looked like a glowing inferno, only to deliver a performance that was oddly cool.
“A Fool for You,” Peter Martins’ salute to Ray Charles, seemed more like a Vegas revue. It has all the ingredients for a hit — thanks to songs like “Hit the Road Jack” and “What’d I Say” — but show dancing isn’t the company’s specialty and Martins gives them nothing beyond tricks.
For a ballet troupe looking for the Next Big Thing, Vegas is the wrong road to take.