Opening night Tuesday at New York City Ballet seemed like a surprise party — one where the dancers came into the theater to rehearse, turned on the lights and found the audience sitting there.
“Serenade” should have been a classic opening to this all-Balanchine program: From 1934, it’s the first ballet he made in America. When the curtain rises, the corps of women, in identical filmy blue skirts, stands frozen. With a breath, they move their arms, as if they were thawing back to life.
But the piece didn’t get a classic performance — the leads were too quirky. Janie Taylor is wonderful in roles with a hint of weirdness; here she was just odd, her jumps jerky when they should have been smooth. Rebecca Krohn looked jittery and brittle, and Ashley Bouder appeared as if she’d arrived from some other ballet — even wearing an old-fashioned low hair bun, unlike the 19 other women onstage, who wore theirs up high.
“Serenade” was paired with “Kammermusik No. 2,” returning to repertory with a new cast. Sara Mearns and Teresa Reichlen have very different personalities, but they mismatch well. Mearns was ferocious as she ticked off rapid-fire poses, Reichlen sporty and humorous as she pranced across the stage.
Uncommonly for Balanchine, “Kammermusik No. 2” has no women, only men. Eight of them work en masse, sometimes stalking to Paul Hindemith’s driving score, sometimes preening like large cats.
But “Kammermusik No. 2” isn’t Balanchine at his most original. Much of it looks familiar, and it needs inspired staging to overcome the recycling.
“Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet” isn’t top-drawer either, but it’s a big, reliable ballet with a splashy gypsy close.
In the romantic “Intermezzo,” Sterling Hyltin began lightweight, but kept getting more grounded as she swooned into Robert Fairchild’s arms and let him swing her across the stage.
Tyler Angle made his debut in the finale as a too-refined gypsy who seems more a prince. And even with her ribbons flying and one leg kicked above her head, Maria Kowroski was more of a glamour gal than a fiery peasant.
A shaky opening night is no cause for alarm; the dancers should settle in soon enough. But it’s better when a paying audience sees a performance instead of a final dress rehearsal.