The best thing about New York City Ballet’s spring opener Tuesday night was that the dancers were onstage at all. Late the night before, they finally wrapped up their contentious labor negotiations, having worked without a contract since August.
Once they’d inked an agreement, the company got down to business with its “Black and White” — a packed festival week of Balanchine’s pared-down hits, featuring simple costumes and complicated music. All the ballets are unforgettable; the challenge for the dancers is living up to them.
In Balanchine’s baroque gem “Square Dance,” Megan Fairchild gave the kind of warm, expansive performance she didn’t seem to have in her a few seasons back.
Instead of rattling off the speedy footwork like questions on a final exam, she played and enjoyed it, lingering like a hostess who hates to see her guests leave.
Partnering with her was Anthony Huxley, who’s small but princely, and who danced his slow, grave solo of weighty walks and backbends as if he were 10 feet tall.
Still, the two don’t quite click together. They’re physically similar enough that they seem more like brother and sister onstage than partners.
The best dance doesn’t always get the best performance. “Agon,” Balanchine’s masterpiece to Stravinsky, got exaggerated in a way that was sometimes interestingly unorthodox, at other times, just off-kilter. Wendy Whelan can usually do the lead in her sleep, but in a crucial opening moment where she spins and dives forward, hooking her leg around her partner’s head, she fumbled.
Balanchine’s genius is that like Janus, he looks backward and forward. The closer, “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” has two great modern pas de deux at its center and a driving Russian folk dance as its finale.
In the first duet, Maria Kowroski and Amar Ramasar do precarious contortions that continually threaten to collapse. In the second, Sterling Hyltin and Ask la Cour — delicate woman, imposing man — hit the right balance between performing and merely dancing.
Things should only improve with time. Like so many other opening nights, this one looked like a good dress rehearsal.