BACK in 1987, Peter Martins premiered “Les Gentilhommes,” a work he created for New York City Ballet’s younger male dancers. Since then, apart from a handful of performances last summer by the company’s School of American Ballet, “Les Gentilhommes” hadn’t been seen for more than 18 years – until last week, when Martins revived it for the full company, its nine men led by the bouncy Daniel Ulbricht.
The aim, as both the title and the Handel music it’s made to might suggest, is to celebrate masculine grace and dignity.
In fact, it’s this concentration on elegance rather than the whiz-bang aspects of male technique that gives the ballet, even when as handsomely danced as it was here, an evenness of texture and lack of climax, which makes it more of a demonstration than a repertory item.
Still, it’s worth keeping around as the occasional showpiece, particularly for those men in the corps de ballet who rarely get to show their mettle.
The program also offered Balanchine’s “Ballo della Regina,” with both Ashley Bouder and Benjamin Millepied in great form; Christopher Wheeldon’s somberly impressive “Liturgy,” with Wendy Whelan and Albert Evans; and ended with a slightly off-center performance of Jerome Robbins’ “Fancy Free.”
In this last, neither Amanda Hankes, as the girl with the red pocketbook, nor Tiler Peck, in the romantic duet, both dancing the ballet for the first time, left much impression of good-time, good-hearted ladies on the town in Times Square in 1944.
Weekend performances also brought freshly cast repeats of Balanchine’s full-evening “Jewels” and Martins’ “Romeo + Juliet.”
In “Jewels,” Rachel Rutherford, Jared Angle and Robert Fairchild excelled in “Emeralds,” while other debuts brought a superbly controlled Gonzalo Garcia and a vulgarly vampish Savannah Lowery in “Rubies.” In the final segment, “Diamonds,” Sara Mearns was beginning to look a true-blue ballerina, partnered by a dullish Jonathan Stafford.
The main interest in “Romeo” centered on another young star in the making, Kathryn Morgan. Partnered by an ardent Sean Suozzi, she danced beautifully but desperately needs to be expressive in her acting.
The best performance of this matinee – the same cast repeats tonight – was Andrew Veyette as a brilliant, wickedly mocking Mercutio.
NEW YORK CITY BALLET
New York State Theater, Lincoln Center; (212) 870-5570. Through Feb. 24.