The Wall Street Journal-20080213-Melancholy- as a Dane Departs
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Melancholy, as a Dane Departs
Full Text (967 words)NYCB Winter Season
Through Feb. 24
New York -- In 1992 Nikolaj Hubbe, Danish born and trained, joined New York City Ballet with his Nordic blue eyes wide open. Then, as now, under the direction of Peter Martins, a Dane with a similar background to Mr. Hubbe's, NYCB remained linked to the aesthetics of George Balanchine, the Russian emigre who brought the company to world renown over the 35 years preceding his death in 1983.
When I interviewed Mr. Hubbe in 1992 before his NYCB debut, the dashing 25-year-old spoke of Balanchine's focus on the company, where the woman is queen and the man is her consort. Mr. Hubbe accepted this Balanchinean view of the male dancer as "very good, very right and very romantic -- noble, elegant, supportive, always there."
This past Sunday, with a memorable NYCB career behind him, the 40- year-old Mr. Hubbe bid farewell to his adopted company before departing to assume the artistic direction of his alma mater, Copenhagen's Royal Danish Ballet. As the well-planned mixed bill played to a packed and adoring house, Mr. Hubbe provided expert support for five different leading women of NYCB, dancing with distinction and avidity, if not with all of his former finesse, in four different ballets across a spectrum of the repertory he illuminated with his extraordinary artistry.
Most of the program featured the farewell honoree himself, the exception being the inspired inclusion of the pas de deux from August Bournonville's 1858 "Flower Festival in Genzano." Dancing this smiling showpiece that has long been a staple of the Royal Danish company and that entered NYCB repertory in 1977, when Mr. Martins himself gave a glowing account of its intricacies, were two flower-fresh dancers not long out of the School of American Ballet, where Mr. Hubbe has lately been on the faculty as a teacher of the boys' classes.
The radiantly pretty Kathryn Morgan and the deceptively low-key- seeming David Prottas, who each joined NYCB last year, made this duet about youthful love shimmer with spontaneity and shine with expertise. NYCB audiences have recently seen Ms. Morgan distinguish herself in a variety of roles, so her affecting performance was perhaps expected, but Mr. Prottas's easy-powered, large-scale dancing was almost a complete surprise.
Earlier in the season, Mr. Prottas, a former student of Mr. Hubbe's, substituted for an indisposed dancer in "Les Gentilhommes," an all- male ballet by Mr. Martins to the music of Handel. That in "Gentilhommes" Mr. Prottas looked good but not necessarily special is less a comment on his own gifts than on the inherent lack of individuality to Mr. Martins's choreography.
"Gentilhommes" might be expected to reflect the nobility and elegance of the male dancer that Mr. Hubbe fixed on when delineating his view of NYCB. Made by Mr. Martins in 1987, in homage to the scrupulous instruction of the revered Stanley Williams, a Dane who taught at the School of American Ballet under Balanchine, this supposed showcase of NYCB men turned out to be a dry and sometimes constricted exercise for nine male dancers who are treated less as individuals than as bland mirrors of one another.
At the center of "Gentilhommes" this season Mr. Martins cast Daniel Ulbricht, a recently promoted principal dancer of small stature, unexceptional physique, brash manner and uneven technical command. In some roles, such as that of the leading uniformed cadet in "Stars and Stripes," his big bright manner has an ingratiating impact. In "Gentilhommes," however, Mr. Ulbricht looks lackluster. His unremarkable build -- large head, short legs, small feet -- seems even more so in the stark white costuming (by Alain Vaes) for "Gentilhommes."
But Mr. Ulbricht is not the only man in this current company to somehow miss the high marks that Mr. Hubbe hit and understood to be one of Balanchine's still-living legacies at NYCB. Gonzalo Garcia, a recent recruit from San Francisco Ballet who might be hoping to take up slack left by Mr. Hubbe's departure, has shown himself to be an energetic but not especially refined dancer. His reliable dancing is now mated with less-than-notable skills for partnering NYCB's ballerinas. Stephen Hanna, a tall and plain-looking man also given leading roles, dances even more plainly, without force, clarity or impact; he partners only marginally better. Charles Askegard, a gracious and confident dancer who is a sterling partner, hasn't been seen much this season. Meanwhile, an overextended Benjamin Millepied has been given roles with dancing and partnering challenges that his seemingly unbounded personal confidence cannot overcome.
Fortunately, returning to what looks like full-scale form is the poetic and accomplished Jared Angle, whose career had been stymied by injury. This grave but not glum dancer worked wonders last month with the haunting dimensions of the beautiful duet from Jerome Robbins's masterly "Brandenburg," a role originally created for Mr. Hubbe. Likewise, Mr. Angle brought the luster of his pliant dancing and the care of his lush and refined partnering to bear in "The Goldberg Variations" and made Robbins's alternately playful and courtly challenges look simple and splendid.
While the NYCB men now in the middle ranks sometimes leave much to be desired, with the likes of soloists Sean Suozzi and Amar Ramasar often showing more irrepressible verve than academic accuracy, younger ones beyond them show more promise. Besides Mr. Prottas, Devin Alberada and two young men serving on stage as apprentices, Russell Janzen and Cameron Dieck, stand out. All are products of the School of Amercian Ballet and therefore owe some measure of their artistry to Mr. Hubbe's tutelage.
If the departing Dane's legacy has been to set some especially remarkable young male dancers on a sound footing, his absence will be felt less and less by NYCB audiences as these young men fulfill their promise.
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Mr. Greskovic writes about dance for the Journal.
