A new ballet by choreographer Jerome Robbins is an event to be cherished. The New York City Ballet made the world-premiere performance a celebration in more ways than one.
Robbins's giddy and exuberant ballet "Brandenburg," set to segments from four of Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, was launched at New York State Theater at Lincoln Center on Jan. 22 and was presented again on Feb. 12 and 15."Brandenburg" is presented as a festival ballet, starting in the village square and later progressing to a more formal party at court.
The opening segment of Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 is choreographed for a lead pair who might be the queen and king of the May and are at the center of an enthusiastic corps of eight couples.
Hints of folk dance are everywhere in the patterns of the circle and hand-holding daisy-chain formations, in the heel-toe stepping and in the lift of a hand behind the head.
Robbins is sure enough in the counts to meld the movement phrases to Bach's measures so that the dance keeps pace with the rapidly swirling music, even if the performers need to vary the classical movements with little running steps to keep up.
The change of mood comes in Concerto No. 2 when the stage turns dark for a pas de deux that hearkens back to the spirit dances of the Romantic era.
The finale, which is set to the bouncing Concerto No. 6, is a return to the folk-dance motif for the entire cast. Robbins has created another impressive ballet for the company he has served as a performer, associate artistic director and ballet master since 1949.
Now in its 49th year, New York City Ballet under Martins remains mindful of its ties to the past as it expands its repertory.
The company is already thinking ahead to 1998, its 50th anniversary, when it intends to take the riches of its legacy on tour to all 50 states in a gift to the nation.