Review: At Ballet Theater, Premieres More Pale Than Ghostly

Near the end, the other dancers bestow a cape on Mr. Cornejo, as if he were a king or James Brown. This superlative dancer deserves all that, and he deserves a better dance than this one, which makes his humility look wan rather than heroic. If there are ghosts here, they are ghosts of better works by Ms. Tharp, several with music by Brahms or made for Mikhail Baryshnikov. Fortunately, one of those better pieces, “Deuce Coupe,” returns on Friday.

The choreographer Jessica Lang once danced for Ms. Tharp. Ballet Theater, in promoting Ms. Lang’s work lately, has been offering her as a Tharp heir. If you want to judge the merit of that argument (I’m far from convinced), it’s better to see Ms. Lang’s 2018 “Garden Blue,” which returns on Wednesday on a program with premieres by Gemma Bond and James Whiteside, than her “Let Me Sing Forevermore,” which had its New York debut at the gala.

“Let Me Sing Forevermore” had its world premiere earlier this year at the Erik Bruhn Competition in Toronto, and a competition dance is all it is. Catherine Hurlin and Aran Bell are Ballet Theater’s cute pairing of the moment — they’re also paired in “A Gathering of Ghosts” — and they look good together, the mix of her spunk and his elegance bubbling in Fred-and-Ginger fashion. Yet all Ms. Lang gives them are some clichéd gestures at romance set to recordings by Tony Bennett.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/arts/dance/american-ballet-theater-review.html?emc=rss&partner=rss