If times weren't so hard, Martins told Koch from the stage, the entire audience would have gotten some vodka, as they did in January 2004, on what would have been George Balanchine's 100th birthday. But in this economy, only Martins, Koch and his wife got the booze.
Otherwise, it was the usual fall gala at New York City Ballet, with ample opportunity for people-watching. Sarah Jessica Parker was there in a glittery black minidress, running into friends like the designer Valentino and Candace Bushnell, the sex columnist on which Parker's famous TV character, Carrie Bradshaw, was based (Bushnell is married to an NYCB principal dancer.)
As for the dancing, it was a greatest-hits style evening, a pleasing mix of styles, choreographers and composers. A weightier first act gave way to a more lighthearted second half, with the guest Julliard Jazz Orchestra onstage, playing music from Wynton Marsalis to Ray Charles to Duke Ellington.
The evening opened with Martins' own "Chichester Psalms," notable for the presence of the huge New York City Opera chorus onstage, and the lush dancing of Sara Mearns, justifiably promoted to principal last season. Later in the first act, Janie Taylor and Daniel Ulbricht lent the right touch of dramatic intensity to an excerpt of Balanchine's "Ivesiana," in which the ballerina spends virtually the entire time atop the shoulders of several male partners.
In Act 2, Savannah Lowery was an appealingly kooky heroine in the comic piece "Blossom Got Kissed," to Ellington's music, with especially sharp dancing from the corps. The real crowd-pleaser, though, was Andrew Veyette, dancing with wit and athletic vigor around a little red chair in a solo from Martins' "A Fool For You."
After the show, the well-clad crowd retired to the promenade for dinner and dancing, leaving the rest of the crowd to file somewhat wistfully out of the building.
