After presenting works by a Briton, Frederick Ashton, on Tuesday, Ballet Theater offered an all-American program on Wednesday afternoon: "The Brahms-Haydn Variations" by Twyla Tharp, "Company B" by Paul Taylor and "Fancy Free" by Jerome Robbins.
In the opening weekend of this two-week festival, there will be performances of Jerome Robbins's "Fancy Free" by American Ballet Theater and dances from August Bournonville's "Napoli" by the Royal Danish Ballet.
Things get off to a double-barreled start with Jerome Robbins's Fancy Free, set to music by Leonard Bernstein, followed by dances set to music by Ives, Cage and John Philip Sousa.
Created in 1944 and performed on Wednesday night by the New York City Ballet, "Fancy Free" never ceases to amaze by its universal relevance.
Georgina Pazcoguin, Tiler Peck and Kaitlyn Gilliland are each perfectly individual and distinct as the passers-by of "Fancy Free"; Ms. Peck, who has a duet with Mr. Angle, makes hers a touchingly multifaceted character and times her big moments as if etching them, even at high speed, deep into the music.
So, too, was "Fancy Free," to a score by Leonard Bernstein, at its premiere in 1944; its success prompted Robbins and Bernstein later that year to expand their story about sailors on shore leave into the classic musical "On the Town".
There was an exceptional performance led by Angel Corella, Ethan Stiefel and José Manuel Carreño in Jerome Robbins's "Fancy Free," more than brilliantly staged by Jean-Pierre Frohlich from the New York City Ballet.
In 1944 Robbins choreographed his first, spectacularly successful ballet, Fancy Free, with a musical score by the young composer Leonard Bernstein.
Four years later, for that company, he made his first ballet — the now famous "Fancy Free," with a jazzy score by the young Leonard Bernstein — about three sailors on shore leave.
Those Captivating Sailors They returned to the Blue Angel and were performing there one evening in 1944 when Bernstein dropped by and asked if they would like to help him make a show of the ballet "Fancy Free," which had been choreographed by Jerome Robbins and for which he had only recently written the music.
Whenever you watch a performance of "Fancy Free," you are hearing a score by Leonard Bernstein and seeing a set by Oliver Smith, both as essential to the overall effect of the dance as is the dancing itself -- and both tailored to Robbins's precise specifications.
