Not only does snow fall, but snow falls on a calm sea. In its first moments, When We Fell, Kyle Abraham’s new dance film for the New York City Ballet, sets its tone: muted, tuned to melting subtleties.
In interviews, Abraham said that for this film – which will be available on the company’s website and YouTube channel until April 22 – he was aware of the more flamboyant aspects of The Runaway, his 2018 hit for City Ballet , has avoided. He has said that he was instead influenced by the environment in which the new work was done: during a February “bubble” residence in the Hudson Valley, where the silence of the quarantine was heightened by snow.
All of this is evident in the 16-minute work, which includes piano pieces by Morton Feldman and Nico Muhly as replacements for Jason Moran. But because this dance had to be a movie, Abraham’s most important decision may have been to choose a co-director, cinematographer Ryan Marie Helfant. “When We Fell”, shot in 16 mm black and white, is one of the most beautiful dance films of the pandemic.
After the snow and the sea, it positions the dancers in the lobby of the home theater of the City Ballet in Lincoln Center, making use of the clarity and elegance of the place, the geometric floor designs and the balcony work. Unlike many recent dance films, this body establishes and maintains in relation to the space around it. When it comes to a different point of view, the processing is calm, musical and coherent. Even shifts as ostentatious and potentially disoriented as switching between side and top views are absorbed into the calm rhythm of the film.
The most noticeable moment is a transition, a quick assembly of architectural details. This is significant as Abraham’s choreography is also focused on details. As in “The Runaway”, Abraham skillfully combines ballet with other influences, from Merce Cunningham to club dance. But the mixing here is more relaxed, less proving something. Elements that could be rich in contrast, arabesques or body scrolls, are all delivered on the same plane without emphasis – each snowflake registers itself before it merges with the water.
This also applies to the diversity of the eight-person cast: a racial mixture that still cannot be accepted in this or any other ballet company is obvious, but is not emphasized, as is the lack of ballet hierarchies. The main dancers Lauren Lovette and Taylor Stanley (Abraham’s city ballet muse, star of “The Runaway” and the short film “Ces noms que nous portons”) get the final pas de deux, in which some ballet gender conventions are neglected with beautiful certainty . But the soloist Claire Kretzschmar and the corps members India Bradley and Christopher Grant shine equally.
Even one apprentice, KJ Takahashi, stands out in a number of twists that are typical of this work: there is bravado without breaking the contemplative surface, and the tension holds the dullness in check. This is when the dancers have moved onto the stage of the theater and the music – Moran’s “All Hammers and Chains” – is at its wildest. Glissandi chains bubble over low hammer blows. Even so, the dance remains calm.
“When we fell”
Until April 22nd, nycballet.com.
