BWW Reviews: THE SCHOOL OF AMERICAN BALLET'S 2015 WORKSHOP Offers a Mostly Polished and Always Charming Peek at the Upcoming Generation of Dancers

SAB's annual Workshop performances have been a treasured staple on NYC dance lovers' calendars ever since 1965 when the legendary Alexandra Danilova, then a faculty member, initiated the iconic spring ritual. The event is not a graduation ceremony, but rather a tantalizing glimpse of what the future of dance may hold. This year, not only the school's most promising advanced students but also a group of prodigiously talented nine to 14-year-olds took the stage in fully costumed performances of excerpts from the New York City Ballet repertory, danced to live orchestral accompaniment.

Watching these youngsters, as I did during the matinee on May 30th at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in Lincoln Center, was both encouraging and bittersweet in light of the 2014 retirement of NYCB principals Wendy Whelan, Jenifer Ringer, Janie Taylor, Sébastien Marcovici, and Jonathan Stafford, as well as the 2015 retirement across the Plaza of ABT principals Julie Kent, Paloma Herrera, and Xiomara Reyes, and on the other coast, Carla Körbes of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Saying farewell to those beloved performers reminded us once again that a professional dancer's career is typically over at an age when those with less physically demanding callings are just beginning to move up the ranks in their professions. The dancers listed above who retired this year and last were only in their 30's or 40's.

That's why we need a constant supply of newcomers who are gifted and well-trained enough to fill the void left by those who hang up their dancing shoes. For the most part, the 2015 SAB Workshop cast looked like excellent candidates for doing exactly that. The solo variations and partnering were largely first rate and the ensemble work was mostly clean. Yet the afternoon revealed two blatant giveaways that the dancers are still in training. First and most glaring, many of them don't know how to run. They can do the bravura steps and challenging lifts, but then they lapse into a seriously clumsy gait as they head for an upstage corner in preparation for a sequence on the diagonal. Many of them are also lead footed as they go off stage. I'm too much of a softy to name the names of hopeful neophytes, so let this be a note instead to the teachers and coaches. Please pay as much attention to the way your charges run as you do to the way they dance.

The other red flag that signaled we were watching rookies was that many of them didn't hold a final pose for more than a split second before bouncing up to take a bow. In group excerpts, this tendency was particularly noticeable since several dancers would start bowing while others were still, for example, kneeling. Again, teachers and coaches take note. Have your dancers think of that final pose as a brief photo op and instruct them to mentally count at least five seconds, as in one thousand one, one thousand two, etc., before moving. For group poses, designating someone near the front to be the first to move is also effective.

But enough grousing. I'm ready to hand out some well-deserved compliments. Carla Ruf-Maldonado and Dammiel Cruz did a creditable job of the Wedding Pas de Deux from "Sleeping Beauty" with choreography by Peter Martins after Petipa. The sequence of fish dives was flawless, and the famous final fish drew wild applause after Cruz spontaneously broke the fourth wall with a delighted grin that said he was both pleased and relieved. Yes, that was another indication that the dancers are young and untried, but it was so utterly charming that it was a plus instead of a minus.

Other highlights included: the Baillabile des Enfants from "Harlequinade" featuring the aforementioned talented children; a thoroughly enjoyable rendition of Jerome Robbins' "Fanfare" to Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra"; and a stirring execution of the Thunder and Gladiator section of Balanchine's "Stars and Stripes" performed by a superb corps of 12 male dancers led by Aaron Hilton, all of whom tossed off double tours en l'air in unison for a rousing finish.

Regarding that impressive roll call of young men, they are proof positive of the success of SAB's Boys Program founded in 1998 by Artistic Director Peter Martins. During the ensuing 17 years, the Party Scene of George Balanchine's "The Nutcracker" has boasted boys rather than girls in wigs or hats, and Boys Program alums -- most notably Principal Dancer and audience favorite Amar Ramasar - have joined the New York City Ballet. This fact, along with the overall high caliber of the 2015 SAB Workshop participants, surely means that we can look forward to a healthy and ever-evolving dance landscape in the years ahead.

Photo by Paul Kolnik

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