New York City Ballet, from George Balanchine to Peter Martins, has specialized in streamlining the stuffings out of classical ballets in order to bring dancing to the forefront. I think Martins was working toward this kind of bare-bones synthesis in Ocean's Kingdom, but his choreography neither illuminates the characters and the tensions implied in the plot, nor allows his dancers to flaunt their technical chops. Even the 19th-century tintypes still give us that.
Topics:
Dance
, Paul McCartney, New York City Ballet, Peter Martins