Excerpt of "In the Night" from Vail: NYCB Moves

[Helene]

Vail has posted an extended excerpt of the third couple in Jerome Robbins' "In the Night" performed by Tiler Peck and Amar Ramassar -- from NYCB Moves -- and the film quality is wonderful:

Robbins Foundation, Vail, and NYCB!

[sandik]

Thank you so much for posting this excerpt -- there is so much in this duet, and I'm grateful to be reminded of it!

[bart]

A great choice for a touring company, especially when strongly cast.

As I watched, I was struck by the similarity in look, body type, and movement style of Ramassar and Francisco Moncion, having forgotten that Moncion was the original dancer in the role.

I liked Tiler Peck very much. She's so strong, so definite, so in control of her mood and body shifts and of her gestures. Peck even performs that final, surprising, self-abasing bow (grovel?) from a position of emotional distance.

I recall that Robbins originally intended this role for Melissa Hayden, though it was actually danced by Patricia McBride. McBride, perhaps having Hayden in mind, danced with intensity and avoided the temptation of winning a few chuckles. She believed everything she felt, at the time she felt it. Peck's interpretation strikes me as belonging to that tradition.

Is this kind of casting -- I mean, casting in a way that reflects the look and feel of the creators of the roles -- a tradition at NYCB? After all, Martins was in that original cast, and I assume that he had a hand in the casting for Vail.