Word: ballets
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...often marvelously. The box office is up, with the house more than 90% full. Also, it turns out, Balanchine was wrong when he predicted everything would change when he left; not much has so far. And Martins has just unveiled a minor triumph of his own: a 25-minute ballet called Les Petits Riens (Little Nothings), set to Mozart and performed elegantly by eight very youthful corps de ballet members. In his reticent way, Martins was bragging: You think things are good now? Well, look at what I have up my sleeve...
...tutus. But there is nothing delicate about the work Martins set them. His choreography tends to be difficult and full of steps; Les Petits Riens, with its big, complicated moves and witchy shifts in direction, is no exception. But the performers' aplomb made the details flow together and the ballet seem like a lyrical visualization of Mozart...
...choreographer, Martins has been quietly moving along classical lines. Not for him the currently fashionable crosscutting of ballet with jazz and modern elements. At his best -- in such works as Les Petits Riens, Calcium Light Night, Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, Eight Easy Pieces -- he is an agile craftsman with some surprising moves and a dry, idiosyncratic drollery. At other times he can be boring and even awkward, uneasy in filling the stage and expanding it. Premiering on the same bill as Les Petits Riens was a futile exercise called Ecstatic Orange, set to a bombinating neo-Stravinsky score...
Where does it all come from? Martins credits the expanded audience for ballet. "Remember when everyone talked about the 'ballet boom' in the '70s? Well, it's permanent." He praises the N.Y.C.B.'s affiliated School of American Ballet, its national recruiting staff and its faculty, singling out his own mentor, Stanley Williams. "Stanley modeled those little muscles to look that way," he says of his Petits Riens cast. "It's a long, endless process, a quality of movement, an attention to detail." But the dancers know Williams is not the only one who cares about details. Says Martins: "Balanchine...
...then he schemes -- an important activity for a company director. The year 1992 stirs his imagination: What can he do about Columbus? Another quandary: How to get the troupe to Vienna so he can knock their socks off with a homage to the city featuring ballets set to Mozart, Strauss, Webern, Berg and others? Although the details are not yet final, City Ballet's next gala attraction will be a festival of American music...