BALLET
The New York City Bank. (Covent Garden.) IT is just two years since the New York City Ballet were last in London : now they are back again at Covent Garden with that fine artist, Nora Kaye, a member of the company. At Monday night's premiere they opened their programme with Serenade, an eighteen- year-old ballet, but still, to my mind, one of Balanchine's happiest works. Serenade was extremely well danced by a much improved corps de_ballet and especially by two of the soloists, Janet Reed and Patricia Wilde. Then came Jerome Robbins' much heralded The Cage, by far the weightiest and most imaginative ballet of the evening. A contemporary version of the Gisel le- Will theme, with an unhealthy twist which left a disagreeable taste behind it, The Cage is nevertheless a powerful piece of work in which the choreographer's outlook may be deplored but his achievement not for a moment questioned. It is only a pity that Nora Kaye should be shown to such disadvantage, for her figure is not of the kind to be dressed in all-revealing tights, and in so brutal a part as the Novice she has scant opportunity to use her subtlety and fine emotional qualities. Firebird again confirms the previous' revious Opinion of being a ballet which has lost all the magic of the original ; and, despite her certainty and metallic brilliance, Maria Tallchief's terre-a-terre performance is strangely unsuited to the title-role. Valses Nobles et Sentimentales and. La Valse stress the restrictions of Balanchine's style and the strength with which he has imposed it upon the company as a whole. LILLIAN BROWSE.
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