New York City Ballet opened its fall season with classics by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, along with a company premiere by Lar Lubovitch.
It was like any matinee at New York City Ballet until something odd happened: One lead dancer turned into a ballerina tag team. On Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Center, Sara Mearns, dancing the gorgeous, taxing role in George Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2,” suddenly wasn’t there for an entrance. Instead, in came Unity Phelan, in costume but with little discernible makeup, taking Mearns’s place — whipping off fouetté turns with ease. Phelan has a breezy way of making hard things look easy. This came in handy.
After Mearns returned for the next entrance, dancing with Tyler Angle, Phelan popped back in for the finale. At this point, she gave Angle a wide-eyed grin — it seemed a combination of “hi!” and “help!” — and off they flew.
Later, a representative for the company said that Mearns’s calf had started to bother her, so Phelan, who had been rehearsing in the building, was brought in to help. In dancer shorthand, this is what’s known as being thrown on. It’s scary sounding, isn’t it? Phelan, on Instagram, wrote that she was given about four minutes’ notice.
“Piano Concerto” is a special ballet, one that pairs regal presence with a mix of technique and abandon to turn a dancing body into music. (Its redesigned costumes, however, remain an eyesore.) Phelan was impressive in both her command and ease; she is scheduled to make her role debut on Thursday, “with a bit more hair spray and makeup,” she wrote on Instagram. (She is also owed a curtain call, which she didn’t receive on Saturday.)
Despite the drama, Mearns, in “Piano Concerto” and in Christopher Wheeldon’s “This Bitter Earth” — a duet that is mushy as ever — demonstrated the quiet rhapsodic texture of her dancing that has grown with each passing year. Every time she steps onstage, there is majesty. And Angle, her partner in both, captivated with his poise and generosity.
In another cast, the elegant Chun Wai Chan made his debut in “Piano Concerto” with Tiler Peck, his dancing instilled with innate aristocratic vibrancy. His quiet solo bow at the end of one scene was so noble, so serene. Then there was Peck, dancing with a lush daring that made her seem more tuned into the music than to the audience watching her.
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