As a dancer, Peter Walker, a dark-haired beanpole amid the New York City Ballet corps, has an unusually adult and purposeful look. His second creation for City Ballet, “dance odyssey,” is an improvement on his first, “ten in seven” (2016), notably in its choice of music (by the British composer Oliver Davis) and costumes (designed by City Ballet’s resident wardrobe director, Marc Happel). The music — for solo violin, strings, piano and harp, taken from Mr. Davis’s “Dance,” “Airborne Dances,” “Dance Odyssey,” “Frontiers” and “Dancing Folk” — is charming, lyrical, Arcadian, reaching in its final section a melodious polyphony that recalls Michael Tippett’s beautiful Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli. (Mr. Davis’s score evokes the tradition of all-strings works by British composers — Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten and Tippett all wrote outstanding examples.) Evidently Mr. Walker took his title from one of these musical items, but why “dance odyssey” in particular?

Source: New York Times February 02, 2018 19:18 UTC