WEEKEND REVIEWS : New York City Ballet Offers an Unfamiliar View of ‘Swan Lake’

George Balanchine always prized black swans. For the 1940 film comedy “I Was an Adventuress,” he created a disarming “Swan Lake” sequence with Odette wearing a black tutu and the swan corps clad in traditional white. Forty-one years later, in his final production of the second act for New York City Ballet, he reversed that look--keeping Odette in white but surrounding her with 30 swans in gossamer black.

Performed Saturday evening at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, his “Swan Lake” represented the major novelty of two Balanchine programs that day. Beyond striking, monochromatic designs by Alain Vaes, the City Ballet version proved unusual musically, with cuts and restorations in Tchaikovsky’s Act II score coupled with inserts from his last act.

Marshaling the classical purity she displayed earlier Saturday in the “Sylvia” pas de deux, Kyra Nichols exuded softness and a rapt stillness as Odette. Philip Neal partnered her capably and danced much of his solo smoothly. But Siegfried and his Swan Queen were inevitably eclipsed by the symphonic, engulfing corps choreography--one of the towering achievements of neoclassicism.

The absence (due to injury) of Darci Kistler gave added prominence to Wendy Whelan on Saturday. Dancing the leading roles in “Agon” (evening) and “Symphony in Three Movements” (afternoon), Whelan looked incisive in the former Balanchine/Stravinsky masterwork but merely meticulous in the latter. However, Jock Soto (her “Symphony” partner) had ideal intensity and precision.

Whelan’s refined technique sustained her twice Saturday through a different challenge: the serene adagio in “Symphony in C.” Robert Lyon supplied faultless partnering. This spectacular Balanchine/Bizet showpiece also boasted the dazzle of Damian Woetzel in the first movement and Peter Boal in the third, along with the sparkling work of Roma Sosenko and Albert Evans in the finale.

Woetzel and Boal also lent their virtuosity to the first and third movements, respectively, of “Bouree Fantasque” at the matinee. Rekindling their “Sleeping Beauty” partnership, Nichol Hlinka danced opposite Boal in the final movement of this Balanchine/Chabrier suite with surety and charm.

Monique Meunier flirted delectably in the parodistic opening section and Maria Calegari (partnered by Neal) floated through the central adagio looking authoritative and chicly oblivious.

Off-form on Saturday: Nikolaj Hubbe (uneven in the “Sylvia” duet), Lourdes Lopez (listless in the first movement of “Symphony in C,” though proficient in the secondary ballerina role of “Agon”) and conductor Hugo Fiorato throughout the afternoon.