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"Synphony in Three Movements" posted June 18, 2004 at 05:20 PM

Buying a ticket at the last minute is wonderful--more often than not I end up with a fantastic seat. Last night I was smack in the middle of the second row--so close I could see the beads of sweat on Wendy Whelan's forehead. She was as brilliant in Agon last night as I have ever seen--as great as the performance last Saturday night when it left me floating on tears as I left Lincoln Center. But the real joy of the evening came from the last act: Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements (Stravinsky music of the same name). It's a masterpiece, and I have never seen it from such a close seat. The effect was like sitting in the front row of the movies--you're in it, and even though the larger patterns of the choreography are difficult to see, the detail and nuance that comes out in the individual dancers is shockingly clear. At the end of Symphony in Three Movements the dancers move into this ultra-modern pattern of arms and bodies (as in the picture below), and for the first time, because of sitting so close, I saw this as more than a brilliant arrangement of limbs--it became something much larger, a deep truth about music and bodies and breathing, in a large pattern approaching the infinite.

sym3.jpg
Photo © Paul Kolnik


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