NYCB Vol. 19 No. 16 - Metastaseis & Pithoprakta
"Last night at the State Theater the New York City Ballet: presented George Balanchine's
'Metastaseis & Pithoprakta,' which fortunately you don't have to be able to pronounce to enjoy.
"Unlike most choreographers who find the pattern of movement the most difficult part of a ballet, Mr. Balanchine gets: hung up on titles. This most recent and startling work takes its name from the two pieces of music by lannis Xenakis. In essence it is a microscopic view of the human race.
"The first part, 'Metastaseis,' has 28 boys and girls in chaste white activated by some vague anxiety. Stretched out on the stage like a flattened gelatin mould they rise up to a peak and then disperse to form small' linked groups and finally draw back together again.
'Metastaseis' Photos by Martha Swope, 1968. NYPL
The second part of the work, 'Pithoprakta,' has a background group of 12 boys and girls in black with two principals, Suzanne Farrell and Arthur Mitchell. Like leaves on a pond Miss Farrell and Mr. Mitchell are swept around the! stage and manage to find only a brief eddy of engagement.
"Miss Farrell as the eternal female half of the male-female pairing presents a more content and self-sufficient entity than Arthur Mitchell, who was in the grip of a driving energy. The ballet's limited emotional content was circumspectly revealed in the way that brain wave measurements tell scientists about the content off dreams. It's evident when something is happening, but the exact nature of the experience is difficult to gauge.
"The lighting by Ronald Bates was particularly effective throwing huge shadows of the dancers on a white backcloth at times and singling out aspects of the choreography from ground level at others.
--Don McDonagh, New York Times January 19, 1968
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