Teresa Reichlen comes alive on stage with the right partner.
Two of the rightest are Zachary Catazaro, with whom I saw her dance Martins’ Symphonic Dances at Kennedy Center last spring, and Russell Janzen, with whom she danced Swan Lake and the first movement of Balanchine’s Suite No. 3 over the past week.
I first saw them paired in Diamonds in 2014. Reichlen can be dry but she wasn’t–and the last thing called for in a Suzanne Farrell role is dryness.
Janzen, negotiating a labyrinth of new roles since being pulled out of the corps two years ago, met the virtuoso demands of his Swan Lake solos respectably but without a great deal of force. As a classical technician I’d say he dances as well as nine out of ten men as tall could. In Suite No. 3 he’s not saddled with any big technical demands and he moves beautifully, while sustaining with truth the poetic narrative of the piece. And Reichlen is passionate—a direction she’s needed to be nudged toward.
Passion isn’t called for in Concerto Barocco, but it will be interesting to see Reichlen and Janzen in the slow movement later in New York City Ballet’s season.