Son
of 7 x 7
7x7:
Unplugged
The Washington Ballet
England Studio Theater, Washington Ballet Building
Washington, DC
May 4, 2005
by
George Jackson
copyright
©2005 by George Jackson
It could be that Septime Webre's new format for presenting ballet will
catch on the way Diaghilev's mixed bills did a century ago. This is the
second year in a row that Webre has concluded his company's season with
a program of very short pieces in an intimate setting. 2004's "7x7:
Love" was hit with the public, the press and the company itself for
a variety of reasons. Lots of ideas could be tried without major expense.
The cabaret/studio atmosphere made viewers tolerant of choreography they
might find oppressive on a larger scale, in a formal theater setting.
Getting close to the dancers was a thrill, especially for folks who usually
buy seats in the upmost balcony. The dancers had more than the usual few
performances and really got their teeth into roles.
This spring's "7x7" again rolled out 7 ballets of approximately
7 minutes' duration. The unifying theme wasn't love (or sexuality) but
seemed to be extraordinary states of emotion suggested by the term "unplugged".
Foyer and studio where the May 4 - 15 performances are being held have
been redecorated by Corcoran art students along the lines of "heaven
and hell", certainly an unplugged notion. The opener, by Brian Reeder
(who has made the rounds as a dancer with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet,
New York City Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet and American Ballet Theatre), had
a science fiction plot that I read as follows. Six nearly naked men who
behave like robots are being trained to dance by a power couple (Elizabeth
Gaither and Jonathan Jordan). The exercises the robots perform in the
presence of their teachers seem mechanical. When the teachers aren't looking,
the six start to really dance and appear more human. When the teachers
try to romance, they need the robots as turn-ons. Only then can they enjoy
each other. This story seems to ask the question who, robot or flesh-and-blood,
is truly alive.
Reeder set up the situation succinctly and managed to get quite a bit
of movement performed without its being a diversion from the plot. But
the ballet lacked a bang-up ending, something more than the power couple
just walking off blandly like innocent lovers. The title, "These
are the Days of our Lives", doesn't particularly fit the story I
saw but the music, from two chamber compositions by Karl Jenkins, was
well tailored to the action. Cast as the six robot hunks were Jason Hartley,
Zachary Hackstock, Aaron Jackson, Brian Malek, Marcelo Martinez and Alvaro
Palau.
Never would I have guessed that "Ikon of Eros" was by a veteran
choreographer, San Francisco's Val Caniparoli. This duo for Michele Jimenez
and Runqiao Du seemed to be two different works, chopped up and interdigited.
One of the works was extrovert, almost a satire on balletic bravura a
la Balanchine. In the other piece, the couple seemed to be having an emotional
epiphany. Caniparoli's alternation of show-off and feeling became sophomoric,
and could be excused only in part by what was happening in John Tavenor's
music. Another studentish work, "And they had hair as the hair of
women and their teeth were as the teeth of lions" was by Greece's
Andonis Foniadakis, who has danced with Bejart in Lausanne and with the
cartoon-prone Lyon Opera Ballet. Foniadakis turned up the echo on Bach,
turned down the lights and tried to scare the audience with things that
go bump in the night. Had his six ghouls threatened, rolled and romped
for just a minute, "... Hair ... and ... Teeth ..." might have
been a passable joke. Then there was the cabaret's closer, "Ritual
IV" by punkist Mark Dendy, in which eight dancers pulsed rhythmically
and strutted their stuff to a drum beat.Yet there were also 3 pieces that
had immediate impact without being gimmicky and that lingered intriguingly
in the mind.
Susan Shields, the ballet student Mary Day sent to modern dance (where
she became a Baryshnikov colleague), is turning out to be a ballet choreographer.
Shields uses classroom steps joyfully. Her combinations have wit, they
tickle. Last summer, her "Concerto Caprice" provided the Wolf
Trap audience with an antidote to Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's trendyness.
On this program, her "Footnote" for four young women of the
Washington Ballet Studio Company, said that where there are steps to dance
there's life. Imagine the quartet rehearsing by itself, busy with rapid
ensemble choreography but thinking. Instants arise when they want to race
each other. Do any see themselves as ballerina? Perhaps, but the hint
passes as soon as it forms. The urge to do the dancing of the moment full
justice overrides all else in the quartet's consciousness, and the piece
ends. "Footnote" is compact, with steps as tightly bonded as
carbon in a gemstone. Shields also has a knack for picking fresh music
for dancing, in this instance Tim Seddon's "16". The cast for
this pas de quatre consisted of Laura Dunlop, Sara Ivan, Stacey Price
and Katie Scherman.
The two other significant works were by choreographers from a modern dance
background, yet both pieces were adaptable to ballet dancers - Adam Hougland's
"Few and Far Between" more intentionally than Dana Tai Soon
Burgess's "Fractures". Hougland's stream of movement gives the
impression of a soft focus film of ballet dancing. The bones of classroom
placement and propulsion don't show, but they are there within the dancers's
reachings, approachings and yearnings. The result is a pliant, cushioned
mobility, soft yet strong as stretch cloth. Thematically, too, "Few
and Far Between" is a ballet for modern romantics. Set to Justine
F. Chen's musical score "Melodramendadaries", it made me want
to see more in that vein. Laura Urgelles, Morgann Rose and Elizabeth Gaither,
plus Marcelo Martinez, Aaron Jackson and Chip Coleman, often used as three
couples, poured themselves into the piece.
"Fractures" is about a transition, a man letting go of one woman
as he gravitates to another. There's nothing frivolous or even flirtatious
about the event and also nothing tempestuous, no tumult. The action has
the inevitability of a cosmic shift, the pace is slow because each dancer
has a powerful center of balance and a distinct emanating force. Burgess
moves bodies in a molded way that has weight yet also buoyancy. Spatially,
the man is the most active of the three figures whereas the women's trajectory
is closer to their internal axis. Sona Kharatian as the loosing woman,
Erin Mahoney as the one who gains and Jared Nelson (back from Boston)
as the voyager expressed their personas from deep sources. Inevitably,
as ballet dancers, they articulated joints in a more pronounced way than
modern dancers but each found the individual balance of force and mass
that fit their assigned role. "Fracture," accompanied by Arvo
Part's "Mirror within the Mirror" music, was the program's only
older piece, not specially made for "7x7" and the Washington
Ballet. But Burgess, from Tim Wengerd's Graham-based company in New Mexico,
has been in town long enough that his reputation for meticulously crafted,
highly polished choreography is well known.
The 2005 edition of "7x7", not quite as substantial as a its
2004 predecessor, does have 3 pieces out of 7 (42.86% of the program)
definitely worth seeing again. A couple of the other ballets would profit
from reworking. In sum, this was a successful venture. Webre's direction
- he conceived the overall theme, commissioned the individual ballets,
arranged their order and undoubtedly edited a bit—was crucial.
Volume 3,
No. 18
May 9, 2005
copyright
©2005
George Jackson
www.danceviewtimes.com
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Writers |
Mindy
Aloff
Dale Brauner
Mary Cargill
Christopher Correa
Clare Croft
Nancy Dalva
Rita Felciano
Marc Haegeman
George Jackson
Gia Kourlas
Alan M. Kriegsman
Sali Ann Kriegsman
Sandi Kurtz
Alexander Meinertz
Tehreema Mitha
Gay Morris
Ann Murphy
Paul Parish
John Percival
Tom Phillips
Susan Reiter
Jane Simpson
Alexandra Tomalonis (Editor)
Lisa Traiger
Meital Waibsnaider
Kathrine Sorley Walker
Leigh Witchel
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