(scroll down for Part 1 – in italics – and Part 2, following)
Janessa Touchet, Cincinnati Ballet’s only principal female dancer, was clearly the star in last night’s Cincinnati Ballet season opener of six world premieres at the Mickey Jarson Kaplan Performance Studio. There’s no time to post everything tonight, but read on for some highlights.
Touchet brought outstanding technical brilliance and dramatic flair to her roles: she appeared with a cast of twelve in Sergey Sergeiv’s futurist “Dreaming in Colour” and solo in Victoria Morgan’s “Modulus of Elasticity,” a tiny horror movie of a dance in which a mask both fascinates and terrifies, set to a throbbing original score featuring two marimbas by Daniel Joseph Dorff.
With a burst of energy that nearly broke through the fourth wall, the program closed with Heather Britt’s emotionally vivid “Strange Loop,” a rush of imaginative movement to a recorded original score by Peter Adams. An obvious sequel to last year’s stunner “All Too Wonderful,” also from Adams, the composition reflected the choreographer, as she noted in a short pre-performance note, in a “mood” where she wanted things more “raw.” As the seventeen dancers swooped in pairs and in unison across the intimate stage of the company’s Mickey Jarson Performance Studio, the sense of rushing exhilaration was palpable, whether it came from intense physicality or seeming emotional breakdown, personified by Gema Diaz as a woman cast out from a world of couples.
All ended in harmony, as the dancers returned to the floor from which they came, perhaps ready for another encounter with the vicissitudes of life.
Also contributing his stellar talents was principal dancer Cervilio Miguel Amador, who since he joined Cincinnati Ballet in 2004 has been a powerhouse presence and an audience favorite. In Ka-Ron Brown Lehman’s “Periapt,” he was the motivating narrator whose magical flute music carried the tale along its predictable but mostly satisfying path. As Janus, a magical presence in the mythological forest, he wove a spell on soloist Dawn Kelly’s “Chosen One,” who then frolicked with villagers and won the heart of a Prince, played by an earnest Stephen Jacobsen. Unfortunately, his imperious mother Queen Maia (Diaz) does not approve of this romance, and snatches Kelly’s amulet (periapt) from her neck as she is about to give her heart to him. All are aghast and mourn her collapse. After they depart, Janus weaves more magic, bringing Kelly back to life, and leaving the audience to wonder if the tale was real or just a dream.
Given that “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is still to be presented in the 2010-11 season, it was a bit odd that Amador, who will undoubtedly portray Puck in the upcoming full-length, plays such a similar role here. There are other echoes of classical ballets, for instance the grief-stricken Prince cradling Kelly’s lifeless body and pathetically struggling to bring it to life, as in “Romeo and Juliet,” but it does seem that Brown Lehman has cobbled together an entirely new fable, perhaps Act I of a new ballet?
Certainly the original score performed live by composer Michael Chertock and three other musicians has the strength to be expanded.
The indefatigable Amador also appeared as Kelly’s infatuated partner in Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard’s sneak preview of April’s upcoming “Infamous Love Songs” (so far a marvelously sexy and often funny series of tango-inspired encounters for three couples) and in Heather Britt’s “Strange Loop.” To each work, he brought his trademark nimbleness, strength, intensity and the effortless display of gasp-inducing turns and jumps.
Kelly, who also appeared in three different new works, has become the go-to dancer for demanding roles in a variety of styles during the past few years. The recent recipient of a long overdue promotion to soloist, this woman, trim with incredibly defined musculature, is another dependable CB member who has technique to burn, and brings a notable presence whenever she appears.
Jessica Lang’s “For Always, Forever” featured senior soloists Sarah Hairston and Zack Grubbs. Commissioned in honor of the 25th wedding anniversary of Julie and Steve Shifman, and set to the lovely sounds of the Andante movement from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the piece was a calm interlude on the program, beginning as the two mirrored each other in a pose with their arms rounded in ballet’s third position. There were no surprises or fireworks here, just a sense that the two harmoniously completed each other in a tender and supportive relationship.
The two most starkly imaginative works on the bill this time around had to be “Dreaming in Colour” and “Modulus of Elasticity.”
“Dreaming,” which as noted featured Touchet, had a cast of twelve others. In variously colored and decorated unitards with tight hoods and faces covered either in goggles or blank masks which were initially off-putting* in their strangeness (only Touchet’s face was displayed), they enacted odd poses, moves and formations, seemingly directed by the wizard-like presence of Touchet, who displayed a deadpan expression. [*added note: I need to mention that after the strangeness wore off, this work became quite surreal and enjoyably droll, at least for me!] The cast performed frog leaps, deep sidewards lunges back and forth, or sat on the floor pulling back the toes of one extended leg. Isolations, robot moves, sinuous arms, hops, splayed fingers, rock steps, vogueing and peace signs were also excecuted. Music was from Art of Noise, a now defunct synthpop group from London which made a splash in the 80’s and 90’s. It helped that choreographer Sergiev mentioned pre-performance that his movement ideas were drawn from the music, which also veered via digital sampling into hip-hop, ambient and electronica styles, and were meant to evoke a mysterious, dreamlike state.
It would also have helped to have a program note that the name Art of Noise alludes to an essay by “noted futurist Luigi Russolo,” and more importantly, that the group was initially packaged as a faceless anti- or non-group, blurring the distinction between the art and its creators (or at least that’s what my faithful Wikipedia tells me), who apparently did perform wearing masks.
Another trip to Wikipedia enriched my appreciation of Morgan’s “Modulus of Elasticity.” The title turns out to be “the mathematical description of an object or substance’s tendency to be deformed elastically (i.e., non-permanently) when a force is applied to it.”
Who knew? At any rate, as described previously, this brief solo was chock full of difficult moves on pointe for Touchet, who was attracted to and repelled by a face mask, which she variously wore and removed. In another of the onstage previews that have become standard for this series, Morgan humorously downplayed her inspiration (“we needed something to give the dancers time to change costumes”), but that is disingenuous. Like other short works she has created recently, this one displayed her ability to evoke a truly strange and compelling world. The final image, with Touchet on the floor and the white mask apparently peering over her shoulder of its own accord was as memorable as it was creepy. Also as mentioned previously, “Modulus” featured a strong original score by Daniel Joseph Dorff (“Possession”) performed live (I believe both live 2010 “New Works” performances were scheduled for opening night only).
All in all, for me 2010 “New Works” gathered a variety of mostly adventurous new works on the same bill, and above all provided the dancers of Cincinnati Ballet with challenging and innovative ways of displaying their many talents. Among other standout performers were: Ogulcan Borova, Maizyalet Velazquez and Kelly Yankle.
Valinkat 