Inside Ballet Builders
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Ballet Builders fulfills many functions, not the least of which is to remind those of us who live so insularly in New York that not only is there cultural life outside of New York, but that it is often of excellent quality. We go to Ballet Builders, as we go to any concert, in the hope of seeing something that expands our horizons; Ballet Builders never disappoints.
This year there seemed almost to be a theme of dysfunctional relationships for five of the seven choreographers, and it was interesting to see how each of the five dealt with the problem. The dancers, as always, were excellent, moving cleanly and with precision. Outstanding, however, were Jay Goodlett and Sarah Hairston of the Cincinnati Ballet in a piece by Kelly Ann Sloan, The Rest is Secret , danced to Japanese melodies performed by American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Partnering is by its nature intimate, but Goodlett and Hairston functioned as two elements of a unity in a way that is seldom seen. Happily, their working relationship was as fascinating as it was, because Ms. Sloanís choreography, though rather creative, did not manage to find a dramatic throughline that made sense of the tensions between the characters that appeared out of nowhere and led nowhere.
The contrast with Jennifer Hartís Everything That Grows was instructive because, while this piece did not solve its loversí problems, it provided them a sense of place by using a park bench and it provided us a sense of place because we saw from the beginning that the two were in an unhappy situation. The ballet focused on the two of them trying to work things out. Hartís movement was clear in its intentions and in the way it revealed the conflicts of the dancers.
Another interesting piece in which the dancers outshone the choreography was Graham Lustigís North Star , in which Peng-Yu Chen and Li-Chuan Lin of American Repertory Ballet danced to music by Philip Glass. The dynamic invariance of the music affected the choreography, as might be expected. Though there were moments of breathtaking bravura, they lost power by exact repetition and by the absence of all dynamic build or variation. Still, the two dancers managed to create an energy between them. The uncredited costumes were also excellent, flattering in cut and color.
The last piece of the evening, les rÍveuses by founder and cho reographer of the French-Canadian company, la [Parenth?se] was a cute send-up of ballet, with the three dancers in old see-through petticoats wandering the stage or twitching and falling down whenever the excerpts from Adolph Adamí's Giselle hit a loud chor d. The audience loved it, but this reviewer found the joke to be an extended one-liner that needed more material and more imagination to make it complete.
The most powerful piece of the evening was an excerpt from Robert Sher-Machherndlís Tiger Lily . Sher-Machherndl is three-time winner of the Ballet Buildersí award, and one can see why: He has a clear sense of form; he knows what he wants to say; and he has the imagination to give a telling form to his ideas. His ballet, too, was about unhappy lovers, but this time the choreography with its awkward moments and extreme off-balance lifts was driven by the power relationship and the physical and mental games. Even the currently overused gesture in which one dancer pushes or throws the otherís limbs as movement motivation suddenly took on meaning. Mr. Sher-Machherndlís participation provided the program with rigor, maturity and rootedness and should serve as a standard for the less experienced choreographers as another, important function of Ballet Builders is to provide a training ground for newer choreographers. How fortunate for all of us that they exist.
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