Thursday December 16, 2010 - Dancers from each of the four classes of Juilliard Dance Division appeared in this programme of works by four choreographers:
Matthew Neenan: The Second Ratio
Raewyn Hill: The Gates
Luca Veggetti: Scripts
Stijn Celis: Facing
Matthew Neenan recently choreographed a duet for Elysia Dawn and Amar Ramasar which was performed at the Columbia Ballet Collaborative's performances at MMAC. Raewyn Hill's work was a new choreographic experience for me. Luca Veggetti's staging of the Xenakis ORESTEIA and of the Saariaho ballet MAA at the Miller Theatre were both strikingly dramatic; in 2011 Luca will be Resident Artistic Director of the MORPHOSES season. Stijn Celis's setting of Stravinsky's RITE OF SPRING for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet remains vividly in my memory as a unique, colourful setting of that familiar score.
Each work on the Juilliard programme had a unique feeling and the music chosen by the four choreographers made for an evening of contrasts.
The largest contingent and the youngest dancers appeared in Matthew Neenan's THE SECOND RATIO set to three movements from Philip Glass string quartets played live (and excellently) by the Cilantro Quartet. Opening with the company moving in unison to silence, this colourful work called for real technique and strong partnering skills from the young dancers; they were quite brilliant - many individual dancers stood out, especially among the boys. The first movement was thrilling to watch: very well structured and performed with ideal energy. Had this movement stood alone, it would have been all the more impressive; the slower second movement lost momentum and got bogged down in a hummed vocal arrangement for the dancers where they seemed self-conscious (and sometimes off-key): a faux-naive gesture that seemed superfluous. Back on track in the third movement, one could again enjoy watching these dancers giving it their all.
Raewyn Hill chose a fascinatingly eerie, spiritual work for voice and piano entitled Airam Eva by Micka Luna for her darkly ritualistic piece THE GATES. Dancers in long black skirts enter from the dark, foggy background borne aloft: they tower above the stage. Each wears a vivid red ribbon tied around the neck, and the high cummerbunds on the boys' skirts accentuate the male torso. The movement is fluid and hypnotic, including a beautiful duet for two men. The tone of the piece is funereal and somewhat nightmarish but lyrical at the same time; the dancers were committed and attractive in their dramatic expression.
Luca Veggetti's SCRIPTS was the highlight of the evening for me, thanks in part to a fascinating performance of the Pierre Boulez score (Anthemes II dating from 1997) by violinist Francesca Anderegg with an electronic soundscape by Langdon Crawford. Ms. Anderegg, standing centerstage in a pool of light, gave a masterful rendering of the demanding music which features endless trills in the upper register. Langdon Crawford's surround-sound electronic montage filled the hall and Luca Veggetti utilized the entire space excitingly as dancers suddenly materialized out of nowhere, spotlit on platforms in the pit and on the staircase landings mid-audience to pose in slow, sculptural movements. Onstage, the dancers in black moved thru a series of isolated vignettes: solo passages and duets where there is no contact. A sliding, skidding motif brings near connections but for the most part each dancer remains in his own world.
Stijn Celis set FACING to a version of the Miserere by Gregorio Allegri. I have sometimes thought Allegri's choral music could make an impressive setting for dance but further compressions were needed here because the piece seemed a little extended. The work opens in silence with a beautifully expressive solo for one woman (I wish knew her name) and then as the music starts the Juilliard seniors displayed their dance personalities in this spiritual, mysterious setting. Much of it was hauntingly lovely, especially when the same woman brought the piece to a close in solitary silence. Here, as throughout the evening, the fine lighting by Clifton Taylor was a key element in the atmospheric settings.
That three of the four works seemed a bit too long signified a widespread 'problem' with many dance programmes I have attended in recent seasons. New works need to be edited and streamlined to be really effective; one should not have a feeling that the choreographer is making dance to fill out the chosen piece of music but rather that his inspiration fills the music totally and leaves the viewer wanting more. Cutting and compressing are by-words for success. In three of the four works tonight (Veggetti's being the exception) one felt good ideas being stretched a bit thinly over the music. Did Isadora Duncan really say "No dance work should last more than five minutes"?
This programme is repeated on Friday and Saturday evenings and also at a Sunday matinee. Visit the Juilliard box office for free tickets.