Above: A Paul B Goode photo from Ballet Next's presentation of Alison Cook Beatty's TINTINNABULI. Click on the image to enlarge.
Sunday October 28, 2012 matinee - While the governor and The City and the MTA stoked fears of an apocalypse with the impending arrival of Hurricane Sandy, Ballet Next went calmly about their business today, presenting their scheduled matinee at The Joyce. The Company weathered their own small storm when one of their dancers sustained an injury, necessitating changes in Alison Cook Beatty's TINTINNABUILI, the afternoon's opening work. But if you hadn't seen this piece in a rehearsal you'd never have known anything was amiss.
I have had the pleasure of knowing Alison Cook Beatty as a dancer for the past couple of years, and was happy to learn that she'd been chosen to create a piece for Ballet Next. Alison started off on the right foor by choosing excellent music (Arvo Part) and then went on to create a very pleasing contemporary-style ballet. Inspired by the excellence of the dancers at her disposal (can a young choreographer ask for a finer leading lady than Michele Wiles?) Alison's TINTINNABULI has a spiriitual quality stemming from the celestial music which was played live by an ensemble of violinists, with piano and cello.
Opening in a striking diagonal of light, Michele Wiles dances an angular but still lyrical solo observed by Tiffany Mangulabnan and Stuttgart Ballet principal Jason Reilly. Tiffany and her two 'sisters' Kristie Latham and Lily Nicole Balogh seem like the three Fates, willing Michele and Jason into a union. In this hair-down ballet, the girls look gorgeous. Tiffany has two very fine solo passages, one spacious and other-worldly, the second a more intense and fiery ritual dance; in the latter, her hair took on a life of its own. The culminating pas de deux for Michele and Jason features some heavenward lifts, while the trio of girls circle and bind the couple.
As a choreographer, Alison has things well-in-hand, drawing on the music for inspiration at every turn. And the dancers did her proud wth their committed and passionate dancing. My only slight concern about the piece was that the second half stretched out a bit; this is music that can readily be compressed and I think I would have tightened it a little to make a more succinct statement. As Balanchine once said "...that I too could eliminate".
Margo Sappington's ENTWINED began life as a sensuous Satie pas de deux. In the ensuing months, Sappington enlarged the work with a duet (Georgina Pazcoguin and Kristie Latham), a pas de trois for those two girls plus Charles Askegard, and a solo for Michele Wiles. The initial duet now conclude the ballet, danced tonight by the lovely Katrina Gonzalez with Charles Askegard giving another demonstration of the art of ballet partnering. With Ben Laude's limpid Satie from the keyboard, the ballet sustained its atmosphere; in the end it is the original pas de deux that still seems to make the most striking effect.
Mauro Bigonzetti's LA FOLLIA has become Ballet Next's signature work, and rightly so. In this dynamic and demanding work, two ballerinas - Michele Wiles and Georgna Pazcoguin - sweep thru a series of angular combinations with super-sharp pointe work, meanwhile communicating with one another in an elaborate sign-language. It's breathtaking, and was excitingly danced today by the two women, sending the crowd out to face the storm on an inspired and positive wave of Vivaldi.
I truly enjoyed both programmes of Ballet Next this week, though I did rather miss having a more classical pas de deux in the repertory. When Michele and Charles dance WHITE SWAN together, it is really something. I hope they will bring that back, or work up another duet from the standard rep: it gives us the chance to savour their partnership, as well as providing a contrast to the new works they are creating.