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clevelandclassical.com
September 7, 2010
Concert Report: Joffrey Ballet with The Cleveland Orchestra
By Daniel Hathaway
I've been a fan of the
Joffrey Ballet since I first saw them perform in Kansas City in the
early 70s -- long before the company's transplantation first to Los
Angeles, then to Chicago, and the demise of its co-directors Robert
Joffrey (1988) and Gerald Arpino (2008). The company distinguished
itself then by its devotion to the disciplines of classical ballet
interestingly fused with some of the best elements of modern dance, in
repertory which was always fresh and exciting. Thus I'm happy to report
that under its current artistic director, Ashley Wheater, the Joffrey is
both making itself new and continuing in that grand tradition. Its
performances at Blossom on Saturday evening were elegant, breathtakingly
physical and married to five delightful and varied scores immeasurably
enriched by live performances from The Cleveland Orchestra under the
fine leadership of its departing assistant conductor, Tito Muñoz.
Saturday's dance card
included two longer works: Edwaard Liang's Age of Innocence (to
music by Philip Glass and Thomas Newman) and James Kudelka's Pretty
BALLET (to Martinů's Second Symphony, premiered by The Cleveland
Orchestra at Severance Hall in 1943) and two short but intensely
virtuosic Pas de deux: Balanchine's Tarantella (to
Gottschalk's Grande Tarantelle) and the duet from Adolphe Adam's
Le Corsaire, based on Marius Petipa's choreography. The evening
was launched with Arpino's Reflections, featuring the Orchestra's
new principal cellist Mark Kosower iin Tchaikovsky's Variations on a
Rococo Theme.
Concert music always
undergoes a few alterations when it serves as a vehicle for dance, and
Tchaikovsky's seven variations were leavened by longer pauses -- and
probably subject to a bit less freedom -- than we're used to hearing.
But Kosower seemed not to mind sharing the spotlight with a dozen
dancers. He was a brilliant and engaging soloist who sailed through his
three octave scales, high notes and harmonics with laser accuracy and
otherwise musically smiled his way through this mostly upbeat score,
only occasionally getting submerged in the wind section. The Joffrey
brought its most classic style to Reflections, dancing with verve
and elegance. The seventh variation Pas de deux by Christine
Rocas and Miguel Angel Blanco was outstanding.
The story line for Age
of Innocence purported to be inspired by Jane Austen, the "societal
repression of females" and "the strength of the human spirit". Perhaps
it was the dissonance between my view of Austen's era and the hip, 20th
century minimalist score (drawn from Philip Glass' Symphony No. 3,
The Hours and The Secret Agent and the end titles from a
Thomas Newman movie score), but I couldn't quite bring that plot to
bear. The five sections, "First Dance" (men and women, angular
gestures), "First Dialogue" (a steamy duo by Christine Rocas and Mauro
Villanueva), "The Men" (energized and highly accented, like the music),
"Obey Thee" (calmer movements with English horn and cello solos) and
"Parting" (a long scene featuring a ballroom line dance and a touching,
elegiac ending) found the Joffrey evoking a whole range of moods and
physical styles. The men were strikingly clad in sleeveless jerkins and
short shorts, which revealed every sinew and muscle in their strong
legs. Austen would have found the frillier women's costumes more
familiar. Age was a tour de force of movement which could
have sustained many programmatic interpretations.
By way of entremets,
two duets followed intermission. Dancers (and tambourine players)
Yumelia Garcia and Derrick Agnoletti joined keyboardist Joela Jones in
an entertaining romp through all six minutes of Louis Moreau
Gottschalk's mid-nineteenth century Grande Tarantelle. Though
Gottschalk's salon-esque music probably isn't frenetic enough to cure a
tarantula bite, Balanchine used it to design some challenging moves for
the two soloists, who performed separately, then together, then ended
the dance with a kiss. Adam (also the composer of Cantique de Noël)
wrote some spirited music for Le Corsaire, and Riccardo Drigo
added more to come up with this Pas de deux, danced both on
Saturday and Sunday by Victoria Jaiani and MIguel Angel Blanco. Full of
leaps and multiple spins, this five-movement piece gave the soloists
abundant opportunities to show off their amazing technique.
The evening came to a
satisfying conclusion in Pretty BALLET, a 25-minute work which
was as much of an expressive vehicle for the orchestra as for the
dancers (and perhaps for Joela Jones as well -- Martinů's Second
Symphony seems to want to morph into a piano concerto at several
points). As the work progressed from its dreamy, atmospheric first
movement through ominous plunks and pizzicati to its chatty,
rat-a-tat-tat scherzo and transcendent finale, the Joffrey and The
Cleveland Orchestra seemed to become a single performing force. Once
again, I was puzzled by the program note: "a new ballet that explores
the balance between romantic ideals and industrial ideas as they relate
to art". Maybe, but one could enjoy Pretty BALLET sheerly for its
physicality, whimsy and -- OK, visual prettiness -- without nailing it
to a concept.
At home in Chicago, the
Joffrey normally performs with recorded music (one of the ways it ended
its current season in the black?) Last weekend at Blossom was a rare
treat for balletomanes and orchestra buffs alike. Certainly the
opportunity to combine forces more frequently would have moved certain
elements closer to perfection (there was some ensemble work on stage
which didn't match the precision of the music), but bravo to Ashley
Wheater and the Joffrey and to Tito Muñoz and the Cleveland Orchestra
pit orchestra for an extraordinary evening of ballet as it should be
seen and heard. Did any among the large audience who were at Blossom
during the steamier evenings of August think they'd be turning up on
Saturday in fleece and huddling under blankets? Probably not, but turn
up they did, and the ovation was long and enthusiastic.
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