Utterly Unclad and Wildly Provocative
Reviewed by Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
On our way to see Spellbound Contemporary Ballet at the Ohio Theatre on Saturday, 11/10/12, we looked forward to an engaging evening at the theater. Contemporary ballet is our favorite kind of concert and from what we’d seen of the Spellbound dancers on YouTube they seemed like accomplished technicians doing sophisticated work.
Alas, what looked promising in 4-minute clips on YouTube did not make for an engaging evening at the theater. Black, black, black light plots throughout the Spellbound concert by Lighting Designer Marco Policastro trapped us in a twilight marathon. Worse yet, a lack of contrast in the dances sapped our interest by midway through the concert.
The dancing and the company style of Spellbound seemed to have much in common with that of another contemporary ballet company we saw recently, Trey McIntyre Project. (See our CoolCleveland review of TMP here. Like TMP, the dancers of Spellbound showed dazzling speed and surprising extension, but choreographic choices – and Spellbound’s missed opportunities – made for very different concert experiences.
Unlike TMP’s choreography, vibrant with astute correspondences between music and movement, Spellbound Choreographer and Artistic Director Mauro Astolfi chose to have his dancers dance over his musical choices like so much background music. Perhaps Astolfi saw himself following in the footsteps of Merce Cunningham in which music and movement were independent elements; if so, he should be reminded that even Cunningham and his dancers didn’t always make that aesthetic work. We found it particularly jarring in Spellbound’s first piece, Lost For Words – Studio I, when the dancers studiously ignored the danceable rhythms and dynamics of a beautiful violin solo by composer Heinrich von Biber.
Lost For Words had a strange relationship with words. Astolfi’s program note decried “an invasion of empty words,” but the choreographer then provided a spoken text to accompany the dancers, a text that we soon decided we were intended to ignore.
Perhaps we were intended to see Lost For Words and the entire Spellbound concert as abstract composition. If so, the lack of contrast throughout each dance and the concert made for heavy going.
Nearly all the dancing was what we call contact partnering, 2 dancers in close proximity. Skillful as that partnering apparently was, the pervasive darkness made it difficult to actually see what was happening. Yes, Lost For Words included some contrast, some solos, trios, and ensemble passages. At one point the ensemble entered to stand around a reclining woman (In a spotlight!) who later stood while the ensemble reclined. It was too little and too late. During the intermission after Lost For Words we consoled ourselves with the hope for more varied vocabulary and some light in the second dance.
Unfortunately, Downshifting offered more of the same, duet after duet and dark, dark, dark. Again, there were moments of contrast – a few big turns, entrances on all fours and flopping on the floor like fish — but overall an oppressive sameness. And with the 3rd and final dance in the concert, Lost For Words – Studio II, promising even more of the same we spent the final intermission discussing how the interaction of costumes and lighting created an impression of nudity.
In the pervasive darkness it was difficult to tell what the women were wearing. With flesh-colored trunks and halter-tops and black skirts and short shifts, the costuming suggested topless in one dance, bottomless in another, provocative either way.
Having recently read about the new biography (click here), we were inevitably reminded of the 19th century career of Adah Isaacs Menken and her touring show Mazeppa, in which the dancer / actress appeared in pink tights, supine on a horse that cantered about the stage. Mazeppa was an international sensation despite Menken’s admitted lack of acting talent, for to the Victorian eye, she appeared utterly unclad and wildly provocative.
To our 21st century eyes, the Spellbound dancers did not look nude so much as the choreography seemed deliberately provocative, continually presenting crotches and bottoms to the audience in freeze frames. Our compliments to the women of Spellbound for their well-turned figures; stinkweeds to Astolfi for tasteless pandering.
With nothing against genuinely erotic content, whatever the lighting and the costuming, could we someday please see these beautiful, skillful, charming dancers in a program with varied, engaging, resonant choreography?
Next up from DanceCleveland, we highly recommend Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Sat 1/26 and Sun 1/27/13 at the Ohio Theater. Tickets here or phone 216-241-6000.
DanceCleveland presented Spellbound Contemporary Ballet at the Ohio Theatre on Sat 11/10/2012.
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.