We went to see Ashley Bouder Project (ABP) at the Ohio Theater last Saturday with high hopes and were definitely not disappointed. The 6 dancers moonlighting from New York City Ballet — 2 principals and 4 members of the corps de ballet — made their rep shine.
Ms. Bouder herself exceeded all expectations. From the moment the curtain went up on the red cyclorama for Don Quixote Pas de Deux, she was in character and in control, with impeccable balances and supported turns that finished exactly as choreographed. In her variations, her unsupported fouette turns were especially good, beginning with 3 or 4 repetitions of single, single, double turn, a combination more often attempted in the studio than mastered onstage. The audience showed their appreciation with cries of “Whooo!” from the many young women in the audience.
In the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Indiana Woodward showed beautifully lifted head, neck, and spine over secure pointes, nailing nearly every step of this difficult dance. Sebastian Villarini-Velez was appropriately unobtrusive when he partnered Woodward but shone in his variations, repeatedly landing double tour en l’air in deeply crossed fifth position. How strange that these 2 accomplished dancers gave such a cautious account of their final fish dive, a basic lift.
Technically, at least, the evening’s White Swan Pas de Deux was the best we’ve ever seen on a Cleveland stage. Emily Kikta’s supported pirouettes into penchée were very accomplished, her line clearly superior to that shown in this online dictionary of ballet steps.
Any dancer stepping into any of the famous duets in Saturday’s program had some big shoes to fill, what with 50 to one hundred years of storied performances behind them and daunting technical and emotional challenges ahead, but we’ve always considered Agon Pas de Deux to lie in particularly deep cultural waters.
By casting Amar Ramasar opposite Bouder in Agon Pas de Deux, ABP reminded us how problems of inclusion and opportunity have both changed and remained the same in the 57 years since black Arthur Mitchell first partnered white Diana Adams in the 1957 premiere of Agon, a time when the “Little Rock Crisis” and the integration of the public schools were on television every night.
Today we’re seeing many more hyphenated Americans than in the 1950’s; contemporary ballet needs to embody the new demographics just as it needs to include African-Americans as dancers, choreographers, and audience members.
If the cultural challenges presented by Agon have changed, its radical technical challenges remain daunting. Women in classical ballet must cultivate a beautiful arabesque line with turned out legs but neo-classical Agon features a back bend with turned in legs and one foot forced toward the back of the ballerina’s head. Men in classical ballet typically partner from courtly standing poses but neo-classical Agon includes one famous passage in which the man abruptly reclines on the floor and continues to partner from that unlikely position. Bouder and Ramasar managed these and other challenges with aplomb and panache.
Rouge et Noir was created, we are told, with reference to the collaborative model of the Ballets Russes with music, choreography, costume and set design all working together. Understand, please, that dancers and choreographers get “inspired” by the Ballets Russes all the time. Cutting-edge-artists-collaborating-to-take-Paris-by-storm; it’s heady stuff. But we can’t think of a recent collaboration as successful as this Rouge et Noir.
The set by Cleveland visual artist Mark Howard boldly filled the back drop with bright primary colors that evoked both the Ballets Russes and the cut-outs of Henri Matisse. We were especially impressed by the way Howard’s set changed under Jimmy Lawlor’s lighting design. Initially the backdrop was dimly lit and so seen in shades of grey and brown, but as the dance progressed the lights came up to make the colors pop. And as choreographic and musical themes recurred, the lighting corresponded by emphasizing different aspects of the backdrop. That was our idea of a good set and lighting design working together.
B Michael is a fashion designer (for, among others, Ms. Bouder) and Rouge et Noir is the first time he’s designed costumes for dance. Not everyone who attempts the transition from fashion to costume design succeeds, but Michael seems to have fulfilled his part of the collaboration with costume designs that layered fabrics like Matisse cut-outs and used colors according to a color code that the collaborators had agreed on — blue for nature and yellow for mischief, black for violence, etc.
We’re not entirely comfortable with systems like color coding (it is somewhat like a poem that can’t be understood without a process note) and we did notice that tops were not always well fitted – perhaps this was a result of the complicated layering of fabric — but we consider it an achievement that, with so many hoops to jump through, Michael nevertheless managed to come up with serviceable costumes.
Given choreographer Joshua Beamish’s decision to choreograph to Dimitri Shostakovich’s Trio No. 2 in e Minor, it was a coup to find 3 graduate level musicians from the Kent State School of Music — Wong Tak-Kin on Cello, Keying An on Piano, and Vincent Leung on violin — who could give such a confident and secure performance of what is widely recognized as an emotionally deep and technically difficult piece of music. Kudos, too, to whoever decided to put the 3 onstage where they belonged, present in the dance.
From what little we know about Beamish’s choreography from YouTube, Rouge et Noir seemed a departure in terms of both the steps, which resembled Agon more than his own earlier work, and the choice of the Shostakovich trio instead of syncopated rhythm tracks. We have to hand it to Beamish for trying something different. And we acknowledge that new work often looks better to us the second time around.
So, 6 stunning dancers performing 4 pas de deux in contrasting styles and a world premiere following in the footsteps of the Ballets Russes. We hope to see more from this team of collaborators.
See more choreography by Joshua Beamish in April when DanceCleveland brings Wendy Whelan to Playhouse Square.
Meanwhile, Ballet in Cleveland promises a gala and master classes in March featuring Misty Copeland, Carlos Lopez, and the very interesting Michele Wiles, whose company, BalletNext, Ballet in Cleveland presents in an outdoor concert in June at Warren Amphitheatre.
Ashley Bouder Project was presented at the Ohio Theater on Saturday, October 25, 2014 by Ballet in Cleveland with support from Forest City Enterprises and Portside Distillery.
[Photo: Emily Kikta in rehearsal for Swan Lake, Photo by Alexis Ziemski]
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.
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