An Evening of Eloquent Feet
Reviewed by Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
We drove down to Akron two Saturdays ago to see Trey McIntyre Project at E. J. Thomas Hall. We’d heard the buzz about McIntyre as an up and coming choreographer of contemporary ballet and we’d been impressed by the musicality and movement invention of a piece he’d set on Memphis Ballet, In Dreams to songs of Roy Orbison. See our Cool Cleveland review HERE.
The first dance on the program, Leatherwing Bat, was set to 6 Peter Paul and Mary songs. Six of the TMP dancers appeared in various duets, trios, and sextets and – no surprise – they were very, very good at the quick rhythms and inventive takes on ballet vocabulary that we’d admired In Dreams. Peter Paul and Mary’s “Hey-diddle-day” elicited an apt turn-in-turn-out-turn-in from a dancer’s legs. In more traditional steps the dancers showed extraordinary aptitude; everyone should do pas de chat the way the TMP dancers did on Saturday night. We’ve been watching ballet for a long time and we’d had no idea that feet and legs could be so eloquent.
Moment to moment we watched Leatherwing Bat for its dazzling musicality and movement invention. But once in a while, without telling a story, McIntyre and his dancers would do something that resonated with the meanings in the songs. In the beginning of Puff (The Magic Dragon), for instance, 2 men appear in a Pieta pose, foreshadowing Puff the Dragon’s lamentation after his friend, Little Jackie Paper, dies. At the end of the song, a simple, slow walk backwards toward upstage provided an apt reflection of Puff’s sorrowful retreat into his dragon cave.
Our first reaction to the next dance on the program, Bad Winter, was that it’s strange to call it one dance when it consists of two very different dances, a solo – danced Saturday by Chanel DaSilva – and a duet – danced Saturday by Travis Walker and Ashley Werhun.
The soloist appeared in a spotlight wearing a white tailcoat over shorts and leotard dancing to an Arthur Tracy recording of Pennies From Heaven, that melancholy, depression-era homily on hope and money.
The duet is performed to two songs by Cinematic Orchestra, That Home and To Build a Home – paradoxically melancholic meditations on the pleasures of home. See snippets of the duet HERE.
If Leatherwing Bat was a showcase for TMP’s flash and dazzle in a kid-friendly dance, Bad Winter showed their ability to find emotional resonance between music and choreography in an adult-themed dance.
The final dance on the program, Ladies and Gentle Men, presents a series of dance riffs on songs from Free to Be, You and Me, the ’70’s record album, illustrated book, and television special promoting gender equality. A nostalgia fest for some, we saw this dance as both a heartfelt interpretation of an artifact from McIntyre’s childhood and kid-friendly repertoire for what must be many TMP performances for school kids.
We found it strange that in a concert attended almost exclusively by adults, 2 out of 3 dances were to children’s music, but by every other measure this TMP concert raised the bar for contemporary ballet.
The University of Akron, E. J. Thomas Hall, The University of Akron Dance Program, and DanceCleveland presented Trey McIntyre Project at E. J. Thomas Hall on 10/6/12.
The next DanceCleveland concert is 11/10/12, Spellbound, a company with which we’re not familiar, but if you want to look into our crystal ball and see more of the future of ballet, we highly recommend DanceCleveland’s January offering, Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Nothing can prepare you for where LINES takes classical ballet. In the words of Tom Evert at the 7/5/2007 LINES concert at E. J. Thomas, “Never in my wildest dreams.” Sat 1/26 and Sun 1/27/13 at the Ohio Theater. Tickets HERE or phone 216-241-6000.
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.
University of Akron, Akron, OH 44304