Review: Varied dance forms enrich Farrell Ballet
By Kathleen Mitchell
Nov. 12, 2003 9:00 p.m.
After “Divertimento No. 15,” a classical style
ballet piece set to Mozart, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet dancers
quite literally let their hair down. In Stravinsky’s
“Variations for Orchestra,” Bonnie Pickard, a soloist,
traded her immaculate bun for a loose ponytail; Ravel’s
“Tzigane” saw the dancers do the same; and in
Stravinsky’s “Apollo,” Lisa Reneau tossed her
loose hair in blonde head circles.
In a beautiful presentation of George Balanchine-choreographed
pieces, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet offered its Royce Hall audience
a flesh and bones commentary on ballet’s position in the 21st
century as an art form that is capable of both maintaining its
roots and challenging its boundaries.
The program’s opening piece, “Divertimento No.
15,” served as attribution to the style that most audiences
know as classical ballet. In tu-tus, tights and toe-shoes, the
company filled the stage with an uplifting white light. The dancers
looked regal with their buns and diamond tiaras, and danced in the
middle and upper space, never descending to the floor, befitting
their princess-like qualities.
The solo ponytailed dancer who physically assumed the halting
and staccato rhythms in Stravinsky’s “Variations for
Orchestra,” danced in a more modern rather than traditional
mode. The discordant score and the choreography sharply contrasted
with the lyrical first piece.
Lyricism was not totally abandoned; at times a musical
smoothness prevailed, accompanied by a lighting and stylistic
shift. The blue background turned orange, and a giant shadow dancer
appeared on the background screen. With this clever choreography,
the slow and extended movements were reminiscent of those in the
first piece. When the shadow hunched over, the dancer laid out in a
backbend to show the audience that the two were separate.
“Tzigane,” the third piece, was sexy with its
folkloric, gypsy attitude. In violation of classical arm positions,
the dancers snaked their arms in belly dancer fashion, and bounced
and snapped their knees from bent to straight like folk dancers.
The women even sashayed around the men and sassed them with hands
on hips, eyebrows raised.
The most moving piece was the final dance, “Apollo.”
Its most powerful gestures came in the closing moments as the
dancers formed a line ascending a staircase, the only object on an
otherwise bare stage. Each extended an arm in tribute to a higher
entity.
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet beautifully incorporated a gamut of
dance forms that conversed with classical ballet. These
combinations may lead some to portend the death of classical forms,
but Farrell and her company showed that such combinations yield
inspiring results.
-Kathleen Mitchell
