Performer: Oregon Ballet Theatre

Oregon Ballet Theater closed its season with the first instalment of a new program in support of emerging female choreographers. New work by Helen Simoneau and Gioconda Barbuto made a particularly striking impression.

Nacho Duato’s baffling and beautiful Por Vos Muero, little known in the United States, kicked off Oregon Ballet Theatre’s first season under its new artistic director, Kevin Irving. The piece, originally set on Duato’s Compañia Nacional de Danza in 1996, makes a deep visual and emotional impression, a shining rebuttal to all the tedious, empty acrobatics of much contemporary dance.