Once again, kudos to Adam Sklute and Ballet West for putting on a program of mostly new or recent works created for the company. It takes some courage to resist safe choices when creating a program for New York City and I will always support the presentation of new works. There has been a great deal of chatter on social media and even in the New York Times about the dearth of same sex partnering in ballet and suddenly it’s popping up everywhere. Val Caniparoli’s Dances for Lou opened the show, set to music by Lou Harrison in celebration of his centennial. The music is an interesting and pleasing blend of east and west, featuring a Chinese stringed instrument called a p’i-p’a and a western orchestra. The standout duet in this ballet was… “Wind and Plum”, an expressive male pas de deux for Lucas Horns and Jordan Veit. Caniparoli’s choreography took full advantage of the possibilities of having them lift each other, assist in turns, leaning, pushing and pulling. They were superb. Also standing out in this ballet were Emily Adams and Jenna Rae Herrera. Adams was a wonderfully lyrical dancer in the “Threnody for Richard Locke” while Herrera was spitfire quick partnered with Oliver Oguma in two sections. This ballet challenged the dancers and showed their solid technique. Dances for Lou was up and down in terms of choreographic content as it seemed to me he was trying to force too many steps onto the music but that’s a difference of opinion.
The three brief pieces that anchored the middle of the program included Gerald Arpino’s last work, Ruth: Ricordi per Due, set to the Albinoni’s once ubiquitous Adagio in G Minor. Arpino’s pas de deux are generally romantic and lyrical and this one certainly fit that description. Arolyn Williams was a beautiful, spectral presence in a piece that regrettably veered off from the elegiac and into the maudlin. Christopher Ruud was a properly bereft poet and performed well but I had to resist rolling my eyes at what I perceived as emotional excess. Next up was Balanchine’s Chaconne, a pas de deux that compellingly showed off company star, Beckanne Sisk, paired with long-legged Chase O’Connell. From two years ago when I last saw her, Sisk has filled out. She’s no longer willowy and ethereal. She is now more powerful and vibrant with a more assertive stage presence. She tossed off the allegro steps with perfect articulation, feet always pointed, positions always precise, and with a keen musicality. She’s pure pleasure on stage. O’Connell seemed to have trouble fitting into the Joyce’s tight confines. Whenever he had to move in a circle, he ran out of room after just one jump. His legs are that long. He’s a beautiful dancer, just right with Sisk, but he needed more room for his solos in this pas de deux. A preview of Africa Guzmán’s Sweet and Bitter closed out the middle of the program. Here again, Herrera was a strong presence along with Chelsea Keefer. As it was a preview and not a premiere, I’ll just say that the work shows promise and look forward to seeing the completed work one day.
The final ballet on the program was Nicolo Fonte’s Fox on the Doorstep. This is a big ballet with lots of demanding choreography and the company as a whole came off very well in it. David Heuvel’s costumes deserve special mention. The men wore vest-like garments that resembled fetishwear and were distractingly ugly. Some of the women wore dance briefs with off-the-shoulder tee shirts that were equally unattractive. Fortunately, there was plenty of great dancing in this piece to ameliorate the effect of the costumes. Fonte’s work also included some same sex partnering and some bits of women partnering men in turns, mostly by serving as a fulcrum or holding up a leg. It opened up the range of movement to new possibilities and pointed the way forward for new modes of expression in contemporary classical ballet. While Sisk, Adams, Keefer and Williams were all terrific in this ballet, it was O’Connell who was a tower of power in his solo near the end. He made full use of his length and took the whole stage as his own. He has a quiet intensity that is not flashy but rather draws you to him.
Ballet West doesn’t quite meet the higher standards of some of its peers but there are many fine dancers and they are nurturing their own repertoire. Sklute, in two appearances at the Joyce Theater, has resolutely stuck to programming new and recent works that are not known by local audiences and that’s the right choice to make. This is a company that will always give you its best and is well worth going out of your way to see.
