From Mozart to Dave Matthews, the Florida Everglades to the Joyce Theater, David Parsons, artistic director and co-founder of Parsons Dance, stated that his goal for Wednesday evening’s program was to create variety, to make sure it was all different.
The opening piece, Wolfgang surprised long-time fans of the company with classical music and traditional ballet movement. David Parsons' choreography to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Symphony No. 25 in G minor” was first created on the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Wolfgang’s phrasing and style are well suited for a ballet company, but Parsons' dancers attack the steps giving the whole piece a thrilling and modern energy. The grand lifts and pas de deux inspired partnering grows more wild as Wolfgang progresses. In one section the three pairs share the stage, stark lighting dividing the stage into thirds with each duo in their own column of light. During a crescendo the women fly from the lit space into the darkness and their partners waiting arms. Parsons and lighting designer and co-founder Howell Binkley work so precisely together that each woman is caught in mid-air for a split second before being whisked out of sight while the man supporting her remains invisible to the audience.
This season also marks the world premiere of a new work by former company member Katarzyna Skarpetowska. Black Flowers, to music by Frederick Chopin, was a natural progression from the classicism of Wolfgang. Expressive and dramatic, the dancers swelled with the melody opening their chests and back in high release. The company proved their athleticism again, this time springing through powerful, graceful floor work and more grounded partnering. Black Flowers’ed with a stunning final image: the three women kneeling in a line as their rigid arms and fists slowly soften.
Dawn to Dusk, excerpted for this program, was originally choreographed as a full length work. It was also part of the “Face of America” series commissioned by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts as a unique way to highlight America’s lesser-known national parks. Gorgeous footage of Florida’s Everglades provides the backdrop for Dawn to Dusk. An alligator glides through the water spanning the length of the stage while a line of dancers mimic his lithe body. At times the dancers on stage mirror themselves in the footage, other times they blend into the swamp life, dancing in waist high (‘gator-infested) water. They blur the line between man and nature in the most beautiful way.