A Venn diagram of music videos and ballet would have pretty small overlap. Music videos of the MTV-type often rely on dance, but it’s usually popular styles. Ballet film projects are rare outside of a pandemic, and usually rely on classical music. But where pop music, film, and ballet come together is a very happy place for me. So I’ve rounded up some ballet music videos for this post. Only after I put the list together I realized how Iceland-heavy the list is. That’s strange, because ballet is one of the few art forms I don’t particularly associate with Iceland.
One of the first times I visited Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park was for a special performance of site-specific ballets commissioned by Pacific Northwest Ballet. The event, called Sculptured Dance was such a big hit that it became an annual event for several years. I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly, but I think this was also the first time I saw Donald Byrd’s choreography.
The sixth program of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s digital season is here. It’s a mixed program with three filmed performances of ballets that are new to PNB. Two of them are world premieres. Rep 6 is the final program of the regular season. Not that there has been anything regular about this season, with McCaw Hall closed to the public and everything produced for film. But it has been a wonderful season nonetheless, filled with beautiful performances of exquisite ballets. So far I’ve enjoyed everything so much more than I expected. So, in their bold leap into digital production, did PNB stick the landing with their final program?
I’ve missed the big arts organizations’ live performances in world-class spaces during the pandemic. But I’ve discovered a lot of small, innovative projects that I would have missed in normal years. Many of them might not even have happened during business as usual. One of them is “We’re All in This Together: An (almost) Post-COVID Ballet.” It’s a six-minute ballet video filmed at Vashon Center for the Arts. And it’s really beautiful.
Originally conceived as a summer season company, the pandemic could have meant the end for Seattle Dance Collective. Instead, founders James Yoichi Moore and Noelani Pantastico galloped into a whole new approach. Without the barriers imposed by their usual PNB schedules and the need for performance space or even in-person rehearsals, SDC has increased its output with a series of innovative contemporary ballet films. The latest of these is Gallop Apace, a 10-minute interpretation of a scene from Romeo and Juliet that many dances skip over.
Trevor Tweeten photo c/o SDC
The Cast
Gallop Apace is a production of Seattle Dance Collective. I have seen every production this young company has ever made (most recently Alice – coproduction with PNB), but every single person involved in this particular piece was new to me. I had never even heard of the choreographers, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. They are known for using GAGA, a movement language created by Israeli dancer and choreographer Ohad Naharin – another thing that was entirely new to me.
Trevor Tweeten photo c/o SDC
The primary dancer is Sara Mearns, a principal at New York City Ballet. She was a surprising choice for Juliet. I’ve only seen tiny women in that role, their small bodies highlighting Juliet’s youth and childish innocence. Mearns is an Amazon in the Patricia Barker mold. But she reminded me of my best friend in high school, a nearly six foot tall Swede who was as naïve an ingenue as ever existed, however statuesque the frame that housed her adolescent passions.
The Scene
In the play Romeo and Juliet, the teens pretend to attend morning mass, where they are secretly married. But they can’t be seen together, so they leave the church separately and pretend to have a normal day. Most of the attention goes to Romeo, who has his disastrous run-in with Tybalt. But while Romeo is out committing murder, Juliet is sitting at home, impatiently awaiting the night when she can see Romeo again. That is what this dance captures.
This setting is perfect for a pandemic production. It’s basically a solo in a big airy room. (The nurse bustles about in the background, occasionally peeking in on Juliet from the doorway and requiring Juliet to try to act normal.) Like my husband said, “I want to make art, but only if it’s on my couch and I don’t have to wear pants.”
Gallop Apace
In contemporary choreography, the dancing often starts before the music or continues after it stops. I don’t really like that. So I liked Gallop Apace better once the music started. Spoken word is another trend that only sometimes works for me – in this case it made sense to include lines from the play that helped orient the viewer and place the movement in the context of the story. What struck me first about the choreography was the way incredibly pedestrian movement stretched into more abstract dancing, then collapsed back into naturalism. I think that might be characteristic of the choreographers, but it worked especially well for a piece exploring the jagged inner experience of a young person having very big feelings.
Trevor Tweeten photo c/o SDC
Speaking of big feelings, dancers are far less likely than actors to mistake R&J for a courtly romance, but this is a very thirsty ballet. I was really glad I didn’t watch it with my kids.
Details
GALLOP APACE Direction & Choreography: Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber Music: Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos Cello: Coleman Itzkoff Juliet: Sara Mearns Nurse: Bligh Voth Voice: Lihi Kornowski Cinematography: Trevor Tweeten World Premiere: April 15, 2021
Gallop Apace is available for streaming from April 15-22, 2021 on Vimeo or the SDC web page for $5.
{I received a free press link to this video, but chose to donate $5 to SDC because I want to support more work like this in the future.}
