Seattle – Page 17 – Gemma D. Alexander

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Barret Anspach, George Balanchine, George Ballanchine, Henry Purcell, Jose Limon, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Othello, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Price Suddarth, Signature, Tarantella, Tchaikovsky, Theme and Variations

Themes & Variations at Pacific Northwest Ballet

The final ballet of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s regular season is Themes & Variations, a mixed program of four ballets that seems kind of random at first glance. Lately I’ve been trying to study more about the ballets I attend, but last week was a whirlwind that left me craving a quiet night on the couch with a book. I dragged myself to the ballet all unprepared and discovered once again that dance is a balm even for the introvert’s soul.

Pieces of a Puzzle

I never used to think much about how the ballets in a mixed rep program fit together, but lately I can’t help but notice. I don’t know if that’s because I’m developing as a viewer or Artistic Director Peter Boal has just been building some really great programs.

Despite being performed from newest to oldest, the four pieces in this program created a progression of ideas. Starting with a celebration of the individual and ending with a celebration of technique, with variations on both those themes throughout, the evening felt like an exploration of everything that’s wonderful about dance.

Signature

Music: Barret Anspach (VVLD, 2015)
Choreography: Price Suddarth
Costume Design: Mark Zappone
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Running Time: 30 minutes
Premiere: November 6, 2015, Pacific Northwest Ballet

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Signature before, and I’m sure for the same reason that I can’t really remember seeing it. Signature premiered on a bill with Emergence, once of my favorite ballets. There’s no way I would have missed that night, but I would have spent the whole evening just waiting for Emergence. And that was a mistake. Because watching Signature this weekend, I really loved it.

Elizabeth Murphy and Jerome Tisserand in Price Suddarth’s Signature, Photo © Angela Sterling c/o PNB.

The choreographer, PNB soloist Price Suddharth, has described Signature as asking the question “Why me?” Not in the self-pitying sense, but in the imposter syndrome sense of self-doubt. This was a timely question for me, since exhaustion and discouragement go hand-in-hand. So I especially appreciated Suddarth’s answer, “Because me.” The dance celebrates the uniqueness of each individual person, whatever their strengths or weaknesses may be.

Plus, the music by Barret Anspach was just gorgeous.

Tarantella

Music: Louis Moreau Gottschalk (Grande Tarantelle, Op. 67, c.1866), reconstructed and orchestrated by Hershy Kay
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
Staging: Peter Boal
Costume Design: Mark Zappone
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Running Time: 8 minutes
Premiere: January 7, 1964, New York City Ballet
PNB Premiere: January 31, 1985

Tarantella is one of those faux-folk dances that classical ballet choreographers love to throw into the middle of story ballets, and that’s not usually my thing. Those dances often feel pretentious to me, like an academic in overalls. But Tarantella is energetic and cheerful with just a hint of camp embedded in its humor, and I was with my 15-year-old daughter, who loves all of those things. Watching her delight made me enjoy Tarantella more. The fact that Angelica Generosa was performing helped, too. I’ve always thought nobody does saucy like she does. At least I did until my daughter whispered, “He’s a saucy boi,” thus proving that Generosa’s partner Kyle Davis can lay it on thick, too.

Angelica Generosa and Kyle Davis in Tarantella, by George Balanchine, Photo © Angela Sterling c/o PNB.

How does it fit into the program? Signature was about our character as individuals. Tarantella is about two individual characters, Neapolitan street performers. Compared to the contemporary ballet choreography of Signature, Tarantella takes a more academic approach, using classical technique even as it tells a story of common people.

The Moor’s Pavane

(Variations on the theme of Othello)

Music: Henry Purcell (The Gordian Knot Untied, Abdelazer, or The Moor’s Revenge), arranged by Simon Sadoff
Choreography: José Limón
Direction and Staging: Alice Condodina
Costume Design: Pauline Lawrence
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Running Time: 24 minutes
Premiere: August 17, 1949, José Limón Dance Company
PNB Premiere: November 12, 1986

Shifting from a common story told through classical technique, The Moore’s Pavane tells a classical story (Othello) through experimental technique. I know I’ve seen The Moore’s Pavane before. Even though it was probably back in the 1990’s, the choreography is instantly recognizable. Back then, I remember disliking it. It was just too weird. If they had prelectures back then, I never went, so I had no idea that the choreographer, José Límon, was experimenting with a particular philosophy of movement that made it look unlike any other ballet.

(L-R) Lindsi Dec, Steven Loch, Joshua Grant, and Elizabeth Murphy The Moor’s Pavane, Photo © Angela Sterling c/o PNB

Armed with that information, the entire piece looked different. The pendulous Límon movements were forced into rigid patterns among the four dancers that gradually disintegrate as the story progresses and the characters’ own behavior deviates from social norms.

It is still weird. But this time it was also intellectually engaging and as a result, emotionally satisfying. Like Heironymous Bosch, a little Límon goes a long way. But you do need a little bit of it.

Theme and Variations

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Suite No. 3 in G Major, 1884; last movement)
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust
Staging: Judith Fugate
Scenic Design: Charlene Hall
Costume Design: Mark Zappone
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Running Time: 26 minutes
Premiere: November 26, 1947, Ballet Theatre (New York)
PNB Premiere: October 16, 1985

When I first started watching ballet, I couldn’t wait to see a “real tutu ballet.” I was so disappointed when I did. Compared to the contemporary choreography I really love, tutu ballets are so rigid and predictable. With a name like Theme and Variations, it’s easy to suspect you’re being tricked into watching dancers perform practice drills. Sometimes traditional classical ballets do feel like that.

Jerome Tisserand and Lesley Rausch in Theme and Variations, by George Balanchine, Photo © Angela Sterling c/o PNB.

But sometimes, when you’ve had a rough week, predictable is soothing instead of boring. Sometimes, when you’ve just watched academic choreography based on an experimental philosophy, it’s easier to enjoy academic choreography based on traditional technique. Instead of looking for novelty or surprises, you can just enjoy flawless execution of high level technique.

Details

Remaining performances: June 6 – 8 at 7:30 pm and June 9 at 1:00 pm

Tickets ($30-$187) are on sale online, by phone – 206.441.2424, or in person at 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center. Subject to availability, tickets are also available 90 minutes prior to show times at McCaw Hall.

{I attended Theme & Variations courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet. The tickets were theirs, but the opinions are mine.}

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ballet, Barret Anspach, concerts, Immortal Bird, live music, music festivals, Nighttime Stories, NW Terrorfest, Pelican, Shrine of the Serpent, VVLD

Music I Like – Live Performances

Last weekend was intense. On Friday night I saw the final program of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s season, Themes & Variations. On Saturday night I saw the Barboza lineup of Northwest Terrorfest. I intend to write about the ballet and the festival in more detail later, so I won’t say too much here, but naturally, I heard a lot of music I like.

Barret Anspach

There is alwasy good music at the ballet, but one piece in particular really grabbed me last Friday. Barret Anspach is a local-to-me composer. The double violin concerto VVLD was inspired by Vivaldi and written for the ballet Signature. I could not find an embed of the music, but it is worth clicking through to hear it on his webpage. http://barretanspach.com/#/music/vvld

And if you really can’t be bothered, here’s some of his older work.

Shrine of the Serpent

I saw five great bands at NW Terrorfest on Saturday, but of course I had my favorites. As often happens with me, I was most interested (and then impressed) by the opening band. Shrine of the Serpent from Portland were crushingly heavy. I recently read an article about Henry VIII and their set reminded me of his habit of executing people by “pressing.” But unlike most ridiculously heavy bands, Shrine of the Serpent have loads of melody.

Immortal Bird

I love the name Immortal Bird, which reminds me of Thao Nguyen’s feminist rage in “Meticulous Bird.” But the music is much different. This Chicago trio is more like the prize box at the dentist. Yeah, you had to let someone drill holes in your mouth bones, but look at all the fun goodies you can pick from!

If that sounds like a backhanded compliment to you, just ask yourself if you’ve ever seen a kid who wasn’t stoked to dig through the dentist’s prize box? (Plus, if you bought tickets to NW Terrorfest, you probably kind of like the sound of the dentist’s drill.)

Pelican

No, I did not see Pelican live last weekend, but since when have I ever been able to stick to a theme for an entire Music I Like post? The first time I ever heard Pelican, I realized there had been a seabird-shaped hole in my life up to that point. So when I found out this weekend that they are releasing a new album, Nighttime Stories, next week, you can bet I listened to the available tracks and loved them. I’ll probably like them again in next week’s post.

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field trips, Link Up, orchestra, Seattle Symphony

Orchestra Link Up

I rarely chaperone field trips because school buses are noisy and other people’s kids are obnoxious. But sometimes my kids’ field trips go to places and events I really want to see. Case in point: Seattle Symphony.

The symphony’s Link Up program provides classroom curriculum before the day of the field trip to prepare kids for what they’ll see and hear. Then they attend an interactive version of an orchestral performance.

I took this photo when we first arrived, but the orchestra played to full house of third to fifth graders on that day. And the audience wasn’t even obnoxious.

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contemporary dance, Kaleidoscope Dance, Seattle dance

Kaleidoscope Dance Spring 2019 Performance

I guess you could technically call the spring performance of Kaleidoscope Dance Company at the Broadway Performance Hall a “recital” since the performers are all children studying at the Creative Dance Center. But the performance is so much more interesting and entertaining than that word implies. Attending it is starting to become a tradition for me.

Kaleidoscope Dance Company

I admit, when I went for the first time last year, it was for the very recital-like reason that my family had friends who were performing. I first learned about the Kaleidoscope Dance Company researching an article for ParentMap that included the Creative Dance Center, a non-profit dance studio that teaches dance to infants through adults based on brain development theory. Kaleidoscope is the performance division of the school, and they’ve recently added a second performance group, Mosaic Junior Company, for younger dancers.

Even though my research made me curious and I knew two kids who were performing, busy schedules and distraction kept me from attending for years. Last year, I finally got tickets to the spring show (they also perform in December) and I could have kicked myself for waiting so long.

Creative Dance

Since dance is almost synonymous with classical ballet in my world, almost any contemporary dance company would probably seem fresh and different to me. But the fact that Kaleidoscope dancers are all youth also works in its favor. Whatever may be lost in technique and precision (which is a lot less than you would expect, actually) is made up for in the avoidance of cliché.

The choreography (mostly by program alumni, and some by the dancers themselves) takes advantage of the fact that the dancers are kids in stages of development. This doesn’t just help to compensate for any pre-professional skill levels, it also results in choreography that wouldn’t be possible for a professional company of adult dancers with their relatively uniform bodies.

Themes and Variations

Good luck finding kids who want to dance a love story, so you won’t find elegant pas de deux here. Instead you’ll find partnering based on size rather than gender – in fact, the choreography and costuming is almost completely ungendered – and it opens up a world of movement. The dancers are more likely to team up in stacks like Jenga blocks than engage in soaring lifts that require potentially embarrassing contact. When they do lifts, smaller kids get tossed around like props and toys.

Eschewing romance opens up a lot of space for other topics, and since these dancers are young it’s no surprise that many of the pieces explore questions of identity and the role of the individual within a larger group. In the opening piece, “Lotus,” the white-clad dancers almost resembled cells under a microscope, growing, clumping, and dividing. The effect was heightened when the dancers curled into balls, vibrating as the music faded. From the bright blue socks in “Electric Feet” to the proliferation of snacks in “So Whatta We Got Here?” there was a lot of humor in the dances as well.

A Mixed Bag

In an audience of mostly parents and friends, every piece was a hit, but for viewers with no skin in the game, some pieces were stronger than others. A couple pieces drew on African-American dance traditions. This made me uncomfortably aware of the overwhelmingly white cast and raised a few questions that I hope have good answers. A school of contemporary American dance that doesn’t teach African-American traditions would be guilty of erasure. But a white-majority company must proceed with caution.

“Falling Continuum” was my family’s favorite. The booklet said it “explores the assumption that the opportunities we are presented with will always be there.” I don’t think I took any thoughts about FOMO away from the piece, but then again, all I could think was, “Beautiful,” while I watched it.

Performance

Kaleidoscope and Mosaic are clear believers that every body is a dancer’s body, and for the most part, the performances bear that out. In a company of 47 performers ranging in age from second grade to seniors in high school (pro tip: A second grader will always steal the show) there was inevitably variation in the skill and talent demonstrated. But everyone remembered their parts and a few dancers stood out as particularly charismatic or committed – a couple even managed to sell the hokey final “Hoedown” number. Within that range, there was a unique delight in being able to see visible growth in individual dancers from last year’s performance (and not just my kids’ friends).

The music and lighting design for “Witness” were as interesting as the dance itself, reminding of the lesson that I learned at Barnekunst. Sometimes the difference between professional and childish is only presentation.

ByGD

Carmen, Seattle Opera

Music I Liked – Carmen

Ginger Costa-Jackson (Carmen). Photo by Sunny Martini — Photo by Sunny Martini c/o Seattle Opera

Carmen at Seattle Opera

This week has been all about Carmen for me. I am reviewing Seattle Opera’s new production elsewhere, but in preparation I’ve been listening to the music nonstop.

Carmen was the first opera I ever saw. In high school, my music teacher assigned the traveling production of Carmen (at the time my city didn’t have its own opera company) for extra credit. My only clear memory of the show was being startled awake by sound of a gunshot (which I now realize was the ending of Micaela’s aria when Don Jose catches Escamillo outside the bandits’ lair).

After this weekend, Carmen is one of my favorite operas, on par with Rigoletto. I have had Carmen’s “Habanera” stuck in my head since I heard since I heard it at Opera on Tap two weeks ago. And I will have the rest of the opera stuck in my head for a long time to come.

Category Archive Seattle

Themes & Variations at Pacific Northwest Ballet

Pieces of a Puzzle

Signature

Tarantella

The Moor’s Pavane

Theme and Variations

Details