Deftly Folded: Contemporary Classics at PNB
Seattlest went to the opening night of Pacific Northwest Ballet's Contemporary Classics last night for two favorites: Kiss and Caught. PNB has wisely brought these two pieces into it's repertory fold, continuing to signal Artistic Director Peter Boal's commitment to exploring choreography that is traditionally outside the realm of most ballet companies. Overall, PNB rose regally to the challenge.
Our original reactions of both performances stand unchanged on repeat viewings. Regarding Kiss, we felt punched in the gut all over again by this duet despite knowing exactly what to expect.
The sensation of nearly drowning in another person was lade bare in front of us on the stage. We sat, heart racing, mouth literally agape through the entire piece.
What surprised us most the second time around was the degree of restraint shown by choreographer Susan Marshall: two ballet dancers in harness, just think of all the lifts and partnering and crazy things one could do without gravity in the way! And yet she set those temptations aside and crafted a minimalist masterpiece.
As for Caught, we reveled in the reaction of the ballet crowd, most of whom clearly didn't go watch Parsons Dance last February. They were experiencing this for the first time:
As he writhes and pierces the air with sharp arms and angular movements, he traverses the stage in pursuit of the shifting circle of light. The choreography makes precise, arduous use of the geometric cones of light as they appear in seemingly random locations about the stage. His intensity builds, and soon he is leaping chest-high, captured in defiance of physics--always in the air, never on the ground--by two strobe lights at each side of the front of the stage. The timing is not merely impeccable, it is at times seemingly impossible.PNB couldn't have chosen a better, more electric performer for this than Jonathan Porretta (of whom a fellow reviewer said "You'd worry he had a cold if he weren't screamingly electric on stage.") The two women behind us were slightly deflated when we revealed the mysterious secret of the seemingly impossible strobe light timing, but we'll leave it to you to attend and decipher the program cover to find out on your own.
After the jump, more on being pleasantly surprised by Balanchine's Agon, and surprisingly let down by Twyla Tharp's contribution.
Photo of Kari Brunson and Casey Herd in Kiss and Jonathan Poretta in Caught, both by Angela Sterling.
The final piece for the evening was Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, which proved perhaps to be more challenging for the PNB troupe than we'd expected. A ceaselessly driving work set to an equally looping, unrepentant score by Phillip Glass, the piece is a forceful juxtapositon of modern and ballet styles that sadly wilted under the dancers' inability to fully embrace the less traditional, more modern elements. Properly undertaken, this 9-section juggernaut starts slowly with a group of tennis-shoe adorned women and equally casual male counterparts in black-and-white striped costumes working through a range of easy-going, soft movements until they are interrupted by two women in lipstick-red pointe shoes and their partners who execute sharp, feisty duets and momentarily steal the stage. This tension builds throughout, paired with a flurry of evolving costume changes until nearly everyone is dressed almost entirely in shocking red.
It should run like a train barreling off the tracks full steam, but we never felt caught up in the energy. We don't think it was Tharp's choreography, either, but rather PNB's execution of it. This was most clear when it actually worked, as in the trio towards the end with Batkhurel Bold, Kiyon Gaines, and Casey Herd. These three embraced Tharp's lumbering, aggressively informal style with abandon, and broke through the stiffness we saw in other dancers when trying to execute any of the ardently non-balletic choreography. We hope that with time, In The Upper Room will work its magic on the PNB corps, and eventually a repeat viewing on our part will find us revising our initial impression.
Photos of Louise Nadeau and Olivier Wevers in Agon and Maria Chapman and Jordan Pacitti, both by Angela Sterling.
