Ballet San Jose Bows to Modern Masters

Carla Escoda

Former dancer, research scientist & investment banker turned ballet teacher and arts blogger

posted 4/23/13

 

Rudy Candia and Beth Ann Namey in Merce Cunningham's Duets. (Photo: Robert Shomler)

Ballet San Jose closed out its season this weekend with a powerful reminder of the influence of Merce Cunningham on today's choreographers. Not a hint of narrative on display in Program 3, just a series of fascinating comments on what dance is and why it moves us.

Cunningham's playful, mysterious Duets from 1980 eschews nearly all bravura elements of ballet. Instead it deconstructs and levels the male-female partnering relationship, examining what we really need from each other in order to maintain our balance. In this series of six strikingly different vignettes, he tells us "this is what ballet is made of" and at the same time "this is the future of ballet." Ballet San Jose's future appears to be bright indeed, as the corps and apprentice dancers who made up the greater part of Saturday's matinee cast stepped up to the Cunningham challenge with authority -- particularly the vivacious final couple, Mariya Oishi and Alex Kramer.

Cunningham restricts much of the partnering support to light momentary touches, gentle pushes and hand-holding, which requires far more strength and agility in partnering than the traditional hands-around-the-waist or hands-under-the-armpits. In one delightful moment, a woman balances on one leg while her partner graciously offers his outstretched arm. Rather than grasping it, she merely tap-tap-taps it with alternating hands. This woman doesn't need the man's support, but she is touched by his chivalry and lets him know -- in a type of Morse code, because dancers are nonverbal -- that, Yes, she is free for dinner next Friday.

Alex Kramer and Sarah Stein in Merce Cunningham's Duets.(Photo: Robert Shomler)

John Cage's score, the kind of noise that would normally send us in frantic search of a plumber or auto mechanic, is somehow transformed into a piece of sacred music by the dancers' brilliant sense of rhythm and timing. A feat made even more amazing by the fact that this piece is traditionally rehearsed without music, to counts or to a stopwatch. (Watch this fascinating video of former Cunningham dancer Patricia Lent as she explains the unique challenges of rehearsing for Duets.)

Jorma Elo's Glow-Stop. (Left to right) Joshua Seibel, Akira Takahashi, Amy Marie Briones, and Alexsandra Meijer. (Photo: Robert Shomler)

At first glance, Jorma Elo's strenuous, hyperkinetic Glow-Stop would appear to be a rejection of all things Merce, with its lush score -- a marriage of Mozart and Philip Glass, the latter at his most romantic -- and accumulation of tics and gestures on top of classical ballet steps executed at a pace that makes the speediest Balanchine work look like a leisurely stroll. Originally created for American Ballet Theatre in 2006, this piece appears tailor-made for Ballet San Jose: you could not ask for a sharper, more electrifying performance.

Jeremy Kovitch and Alexsandra Meijer in Jorma Elo's Glow-Stop. (Photo: Robert Shomler)

The most interesting elements of Glow-Stop may be the rapid-fire deployment of the arms and the emphatic use of the hands and fingers. The dancers touch various body parts in rapid succession, in a semaphore that reminds us that ballet is very much an OCD art form. By exaggerating the use of the arms and hands, by cramming more steps, more changes in body facing and other stylistic elements into a musical phrase, Elo emphasizes the rules-based nature of ballet and, as Cunningham does in Duets, asks how far we can push the rules without breaking them. Unlike his contemporaries, William Forsythe and Wayne McGregor, Elo appears to have more reverence for classical shapes, for dancers' bodies as human bodies; he's not trying to shock us by distorting the body or creating images of pain and isolation. The exceptional lighting design by Brad Fields and the vibrant, deep red velvet costumes lend a warm glow to the dancers' skin, of a piece with the exhilaration in their faces.

Jessica Lang's world premiere of Eighty One with composer Jakub Ciupiński playing the commissioned score live on stage (far right) on double theremins. (Photo: Robert Shomler)

Jessica Lang, on the other hand, uses lighting to create a more stark and ominous landscape. In a bow to Cunningham, Lang set her new world premiere for Ballet San Jose, Eighty One, in silence. Composer-musician Jakub Ciupiński, positioned on a platform above the dancers, with his double theremins and computer, recreates the score from scratch for each performance as he watches the dancers. The electronic theremins sense the position of the player's hands so that no contact is needed to generate sound; foot switches are used to change instrumental sounds, and samples can be looped and overlaid to create a variety of effects. The movement of Ciupiński's hands and feet as he invents the music and the natural swaying of his body make him look as if he is "conducting" the dancers; his movements are among the most compelling onstage.

Jeremy Kovitch and Alexsandra Meijer in Jessica Lang's Eighty One. (Photo: Robert Shomler)

The piece opens with thin, sculptural shafts of light beaming straight down from the rafters, the female dancers in shadow except for legs and arms which they periodically extend into the light. The sensational lighting design is by Jim French. The columns widen into cones and we gradually see more of the dancers' bodies as they step into the harsh white light, later to be joined by their partners. Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun is initially the only dancer who is bathed in a warmer light, and while all the dancers possess strong technique, she stands out for the exceptional lyrical quality of her movement. The opening and the close of the piece were particularly riveting, while the middle section felt rather conventional and less inspired, many of the movements resembling body conditioning exercises, which failed to evoke the kind of emotion that flooded out from Duets and Glow-Stop.

Kendall Teague and Annali Rose in Jessica Lang's Eighty One. (Photo: Robert Shomler)

Sandwiched between Duets and Glow-Stop was a tribute to retiring principal ballerina Karen Gabay, a gypsy pas de deux set to Ravel's fiendish "Tzigane." Danced by Gabay and the flamboyant, dashing Maykel Solas, Amour Gitan is light on choreographic invention but showcases Gabay's dramatic temperament, Solas' wicked turning jumps and the virtuosity of violinist Lev Polyakin and pianist Kaisuke Nakagoshi.Ballet To The People was disturbed, however, by the image of Solas grabbing Gabay by the hair and shoving her around, while she acted like she was enjoying it -- an unwelcome throwback to a less enlightened era and a jarring contrast to the world of egalitarian partnering opened up by the pioneering Merce Cunningham.

 

San Francisco Chronicle

'R/Evolutionary' review: unique in a way

Allan Ulrich

Published 3:54 pm, Sunday, April 21, 2013

• 
  Jeremy Kovitch and Alexsandra Meijer perform in Jessica Lang's "Eighty One" for Ballet San Jose. Photo: Robert Shomler, San Jose Ballet

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Ballet San Jose did itself no favors by affixing the dumb title "R/Evolutionary" to its final program of the 2012-13 season at the Center for the Performing Arts over the weekend.

True, one featured choreographer, Merce Cunningham, did effect a revolution in 20th century dance. Also true that this company seems to be developing in an intriguing way that one might call organic, weeding away what was most provincial about the organization. But this 35-member company should not need gimmicks to lure local patrons. South Bay people should pay attention to what's going on here.

Saturday's matinee seemed unique in a way. Of how many regional American ballet companies can it be said that the entire repertoire was created within many of the dancers' lifetimes? Just two of the pieces, which included a world premiere and two company premieres, even derived from the past century. The dancing from new and familiar faces alike has taken on a more stretched look, though they couldn't all keep up with Jorma Elo's choreography, and they still missed a bit of confidence in elucidating the vocabulary in Cunningham's "Duets."

We must thank Ballet San Jose and artistic adviser Wes Chapman for bringing the ballets of Jessica Lang to town. Her new abstraction, "Eighty One," is first a dazzling theatrical spectacle. Jim French's arresting illumination includes myriad spots and other stage lighting plots. It's smoky and mysterious, and high on a platform looms composer Jakub Ciupinski, creating an electronic score, which he calls "gesture control music," altering meters, harmonies and dynamics as the ballet proceeds. Yes, it does feel like a trendy dance club, but the steps belie the surroundings.

Lang, who debuted in San Jose with "Splendid Isolation III" last season, fashioned her new work in silence, but you'd never know it. The choreography for 11 dancers abounds in unisons, frozen tableaux (upturned palms) sweeping bourrees and transitory relationships in which limbs are stretched and backs bear the weight of partners. The patterning opts for fluidity over profundity. It is not Lang's fault that her "Eighty One" follows Elo's "Glow-Stop," which stresses similar gender interactions, but not so ably.

The Finnish choreographer made his work for American Ballet Theater, but I wish this was one piece Chapman declined to import. Elo's dances too often opt for the clever and the formulaic, (remember "Double Evil" at the San Francisco Ballet?) and seem to make a point about old and new again and again. Here he uses the presto movement from Mozart's Symphony No. 28 (valiantly conducted by George Daugherty) juxtaposed with a movement from a Philip Glass piano concerto.

Elo gets propulsion but no elegance from Mozart; the Glass seems more suited to his limited musicality. The 12 dancers, clad in various degrees of burgundy, seem to enjoy these confrontations, which focus on body parts most choreographers skip. He deconstructs the classical language, like those endlessly fluttering fingers. Elo's day with American companies seems to have come and gone, fortunately.

Happily, Cunningham and his aesthetic will always be with us. "Duets," which ABT performed in 1980, shows us six couples in color-coded outfits entering and passing through while John Cage's percussive score alerts and annoys. As the dancers in this staging by Patricia Lent swing arms and swoon into arabesque, one sees a remarkable artist blessedly at work; and one also senses narratives taking shape in the imagination. Kathryn Meeusen and Maximo Califano brought a noticeably aggressive attack to their encounter.

One dance on the program looked back - to Karen Gabay's 33 years dancing with the company. She retired last weekend, and her parting gift, "Amour gitan," a duet she devised in 1998 to Ravel's "Tzigane," allowed her and Maykel Solas to cavort like gypsies under the spell of Eros. They raised the temperature in the hall a few degrees.

Allan Ulrich is The San Francisco Chronicle's dance correspondent. E-mail datebookletters@sfchronicle.com

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/R-Evolutionary-review-unique-in-a-way-4451727.php#ixzz2REgcrxIi

San Jose Mercury News San  Review: Ballet San Jose's season closer By Rita Felciano Correspondent Posted:   04/20/2013 02:05:47 PM PDT Updated:   04/20/2013 07:06:29 PM PDT So, for one last time, Karen Gabay joined her colleagues at a Ballet San Jose season closer. The program will be at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday afternoon with a special 7 p.m. tribute to Gabay on Sunday night. In an evening that was largely contemporary ballet at its edgiest, Gabay's "Amour Gitan" became a lovely interlude of romance a la gypsy. In 1998, she had choreographed it to Ravel's bravura showpiece "Tzigane" for herself and now Ballet Master Raymond Rodriguez. A splendid Maykel Solas partners her in these final performances. "Amour" vividly highlights Gabay's expressive range. She still turns respectable pirouettes but she truly came alive as a lover who was teasing and flirtatious one moment and temperamental and sexually demanding the next. At the end, she generously shared a bouquet of red roses with Maykel and the fine musicians, pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi and violinist Lev Polyakin. Jessica Lang's world premiere "Eighty One" proved to be the evening's other highlight. Lang had introduced herself last year with a visually fetching "Splendid Isolation III." The Ballet San Jose commission, strongly performed by an 11-dancer ensemble, is a much more intriguing work. It's a happy tailor-made acquisition for a company that seems to be finding its way toward a new identity. "Eighty One" is a fast-moving, constantly changing ensemble piece in which small groups -- a trio for men here, a quick diagonal for women there -- emerge but never interfere with a communal thrust. Jeremy Kovitch may lift Alexsandra Meijer overhead into an upside down split but she snaps her legs closed, and the two disappear in the group. Francisco Preciado and Maria Jacobs-Yu end up on the floor like some multi-limbed creature, but then he just walks away. Lang's piece works as if an intricately designed machine whose interlocking Dancers Damir Eric and Shannon Bynum rehearse at Ballet San Jose. ( Quinn B Wharton ) parts keep the place humming yet with few of the anti-humanist implications that such an endeavor might suggest. Jim French's design of banks and beams of high intensity lights evoked a self-contained universe. But Lang's most brilliant decision was working with composer Jakub Ciupinski. He created a score of electronics and live theremins -- an early 20th century instrument that appears to pull sound out of thin air. Placing Ciupinsky on a podium upstage left, he looked like the wizard who kept this world in his hands. Jorma Elo's 2006 "Glow-Stop", in a production borrowed from ABT, was created to odd musical bedfellows, the 4th movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 28 and the 2nd movement from Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Philip Glass. Yet the combination worked -- perhaps because Elo had yanked the selections out of their context. With an almost identical cast to the one in "Eighty One", this was not the company's most imaginative programming or, at least, casting choice. However, it did challenge the dancers toward a kind of excellence that they seem to thrive on. Amy Marie Briones, Cindy Huang, Akira Takahashi, James Kopecky and, above all, Kovitch left particularly strong impressions. Despite its less than convincing performance, Merce Cunningham's "Duets" was a gift. So full of inventive and witty touches, a glorious spatial design and John Cage's gurgling score, this essay on duet dancing is easy on the eye. It was set primarily on corps members, perhaps to make them shine individually. However, except for soloists Beth Ann Namey and Rudy Candia, these young dancers did not have the maturity to step outside their ballet training. BALLET SAN JOSE