'I dare you not to smile.' A splendid – yet awkward – kickoff to ballet's 60th season
New dancers. New repertory. “More Room to Play, Kaplan New Works” is our introduction to the new face of Cincinnati Ballet. Artistic director Jodie Gates has led the company for nearly 14 months. But because most of last season had been pieced together before Gates took over, this is the first chance we’ve had to get a glimpse of what Gates has in mind for the company. It was all there at Friday night’s opening in the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater.
Except for Gates.
The first inkling of something unexpected was when rehearsal director Cervilio Miguel Amador gave the preshow speech welcoming the audience. Normally, that would be handled by Gates.
What the audience wasn’t told is that Amador is, for the moment, the company’s acting artistic director. That’s because Gates is on PTO – personal time off. The dancers were notified of the change last Monday. No information was given on how long this arrangement will continue. The company did say, though, that Gates’ absence is not due to health-related issues.
What an awkward way to kick off the company’s 60th anniversary season.
All we know for sure is that the company’s 29 dancers will perform this engrossing and widely varied five-ballet program through Sept. 24.
I have to start with the last piece on the program, the world premiere of David Morse’s “More Room to Play,” choreographed to John Adams’ “Fearful Symmetries.” If you’ve ever heard the music – it’s a popular work – you’ll know that it is a deliciously churning, pulsing piece. It sounds like it could have been lifted from one of those 1940s films set on the bustling streets of New York City. Indeed, this dance has its beginnings in a short film that Morse created in the early months of the pandemic.
Like Adams’ music, Morse’s dancers – there are 13 of them – seem to be in perpetual motion. They race onto the stage, spin and then scatter like so many atoms splintering apart in a savage choreographic fission.
Keeping up with every element of the dance is like trying to keep track of all three rings of a massive circus. It’s impossible. But it’s so frantically delightful that you keep trying. Noelle Wedig-Johnston’s costumes add a bit of visual cacophony all on their own. One of the men wears glittery silver pants and a fringed crop top. Someone else has a salmon-colored suit. There’s a splashy blouse that Keith Haring could have designed. And intergalactic sunglasses. It goes on and on. I dare you not to smile.
Tiler Peck’s “Balderrama,” which opens the program, is at the other end of the emotional spectrum. Peck, a much-loved principal dancer with New York City Ballet and a social media star – 456,000 Instagram followers and counting @tilerpeck – has created a six-person ballet that is as long on character as it is in choreographic craft. And I mean that only in the best way.
The dance has a distinctly Latin feel to it, both musically and choreographically. Peck’s choreography is serene, but filled with arching arms and little flicks of the wrist meant to conjure up images of Latin dance. But Peck isn’t imitating. She’s paying homage to those many dances. This isn’t opening work. Rather than make a sassy curtain-raiser, Peck leaves us with a work that is peaceful, a paean to the many facets of love and what passes for it.
The third premiere is Houston Thomas’ “In the Smoke.” As the title promises, the stage is wreathed in smoke, the only character a man – Taylor Carrasco – standing in a pool of light. An air of grief permeates his movement as he lurches anxiously about the stage, especially when he is joined by a second, ghostly looking man (Michael Mengden). Other couples join them on the stage. But there is no interaction among the couples as they explore their individual takes on mourning.
The program also includes a pair of older works – Amy Seiwert’s 2009 “It’s Not a Cry,” a physically charged examination of relationships performed by Maine Chernjavsky and Rafael Quenedit, and artistic collaborator Jennifer Archibald’s 2018 “Quem Viver, Verá (He Who Lives Shall See),” a raw and spectacular brawny work performed by five of the company’s recently rejuvenated male ensemble (Sasha Chernjavsky, Llonnis del Toro Cintra and Chandler Proctor, along with Quenedit and Mengden).
It really is a splendid program. And Peck and Morse’s works are valuable assets to the company’s repertory. And as for the new dancers? We only got to see three of them on opening night. But all of the dances have multiple casts, so by the time the series closes on Sept. 24 we will have a chance to see all of them.
“More Room to Play, Kaplan New Works”
When: through Sept. 24.
Where: Jarson-Kaplan Theater, Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., Downtown.
Tickets: $59-$79.
Information: 513-621-5282; www.cballet.org.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Ballet kicks off 60th season on splendid, yet awkward, note
