Philadelphia Ballet | Dance Masterpieces | March 14-16
Academy of Music, Philadelphia
On the well-worn heels of Philadelphia Ballet’s run of Angel Corella’s Giselle at the Academy of Music the dancers were back on pointe, in slippers and even sneakers, for their Dance Masterpieces triple-bill of ballets by Alvin Ailey, William Forsythe and most triumphantly, Twyla Tharp. These back-to-back programs featured alternating casts to showcase the versatility, ensemble performance esprit and strengths of the full company through its ranks.
Ailey’s 1970 ballet ‘The River’ with its dynamic original score by Duke Ellington s score with jazz symphonics, chamber works and big-band swing scoring Ailey’s dance evocations of water. The open scene ‘Spring’ with 15 dancers flowing onstage symbolizing its force- pooling, dispersing, surging, and glistening in natural beauty evokes by these dancers after the group sequence, Arian Molina Soca dances a powerfully serene solo peppered with thrilling tour’s en l’air.
In the central duet ‘The Lake’ featuring dramatic lift sequences is danced with sterling technical artistry by Iseda and Austin Eyler. In ‘Giggling Rapids’ Lucia Erickson flirts on point with Isaac Hollis, a (jazzdance jokester) move to Ellington’s 60s era big-band swing turned into unfussy romp of seduction (. ‘The Falls’ is a le jazz percussive hot for the allegro trio -Javier Rivet , Nicholas Patterson and Denis Maciel burning the floor Ailey’s in a tag team dance off of tornadic turns, muscled jetes and fiery footwork. Maraya Pineiro simply mesmerizing in the solo ‘Vortex.’ Then the finale ensemble with Soca and Iseda reunited. This underrated period classic from Ailey and Ellington still looks fresh as a new spring. .
William Forsyth’s ‘In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated’ made in 1987 is a choreographic industrial abstract with dancers in studio togs moving to the jarring clangs and clashes of composer Thom Willems/Lesley Struck industrial score. The dancers in academic configurations, severe phrases and decidedly machinal attitude. Forsythe’s hardwired balletics, featuring disparate solos and duets occurring simultaneously around the stage, Steely, Stoic, and technically impressive in its execution by the dancers, but the concept cloys and agitates midway through. Cutting through the clockwork moves, there are more interesting interactions- a duet moment, a human interaction, an expression of human connection (Some Elevated vis-à-vis an industrial world, no?.
Twyla Tharp’s ‘In the Upper Room’ (1986) is truly a masterpiece, scored to music by Philip Glass, proves a electrifyingly dreamy ballet on this company. The dancers appear and vanish out of a curtain at the back of the stage and dense fog. They are clad in stripped rumpled PJs and red skirts and skinnies on the women and the men shirtless. Dancers in slippers next to dancers in sneakers both pirouetting and partnering with equal power.
Among the many outstanding performances- Zecheng Liang a stellar classical dancer, was in top form in Tharp’s idiosyncratic vocabular that is peppered with ballet variation. slicing through the air like a bolt of lightning and landing on a cloud. Mayara Pineiro and Jacquline Callahan clockwork duet in red pointe shoes could hypnotize Freud.
Set on the company by veteran Tharp stager Shelly Washington, this cast sustained uniform precision and lustrous esprit landing Tharp’s concepts of ‘at ease’ choreography peppered with sharp ballet virtuosity. There is no connotation of romance or sexuality, but it is so sexy, warm, witty, ecstatic, and fierce.
It is its own movement world, fueled by Glass orchestral propulsion’s perpetuo molto. It still looks as startlingly fresh as last night’s dream. But indeed, in this program of modern masterworks, all of the dancers distinguished themselves. In the propulsive final passages this ensemble is radiant in the Twylazone and by the extended cheers by this audience at the end they were as well.