Aspen Santa Fe Ballet has been called one of the standard-bearers for the future of American dance, and their programs of almost entirely new works suggest that, while ballet remains at the foundation of what we do, dance must continue to explore new territory to keep growing. Their Harriman-Jewell Series program on March 31st at the Kauffman Center – their second appearance on the Series – was fun, fresh, polished and at times quite serious, and it pushed limits even as it kept things light-hearted. The 10 dancers are lean, young and spring-loaded: There doesn’t seem to be anything they can’t do.
The program consisted of two new works, commissioned by the company, and a Jiří Kylián piece from 1983 that has become a sort of contemporary classic. Stamping Ground is based on Aboriginal dance styles that have long been of interest to the choreographer. It begins in silence, with a series of solos in which the six dancers, entering and exiting through a shimmering backdrop upstage, create their own percussive “score” by slapping their bodies and stamping their feet. Halfway through, a cascadingly rhythmic piece by Carlos Chávez commences and inspires ensembles in which the dancers leap over each other, crawl about, knock each other to the floor and form themselves into whimsical structures – including a human pendulum, with a woman held by two men and swinging her legs. But Kylián mostly avoids clichés of “tribal” dance, and the end effect is that a subject has been deeply broached.
The program began with the fascinating Over Glow by Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo, with music by Mendelssohn and Beethoven whose fragility was belied by the quirky movement, in which dancers seemed to imitate animals with head-bobs, hooked arms and jerky leg motions. The immense and largely unconventional detail brought to mind the work of William Forsythe. Movements begin as standard classical ballet poses, then break down joyously into ironic arm-juts or sudden jerks of the head. Its humor notwithstanding, for me the piece lacked a clear sense of form or forward-motion.
More straightforward was Nicolo Fonte’s animated Where We Left Off, which featured music by Philip Glass performed live by a pianist (Han Chen) situated far upstage right. Glass’s quieter, more flowing melodies were reflected in detailed balletic flourishes by white-clad dancers in small ensembles, and these were punctuated by sudden loud passages that ushered in larger groups of dancers performing florid moves of ever-increasing complexity – turns, arm-scoops, arabesques. Inevitably the almost numbingly repetitive music began to find expression in repetition in the dance, but the 10 dancers performed the near-overload of detail with astonishing verve and virtuosity. The audience gave the company a warm, appreciative ovation for what added up to an intriguing evening of theater.
To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send email to phorsley@sbcglobal.net.
REVIEW: Pianist Bronfman rocks Helzberg Hall with one of music’s noisiest concertos
The dense contrapuntal passages of Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto can put a concert hall’s acoustics to test, and at the Kansas City Symphony’s program on March 30th Helzberg Hall responded with clarity and warmth. The soloist was the king of clangorous concertos, Yefim Bronfman, and he brought an apt mix of the percussive and the lyrical to the demanding piece, giving melodic passages their due if at times over-pedaling some of the busier textures. The orchestra under Michael Stern’s baton took us on a roller-coaster ride that had us holding onto our seats. He led a good firm line in the opening of the slow movement, keeping the forward motion while not skimping on breathless, beautiful string sound. Balances were good for the most part, though the bass drum in the finale felt overpowering, and despite Bronfman’s muscularity there were times that I actually wished I could hear more piano.
The program opened with the world premiere of Donald Kellogg’s Water Music, one of three works the Symphony commissioned for the opening of the Kauffman Center. (Chen Yi’s Fountains of KC was performed in September, and Stephen Hartke’s Muse of the Missouri will receive its premiere in June.) It is a brightly hued, attractive piece for large orchestra, with three movements each representing one of the fountains of our city – which the composer had explored and researched in detail. Anyone who has spent time at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain will find the opening “Battling Torrents” familiar: Like that fountain, the music is full of shimmering sunlight and color, with splashy dissonances giving way to a big, long-breathed melody that draws the music into a more tonal realm. Finally the busy dissonances return, as the fountain sprays perpetual liquid energy all about its mythical figures.
There is a yearning, Coplandesque quality to “Muse of the Missouri” – inspired by a fountain at Ninth and Main Streets – which is by turns dissonant and resolutely tonal. Small melodic cells seem to call out for the Muse’s song, and again the movement climaxes with the arrival of a “big tune” that seems to evoke the slow, eternal flow of the Big Muddy. “Cascades” is a complex musical depiction of the high-tech “pattern fountain” in front of Union Station – the Henry Wollman Bloch Memorial Fountain, to be exact. Minimalist patter creates a sort of perpetual motion, and in this instance the long-breathed tune that emerges is reworked almost to the point of overstaying its welcome. All in all, though, Water Music is a solid, honest piece of music that may well take on a life of its own.
The second half of the program was devoted to Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, which Stern led with clean lines and smart balances. If it was perhaps a bit “by the book,” it had warmth and savvy. But the thing that jumped out most of all was just how marvelous Helzberg Hall sounded for this reduced Classical orchestra of 45 players. The sound was buoyant and alive, reverberating for just the right amount of time and filling in Mozart’s textures with delicious warmth. Just as I noted earlier this season about how ideally suited Muriel Kauffman Theatre seemed for the Lyric Opera’s smaller-scale Cosi fan tutte, it now appears that Helzberg, too, is perfect for the performance of smaller ensembles.
To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send email to phorsley@sbcglobal.net.
