The National Ballet's spring mixed program presented an unusual mix of four short ballets, coming from four very different points of the compass in the dance universe. Two were company premieres. Two involved the most un-balletic costume items I could imagine, blue jeans -- in one case paired with cowboy boots! And one came as close to being colourless as colour can get!
The programme opened with the two company premieres. First came George Balanchine's Allegro Brilliante, set to the rarely-heard Piano Concerto # 3 by Tchaikovsky. This concerto is a single-movement piece, published after the composer's death. As beautifully as it was played by the orchestra and soloist Andrei Streliaev, I was still left feeling (as I have long felt) that this is at best a small chip from the master's workbench, definitely not out of Tchaikovsky's top (or even the second) drawer. Alas, I was left with the same feeling about the dance itself. Balanchine is famous for choreographing with absolute respect for the music (which is a quality I value), but in too many passages the choreography took the step too far of becoming utterly predictable for anyone who knows where the music is going next. Some moments showed a flash of inspiration, but on the whole I felt that this was by no means the best work Balanchine ever did. The performances were neat, clean, and well-executed but seemed to lack the flash of inspiration just as the music does.
Second work up was Carousel: A Dance by Christopher Wheeldon. As the name suggests, this piece is inspired by the 1945 stage musical Carousel, often acclaimed as one of the finest works from the famous duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein (it's being performed this coming summer at the Stratford Festival, by the way). The score for the dance draws on two songs from the musical show, effectively arranged and orchestrated by William David Brohn. Wheeldon has a gift for imaginative and visually stimulating choreography, and this was demonstrated here most of all by the simulation of the carousel using a circling chain of dancers. The piece opens and closes vigorously with the company on stage, but at its centre lies a beautiful and haunting pas de deux, here danced with grace and eloquence by two members of the corps, Hannah Fischer and Ethan Watts. Without being in any sense a barn-storming work, Carousel: A Dance was definitely both enjoyable and thoughtful.
Now to the two pieces which have both been performed before, by the National Ballet, to considerable audience acclaim. The Man in Black is one of the most unique ballets I've ever seen, even among the diverse creations which choreographer James Kudelka has developed over the years. The music consists of six recorded performances by Johnny Cash, made late in his career. These are not his famous greatest hits. These six are all covers of songs previously performed by other artists. Kudelka matches this unusual music with an equally unusual conception. There are four dancers, three men and a woman, and this is where the cowboy boots come into play (of course). For most of the work, the four dancers have to work together as an ensemble, even as a single unit. This unit travels around the stage in an intriguing variety of ways, and the choreography makes fascinating use of traditional country line-dance steps in new and inventive ways -- all set against music which is for the most part not made up of traditional country and western types of songs. This is one of those pieces where so much happens in a short span that you will keep finding new and different aspects of the dance at each performance. The quartet I saw did a very good job of evoking the diverse and powerful emotions contained within Kudelka's vision. A strong performance indeed.
After the intermission, the 25-minute second "half" was devoted to the company's third staging of Wayne McGregor's Chroma. This piece is one of the most powerful, most energetic dance works I've ever seen. Even in its slower sections, there's an almost dangerous level of drive required by the dancers, and the more hyper-active portions create a breathtaking sense of unreality, as the dancers are forced over and over into extensions and positions which appear to be impossible. These moments of sheer virtuosity fly by so quickly that I find myself wondering, "Did I really see what I thought I just saw?" By that time, of course, something even more fiendish and apparently even more impossible has taken place. Chroma is danced on a plain, brightly lit white set, with the dancers all wearing identical sexless costumes in slightly varying flesh tones. It's ironic, because the name comes from the Greek word for "colour", but this is a very un-colourful set-and-costume combination. The vivid and dizzying whirl of energetic movement supplies all the colour you can possibly want or handle!
Saturday night's performance of this phenomenal piece was everything one could hope for. I can think of no other work in the company's repertoire that so fiercely stretches the limits of every single dancer on the stage. One performance of Chroma completely puts to rest any doubts anyone might harbour about the quality of the National Ballet's dancers. It's exhausting, but totally exhilarating at the same time.
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