BalletMet On Demand
Tonight we went to the first show of the BalletMet's season in their performance space, a little black box theater. This was "BalletMet On Demand", so the show was a collection of pieces that had been voted for by audience members earlier in the year. As such, there were a couple of pieces I'd seen before, some things I hadn't seen, and a few classical pieces.
The thing about the performance space is that you are much much closer to the dancers than you are in any of their other theaters. This can be good or bad. Tonight it meant that what I mostly noticed was subtleties of their facial expressions. It's also a fact that different pieces work better or worse in different venues. The first time I saw their Johnny Cash Ballet "The Man In Black", it was over at the Riffe Center and I hated it. The second time, I saw it in the performance space, and I liked it quite a lot - and not just because it was the second time through; the venue itself made a huge difference.
The first piece they did was very classical and was from Raymonda, a ballet I do not know at all. This was one that was not well suited to the performance space - the big classical stuff they usually do at the Ohio, which is well suited. But it was still cool. And there was a tiny little girl in front of us who was so excited by the ballerinas in full classical attire. (She could see them through the wings just before they came on, and she was like "look! there's a ballet thing back there!") She also was completely unable to grasp the concept of male dancers. She thought they were the funniest thing ever - what are they doing here? They're not ballerinas! The trouble with the performance space for that particular piece is that it's extremely technically challenging ...and we were close enough to see every. single. mistake. But then the Prima came on and stole the show. She was a dancer we don't typically like that much because she's very Tall and Merciless - but she's just amazing at the classical stuff. And while most of them (it was a pas-de-dix) were wearing huge grins, bordering on dopey in some of the guys, she just had this little smug/confident/knowing smile. It was like "smile all you like - I own you"; I kept thinking "ALL WILL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR." (My other thought was "if Cersei Lannister were a ballet dancer, she'd be this one). Anyway, the costumes were very pretty and the piece, although unflattering on most of the performers, greatly increased my overal appreciation for this one dancer.
The next piece was called "Two of Us" and it was modern. And it was a comedy piece. I think I'd seen it before. It was basically two people in their underwear (little white shorts and white tanktops). I read it as a goofy married couple going through their daily routine. Actually, what happened is I turned to the Other One and I said "that's us!" There was a lot of really jerky dancing and a lot of...acting. (I love it when they do that). This was a piece that was particularly well suited to the performance space. And the girl reminded me strongly of Anya from Buffy. But yeah, they'd dance together, pick each other up, occasionally stamp on each other's feet, get this angry/determined thing going on and roll their shoulders as they marched across the stage at each other. Yeah, I liked it a lot.
I don't really have much to say about the third piece (it was called "Return" and it was strange), but the fourth piece was Night Music. I'd seen this in conjunction with WaterFire last year or the year before. I'm going to say it. Night Music is the best ballet ever written. It is an ingenious use of exploratory choreography and impeccable timing. What can I compare it to? So, in my Tom Lehrer class, we talked about writing really excellent lyrics, and one thing we talked about is that rare case when song lyrics are both completely something someone would actually say and a rhyming, scanning, bit of a song. The example was from Guys & Dolls:
You promise me this, you promise me that
You promise me everything under the sun
Then you give me a kiss and you pick up your hat
And you're off to the races again! When I think of the tiiiiiimes-
The textual medium doesn't quite do it justice. Anyway, that's what this ballet was like. Completely natural everyday movements, timed and ordered for maximum effect and set to Mozart.
Basically, it was six people trying to sleep on a couch that was way too small for them. The music was Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, as one might guess from the title. It starts with one guy (he looked a bit like my friend Scott) sitting, asleep, on the loveseat. Just that, for I think the entire first phrase. Then, on the beat, at the end of that phrase, his mouth falls open. That's the second phrase. It's...it's almost like a Raga unfolding in the Alap section. Anyway. Eventually he starts moving...stretching, flopping, trying to get comfortable on this loveseat that's a full foot and a half shorter than he is. We've all done this. Well, his problems are only worsened when a girl, half asleep, wanders in...and falls over onto the couch, now completely asleep. Now there's two of them, trying to get comfortable, occasionally accidentally cuddling each other, occasionally whacking each other with outflung arms...and then a second girl turns up.
Guys. They get six people onto this couch. Although the other guy (person number 5) tends to fall over the arm and end up with his head on the floor most of the time. And they're all stretching and squirming and sliding onto and off of the couch and each other and rolling and turning and scrunching and occasionally whacking each other - all while being completely believably fast asleep - and only slightly aware of each other. It all felt very natural and very ...familiar. Like "grar. sleeping. must get comfortable. oh, there's another person here. doesn't matter - you get to be my pillow now."
Eventually, they each in turn roll over the back of the love seat and out of frame, until Scott is left alone once more. And then he wakes up.
This is definitely the greatest ballet of all time. Ahem. Right, there was a rest of the show!
The Other One's favorite piece in the first half was a tragic duet to the song "Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down." The guy was a dancer I've started to really like after we got to see a Q&A session with him and a couple others last March - he composed the music to a piece that another of my favorite dancers choreographed, and the whole thing was awesome. He's kind of adorkable, but not like one of the taller guys who just looks goofy all the time. Anyway, he's really good. The girl was another one who's been with the company sometime but who I never really paid much attention to. This close, though, the acting aspects of the song really came out, and I discovered that she's got an amazing face for tragedy. And she kind of reminds me of Vera Farmiga. But she was wearing this long stretchy white dress (he was all in black - there were wedding aspects and song lyrics to this effect as well) which actually doubled as a prop. It seemed like instead of grabbing her hand in the duety or spin sorts of parts, he always grabbed the edge of her skirt and pulled that way. It really increased the sense of violence and distance in the piece, and was a cool touch. But yeah, it was a very sort of tragic lyrical piece, and very well done.
The act-one finale was one I had seen before, but didn't recognize the first movement. It's very fast. And the music was awesome: it had indian skat syllables in the third movement, fiddle abuse in the second movement, and awesome drums in the first. The second movement is the most memorable (and was the bit I immediately recognized) because it was intened to evoke a street. And did so extremely well. All the dancers hurried straight-backed and tiny-stepped in rectolinear directions, often making sharp right angles. It was like they were each moving in set patterns that interlocked, and only failed to collide by a miracle of choreography. It's one of the most evocative pieces I've ever seen - people moving in traffic, never looking left or right, not interacting with those around them - interlocking but never touching.
It always strikes me as extremely post-modern - not necessarily in dance style, but in ethos. (I mean, there's all kinds of other stuff too - elephant walking, a vignette involving makeup and colors (where the dancers talked!), more standard dance stuff). The costuming was part of it - grey alongside very bright pink and orange. The men wore little shirts that were black from the front and colorful from the back. It was just really cool. It's noteworthy, though, in that it's not dystopian. It's the only time I've seen a really positive take on the post-modern condition. In some sense it's almost a celebration of the day-to-day exigencies and fast-paced monotony of city living. Very strange...but cool! And, even though I didn't catch it, the soundtrack would ocassionally say "Do Not Panic".
INTERMISSION
The second half opened with a collection of Simon & Garfunkel songs done as little vignettes (inexplicably entitled "Ad Infinitum". Christin and I saw this piece our first year, over at the Riffe. It was not quite as awesome as I rememberd it, at least in part because they didn't do all the pieces. Strangely, they didn't even do all the pieces that were in the program - there was something listed called "Finale" which seemed to be completely absent. It didn't matter though because I was completely distracted by the awesome percussion in "Patterns" (a song I've heard exactly twice - that is to say, only in the context of this ballet.)
They also brought out a second classical piece - the Black Swan sequence from Swan Lake. The guy was a dancer I'd seen before as the title in an absolutely incredible piece called "Portunari" last year. I think I liked him better in that - again, his face does tragedy extremely well. As the Swan Lake prince, his expression ended up kind of ...dopey. Which is completely appropriate - but it made me glad I've actually seen Swan Lake, otherwise I would have just been "so what's his problem?" But here I was able to go "ah, he's ensorcelled, gotcha." But again, the effect would have been better from much farther away. The girl was another dancer I'm not super familiar with (I'm going to admit, I often have a hard time telling them apart) - I think she joined the company last year - but she makes an excellent villain. It wasn't like in Raymonda where I got the impression of Evil from the smug knowing little half-smile - this was just "Hello! I will be your villain for the day!" Yay Swan Lake. And I loved the whole black-and-gold thing they had going on. I find I really like the classical costumes on the ladies - on the men, I prefer it when they wear pants.
Speaking of pants, the next piece had pants in it. It was just a gorgeous little duet. It was a tall guy with a tiny girl, both dancers I like quite a lot. And...it was strange, like "Return"...but they were wearing blue and pants instead of tan and shorts, so maybe that made the difference. It was called "Way to Blue" and I loved it. I couldn't tell you why. It was just...simple and intimate, even though they were doing very unusual sorts of things. Some of which were fairly impressive from an engineering point of view. But yeah. It was probably my favorite piece in the second act.
The piece we were primarily there for, though, was "Gershwin Dances", the closer, because the Other One is a screaming Gershwin fangirl. On that level, we were a little disappointed at first, because the version they picked of "Summertime" for the first movement was awful. That is to say, it was coloratura. Now, I don't like warbly Soprano on the best of days, but it has its time and place. The Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute is one of them. The simple lulluby from Porgy & Bess is not. Not even a little bit.
That said, the lighting on the "Summertime" movement was incredible. It gave the impression of late afternoon sun slanting through trellised vines. It was beautiful. Oh, and there were dancers too. Yeah.
The second movement was a set of three preludes - just straight Gershwin piano. That was the best music by far. Especially since the second of them was Foggy Day, which...yeah. Classic Gershwin with that walking bass that makes you think of clock hands. It was a duet between the gentleman from the Black Swan and the lady from Raymonda - and they were exellent. He was less dopey (and wearing pants! The pants are always an improvement!) and she was less evil - this time, that little half smile made her seem fun loving and a little insane. I got the very strong reaction from him of: "I don't understand this woman at all...but I love her anyway." The people we were with, though, got a very different impression - that she was toying with him. *shrug*.
The last piece was an instrumental Gershwin medly with the full cast. The men were in grey slacks and suspenders, the women were in black flapper dresses. They did the black thing in the Gatsby ballet as well, and I didn't like it there either. And, of course, the more traditional a flapper dress, the less flattering it is. Whereas suspenders and slacks are flattering on almost everybody. So, yeah, I liked the men a lot better than the women in this. Huh, I guess that's a generalization - I prefer women's costumes classical and men's costumes modern. Alrighty then. (which was just one of many reasons why "Portunari" was so incredible...)
One of the new dancers absolutely stole this one. He's tiny and serious but a good actor - very appropriate for the whole 20s feel of this. (My favorite company member, sadly, really looked like he didn't want to be there. It was odd). But anway, I really liked this guy. He reminded me strongly of the little welsh actor who's in a couple of third Doctor episodes (and dies horribly in both of them, I think. Bert in "The Green Death" and Gebek's second-in-command or so in "The Monster of Peladon) but with a more italian cast to his face. Anyway, he was awesome, and I will enjoy seeing more of him.
Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, which began with grilled artichokes and ended with icecream. And there was a lot of awesome ballet in between. So, good times, and I recommend it.
And I really hope we're able to make it to Carmen. We leave town the day after it opens and come back after it closes, so if it's sold out opening night we're in trouble...
The thing about the performance space is that you are much much closer to the dancers than you are in any of their other theaters. This can be good or bad. Tonight it meant that what I mostly noticed was subtleties of their facial expressions. It's also a fact that different pieces work better or worse in different venues. The first time I saw their Johnny Cash Ballet "The Man In Black", it was over at the Riffe Center and I hated it. The second time, I saw it in the performance space, and I liked it quite a lot - and not just because it was the second time through; the venue itself made a huge difference.
The first piece they did was very classical and was from Raymonda, a ballet I do not know at all. This was one that was not well suited to the performance space - the big classical stuff they usually do at the Ohio, which is well suited. But it was still cool. And there was a tiny little girl in front of us who was so excited by the ballerinas in full classical attire. (She could see them through the wings just before they came on, and she was like "look! there's a ballet thing back there!") She also was completely unable to grasp the concept of male dancers. She thought they were the funniest thing ever - what are they doing here? They're not ballerinas! The trouble with the performance space for that particular piece is that it's extremely technically challenging ...and we were close enough to see every. single. mistake. But then the Prima came on and stole the show. She was a dancer we don't typically like that much because she's very Tall and Merciless - but she's just amazing at the classical stuff. And while most of them (it was a pas-de-dix) were wearing huge grins, bordering on dopey in some of the guys, she just had this little smug/confident/knowing smile. It was like "smile all you like - I own you"; I kept thinking "ALL WILL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR." (My other thought was "if Cersei Lannister were a ballet dancer, she'd be this one). Anyway, the costumes were very pretty and the piece, although unflattering on most of the performers, greatly increased my overal appreciation for this one dancer.
The next piece was called "Two of Us" and it was modern. And it was a comedy piece. I think I'd seen it before. It was basically two people in their underwear (little white shorts and white tanktops). I read it as a goofy married couple going through their daily routine. Actually, what happened is I turned to the Other One and I said "that's us!" There was a lot of really jerky dancing and a lot of...acting. (I love it when they do that). This was a piece that was particularly well suited to the performance space. And the girl reminded me strongly of Anya from Buffy. But yeah, they'd dance together, pick each other up, occasionally stamp on each other's feet, get this angry/determined thing going on and roll their shoulders as they marched across the stage at each other. Yeah, I liked it a lot.
I don't really have much to say about the third piece (it was called "Return" and it was strange), but the fourth piece was Night Music. I'd seen this in conjunction with WaterFire last year or the year before. I'm going to say it. Night Music is the best ballet ever written. It is an ingenious use of exploratory choreography and impeccable timing. What can I compare it to? So, in my Tom Lehrer class, we talked about writing really excellent lyrics, and one thing we talked about is that rare case when song lyrics are both completely something someone would actually say and a rhyming, scanning, bit of a song. The example was from Guys & Dolls:
You promise me this, you promise me that
You promise me everything under the sun
Then you give me a kiss and you pick up your hat
And you're off to the races again! When I think of the tiiiiiimes-
The textual medium doesn't quite do it justice. Anyway, that's what this ballet was like. Completely natural everyday movements, timed and ordered for maximum effect and set to Mozart.
Basically, it was six people trying to sleep on a couch that was way too small for them. The music was Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, as one might guess from the title. It starts with one guy (he looked a bit like my friend Scott) sitting, asleep, on the loveseat. Just that, for I think the entire first phrase. Then, on the beat, at the end of that phrase, his mouth falls open. That's the second phrase. It's...it's almost like a Raga unfolding in the Alap section. Anyway. Eventually he starts moving...stretching, flopping, trying to get comfortable on this loveseat that's a full foot and a half shorter than he is. We've all done this. Well, his problems are only worsened when a girl, half asleep, wanders in...and falls over onto the couch, now completely asleep. Now there's two of them, trying to get comfortable, occasionally accidentally cuddling each other, occasionally whacking each other with outflung arms...and then a second girl turns up.
Guys. They get six people onto this couch. Although the other guy (person number 5) tends to fall over the arm and end up with his head on the floor most of the time. And they're all stretching and squirming and sliding onto and off of the couch and each other and rolling and turning and scrunching and occasionally whacking each other - all while being completely believably fast asleep - and only slightly aware of each other. It all felt very natural and very ...familiar. Like "grar. sleeping. must get comfortable. oh, there's another person here. doesn't matter - you get to be my pillow now."
Eventually, they each in turn roll over the back of the love seat and out of frame, until Scott is left alone once more. And then he wakes up.
This is definitely the greatest ballet of all time. Ahem. Right, there was a rest of the show!
The Other One's favorite piece in the first half was a tragic duet to the song "Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down." The guy was a dancer I've started to really like after we got to see a Q&A session with him and a couple others last March - he composed the music to a piece that another of my favorite dancers choreographed, and the whole thing was awesome. He's kind of adorkable, but not like one of the taller guys who just looks goofy all the time. Anyway, he's really good. The girl was another one who's been with the company sometime but who I never really paid much attention to. This close, though, the acting aspects of the song really came out, and I discovered that she's got an amazing face for tragedy. And she kind of reminds me of Vera Farmiga. But she was wearing this long stretchy white dress (he was all in black - there were wedding aspects and song lyrics to this effect as well) which actually doubled as a prop. It seemed like instead of grabbing her hand in the duety or spin sorts of parts, he always grabbed the edge of her skirt and pulled that way. It really increased the sense of violence and distance in the piece, and was a cool touch. But yeah, it was a very sort of tragic lyrical piece, and very well done.
The act-one finale was one I had seen before, but didn't recognize the first movement. It's very fast. And the music was awesome: it had indian skat syllables in the third movement, fiddle abuse in the second movement, and awesome drums in the first. The second movement is the most memorable (and was the bit I immediately recognized) because it was intened to evoke a street. And did so extremely well. All the dancers hurried straight-backed and tiny-stepped in rectolinear directions, often making sharp right angles. It was like they were each moving in set patterns that interlocked, and only failed to collide by a miracle of choreography. It's one of the most evocative pieces I've ever seen - people moving in traffic, never looking left or right, not interacting with those around them - interlocking but never touching.
It always strikes me as extremely post-modern - not necessarily in dance style, but in ethos. (I mean, there's all kinds of other stuff too - elephant walking, a vignette involving makeup and colors (where the dancers talked!), more standard dance stuff). The costuming was part of it - grey alongside very bright pink and orange. The men wore little shirts that were black from the front and colorful from the back. It was just really cool. It's noteworthy, though, in that it's not dystopian. It's the only time I've seen a really positive take on the post-modern condition. In some sense it's almost a celebration of the day-to-day exigencies and fast-paced monotony of city living. Very strange...but cool! And, even though I didn't catch it, the soundtrack would ocassionally say "Do Not Panic".
INTERMISSION
The second half opened with a collection of Simon & Garfunkel songs done as little vignettes (inexplicably entitled "Ad Infinitum". Christin and I saw this piece our first year, over at the Riffe. It was not quite as awesome as I rememberd it, at least in part because they didn't do all the pieces. Strangely, they didn't even do all the pieces that were in the program - there was something listed called "Finale" which seemed to be completely absent. It didn't matter though because I was completely distracted by the awesome percussion in "Patterns" (a song I've heard exactly twice - that is to say, only in the context of this ballet.)
They also brought out a second classical piece - the Black Swan sequence from Swan Lake. The guy was a dancer I'd seen before as the title in an absolutely incredible piece called "Portunari" last year. I think I liked him better in that - again, his face does tragedy extremely well. As the Swan Lake prince, his expression ended up kind of ...dopey. Which is completely appropriate - but it made me glad I've actually seen Swan Lake, otherwise I would have just been "so what's his problem?" But here I was able to go "ah, he's ensorcelled, gotcha." But again, the effect would have been better from much farther away. The girl was another dancer I'm not super familiar with (I'm going to admit, I often have a hard time telling them apart) - I think she joined the company last year - but she makes an excellent villain. It wasn't like in Raymonda where I got the impression of Evil from the smug knowing little half-smile - this was just "Hello! I will be your villain for the day!" Yay Swan Lake. And I loved the whole black-and-gold thing they had going on. I find I really like the classical costumes on the ladies - on the men, I prefer it when they wear pants.
Speaking of pants, the next piece had pants in it. It was just a gorgeous little duet. It was a tall guy with a tiny girl, both dancers I like quite a lot. And...it was strange, like "Return"...but they were wearing blue and pants instead of tan and shorts, so maybe that made the difference. It was called "Way to Blue" and I loved it. I couldn't tell you why. It was just...simple and intimate, even though they were doing very unusual sorts of things. Some of which were fairly impressive from an engineering point of view. But yeah. It was probably my favorite piece in the second act.
The piece we were primarily there for, though, was "Gershwin Dances", the closer, because the Other One is a screaming Gershwin fangirl. On that level, we were a little disappointed at first, because the version they picked of "Summertime" for the first movement was awful. That is to say, it was coloratura. Now, I don't like warbly Soprano on the best of days, but it has its time and place. The Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute is one of them. The simple lulluby from Porgy & Bess is not. Not even a little bit.
That said, the lighting on the "Summertime" movement was incredible. It gave the impression of late afternoon sun slanting through trellised vines. It was beautiful. Oh, and there were dancers too. Yeah.
The second movement was a set of three preludes - just straight Gershwin piano. That was the best music by far. Especially since the second of them was Foggy Day, which...yeah. Classic Gershwin with that walking bass that makes you think of clock hands. It was a duet between the gentleman from the Black Swan and the lady from Raymonda - and they were exellent. He was less dopey (and wearing pants! The pants are always an improvement!) and she was less evil - this time, that little half smile made her seem fun loving and a little insane. I got the very strong reaction from him of: "I don't understand this woman at all...but I love her anyway." The people we were with, though, got a very different impression - that she was toying with him. *shrug*.
The last piece was an instrumental Gershwin medly with the full cast. The men were in grey slacks and suspenders, the women were in black flapper dresses. They did the black thing in the Gatsby ballet as well, and I didn't like it there either. And, of course, the more traditional a flapper dress, the less flattering it is. Whereas suspenders and slacks are flattering on almost everybody. So, yeah, I liked the men a lot better than the women in this. Huh, I guess that's a generalization - I prefer women's costumes classical and men's costumes modern. Alrighty then. (which was just one of many reasons why "Portunari" was so incredible...)
One of the new dancers absolutely stole this one. He's tiny and serious but a good actor - very appropriate for the whole 20s feel of this. (My favorite company member, sadly, really looked like he didn't want to be there. It was odd). But anway, I really liked this guy. He reminded me strongly of the little welsh actor who's in a couple of third Doctor episodes (and dies horribly in both of them, I think. Bert in "The Green Death" and Gebek's second-in-command or so in "The Monster of Peladon) but with a more italian cast to his face. Anyway, he was awesome, and I will enjoy seeing more of him.
Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, which began with grilled artichokes and ended with icecream. And there was a lot of awesome ballet in between. So, good times, and I recommend it.
And I really hope we're able to make it to Carmen. We leave town the day after it opens and come back after it closes, so if it's sold out opening night we're in trouble...