New Jersey Ballet offers quality in many forms
by Robert Johnson, Star-Ledger Staff
Classic, romantic and contemporary -- New Jersey Ballet does it
all. The company, based in Livingston, wastes no opportunity to thrill
audiences with the amazing collection of ballets that director Carolyn
Clark has acquired over the years.
On Saturday, at the Wilkins Theater of Kean University in Union,
the troupe presented an astonishing variety of works in different
styles. The program opened with a display of sprightly, air-borne
technique in August Bournonville's "Flower Festival at Genzano" Pas
de Deux, in which dancer Vladimir Roje made the first of several
crisp and confidently buoyant appearances.
The company then passed through scenes of drama and bravura concluding
with the honky-tonk comedy of Robert North's "Let's Go South." Along
the way, viewers were treated to an excerpt from Marius Petipa's
rarely performed "Halte de Cavalerie," to Gerald Arpino's
deceptively effortless "L'Air d'Esprit;" to the haunted
intensity of North's "Death and the Maiden," and to a scalding
pas de deux from "Red Giselle," by Russian maverick Boris
Eifman.
While an innocent flirtation offers a pretext for the dancing in "Flower
Festival," the real subject of classical works is often the
graceful design and execution of the steps themselves. "Halte
de Cavalerie," admittedly seen out-of-context, appears to dispense
with other motivations. Petipa offers a symmetrical exposition, left
and right, of pique steps on toe and of "grands ronds de jambe," straightforwardly
showcasing the dancers. Here Gabriella Noa-Pierson evinced her usual
strength, hopping effortlessly on pointe, and, in an especially tricky
maneuver, righting herself from a dive into "penche" to
execute a pirouette. Her helpful partner, David Tamaki, made his
own double air turns look easy.
Saturday's performance introduced a new dancer to the company. Wiry
Gleidson Vasconcelos has a bold attack. He is expressive, flexible,
and quick with a sense of timing that hits the mark in "The
Fairy Doll," a ballet of comic irony.
"L'Air d'Esprit" (1978) is like a joyful sequel to "Giselle," in
which the protagonists find happiness, at last, in a paradise of
floating lifts and swirling, supported promenades. Hoisted by the
stalwart Roje, ballerina Mari Sugawa seemed to hover in mid-air,
descending only to flit across the stage with winged speed. The duet
is quasi-mystical, but doesn't shy away from theatrics. In the coda,
Arpino can't resist repeating a flashy move in which ballerina alights
on her partner's back.
Nothing could supply a greater contrast than "Red Giselle," where
Saule Rachmedova stretches taut in uncomfortable-looking positions,
as her character trades sexual favors in exchange for a pass to escape
from Soviet Russia. In this fictional biography of ballerina Olga
Spessivsteva, Eifman reverts to favorite themes -- the degradation
of the individual and the profanation of beauty. In a harrowing series
of freeze-frame inventions, the choreographer depicts a woman and
a society, both turned upside down and fragmented.
Similarly dramatic but entirely different in style is "Death
and the Maiden," to Schubert. As Death pummels his victim into
surrender, her hopes for respite ebb and she reluctantly abandons
the companionship of the living.
Dancers Era and Andrei Jouravlev delivered a knockout performance,
supported by a delicately expressive Christina Theryoung as the maiden's
friend.
Robert Johnson may be reached at rjohnson@starledger.com
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