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In a time where arts organizations are scraping for every dollar, Oregon Ballet Theatre has hit the jackpot with two big new works in their Winter Program: the company premiere of Val Caniparoli's joyous Lambarena and the world premiere of Christopher Stowell's own dark, out-of-character take on Stravinsky's iconic Rite of Spring (otherwise known as the dinosaur song from Disney's Fantasia for all you heathens out there).
Stowell has been building the corps and strengthening the technique of his 30-odd-member company for the past few years. He continuously schools them with his beloved Balanchine workouts, and nowhere are the improvements more apparent than in OBT's Winter program, which debuted at the Keller Auditorium last night, Feb. 21. But just as essential, the company has found a pair of pieces that appeal to a wider emotional spectrum as well.
The evening's kick off work, Peter Martin's Ash, found the company on familiar ground. They first performed the formal workout of a piece in 2007. With a flitting, fluttering score from Michael Torke and plenty of tough, aerobic group, duet and solo work, its a solid showcase for the company's technical chops--but comes off stilted and dull at points. The dancers, led by the cool, controlled pair of Yuka Iino and Chauncey Parsons, often looked as if they were concentrating on the next complicated series of steps rather than enjoying themselves. The action picked up in the last third of Ash, as the dancers seemed to loosen up and flaunt the difficultly of the choreography.
More enjoyable was Stowell's own bold Rite of Spring, a large-scale spectacle of writhing bodies and angular movement set to a dynamite live piano duet from Carol Rich and Susan DeWitt Smith. In the past, Stowell has come across as an unabashed classicist and romantic, scoring choreographic triumphs with deft, lovely duets and story ballets. But with Rite of Spring, Portland gets to see a new, weirder side of their artistic director. And that's a great thing. The work is a nod to Ballet Russes' original 1913 Rite , a wild, primal ballet centered around virgin sacrifice that garnered choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky an equal number of ovations and haters. Although he's said that his Rite has little to do with human sacrifice (it's more about inclusion and non-conformity) this is a darker, sharper and more contemporary Stowell--the movement fairly shreds the stage at points. His couples are now often battling as much as wooing, and it's a fun, sexy show to watch.
The piece makes use of nearly every member of the company at some point, as lighting and design ace Michael Mazzola slices up the stage with a series of huge, lime-colored squares, sliding and lowering the screens to creating boxes and barriers to trap the dancers--most notably in a squirming knot of bodies near the end of the piece.
Clad in a blood-red leotard, soloist and longtime OBT treasure Anne Mueller commanded the stage with tiny hand articulations and awkward angles--the kind of movement perfect for her body's razor-sharp lines. At times she appeared as an alien bird of prey and at others a broken rag doll, flopping in the arms of partner Adrian Fry, a pale tower of a man in tiny red boy shorts. A second principal pair, the lithe, doe-eyed Grace Shibley and balletomane-porn fodder Artur Sultanov, lend a more sensual, serpentine grace to the choreography.
The piece ain't perfect by any means. The action lagged at times as columns of dancers wearing what looked to be gray workout wear trudged around the perimeter of the stage. Principal dancers changed from red to black to, finally, nude bodysuits, either signaling a blunt change of emotional state or performing the most understated catwalk show of Fashion Week 2009. And I'm still not clear on any possible story-line: "Are they lifeguards?" my companion asked as a sea of red-suited ballet bodies crowded the stage. "I think it was Dante's Inferno," another murmured during the second intermission. Still, it's a big, bold, fascinating bunch of movement, a piece that looks like it's as fun to dance as it is to watch.
The evening ended with Caniparoli 's Lambarena, an international dance favorite that's been performed by 20 companies since 1995. I think we can safely add Portland it the roster of acolytes. Really, it's tough not to love the wild mash up of Bach choir/organ music and traditional West African song. It's so wild and yet harmonious that you're entranced with your eyes closed. Add to the mix an equally funky collision of the stately lines of classical ballet, warmed and spiced with African stomps, claps and hip rolls and you've got a winner. The company looks elated to be performing the piece, with genuine smiles and a breezy vibe throughout. Principal dancers Kathi Martuza and Gavin Larsen tore through their solos with joy and precision while a Bach interlude featuring Artur Sultanov lifted and partnered by five male dancers showed how far the man-half of the OBT equation has come in the last few years.
With three wildly different examples of what contemporary ballet can look like, this program is a sharp, entertaining and well worth the ticket price. And that's saying something these days.
The Oregon Ballet Theatre performs its Winter Program at the Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 248-4335. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, Feb. 27-28. $15-$150. Visit obt.org for tix.
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WWeek 2015