San Jose reviews all ‘Carmen’ reviews more Renouf reviews Renee's web site

San Jose-Cleveland Ballet is a two-city sharing one company arrangement which started in 1986.Judging by the audiences when I go, it has been so successful it requires two executive directors and a separate set of public relations and marketing. A school was started approximately two to three years ago, and seems to be thriving. When the Cleveland Ballet was formed in 1976 by Ian Horvath and Dennis Nahat, they had been conducting a school for four years.

Dennis Nahat became sole artistic director when Hovarth died in 1984. He is one of those consummate theater individuals with stints in American Ballet Theatre, on Broadway as a dancer and choreographer behind him, as well as continuing involvement in teaching and the Jackson International Ballet Competition.

Mendelssohn Symphony:
Music: Felix Mendelssohn
Choreography: Dennis Nahat
Allegro Vivace: Ensemble
Andante: Joanne Jaglowski
Con Moto Moderato: Olivier Munoz
Saltarello: Le Mai Linh

Four Temperaments:
Music: Paul Hindemith
Choreography: George Balanchine
Theme I: Maria Jacobs/Olivier Munoz
Theme II Grethel Domingo/Todd Fox
Theme III Joanne Jaglowski/Petr Kozak
Variation I: Melancholic: Ramon Moreno
Variation II: Sanguinic: Karen Gabay/Raymond Rodriguez
Variation III: Phlegmatic: Oscar Hawkins
Variation IV: Choleric: Anne Marie Savoie

Carmen:
Music: Georges Bizet
Choreography: Roland Petit

The company has a profile of small dancers, dancers with Hispanic roots and more recently Asian dancers... Mendelssohn Symphony has been in the companys repertoire several years and Ive seen it before. For my taste the visual impact is too pastel and the dancers fade into the single toned backdrop. Because of the musical structure, the ballet runs the danger of being too symmetrical - first to the right, then to the left, once again to the right and the fourth to the left.

This is a work which succeeds with crispness and a wonderfully fluid follow through in the torso. It is something which I did not see frequently. Whether it is the floor or the dancers, the sound of a dozen set of toe shoes cantering around a wooden floor is one of the least attractive sounds in performance or behind a curtain, and in Allegro Vivace it was accented. A man skilled in fitting pointe shoes once remarked to me that the noise indicates the arch isnt provided sufficient tension, an intriguing observation.

For the Andante blonde Joanne Jaglowski, the most Balanchine-contoured dancer in the company, struck me as unfamiliar with her role, her large eyes pools of uncertainty and apprehension. Coltish awkwardness can be charming, if there is evidence of fluidity in port de bras and port de corps. In the Con Moto Moderato Olivier Munoz gave us a solid presence and placement not only of the body and positions but also relative to the stage as a whole. In Saltarello we were treated to Le Mai Linh, a Vietnamese native who gave us visual music with excellent ballon. His solo was fiendishly active in a very busy finale; one watched breathlessly as the demands and his execution came together on the beat, an amazing example of being one with the sound, crisp, clean accented by a distinctive style in elevation.

Four Temperaments at the hands of the Cleveland dancers manages to be Balanchine with a softer quality. This may be due entirely to the companys style, but while tidy, it did not possess that particular bite which seems to typify the New York City version of the Hindemith. This piece is one of the earlier Balanchine works which helped to crystallize the cooler qualities of Balanchine style for dance audiences.

In the performance Ramon Moreno provided focus to the Melancholic; Karen Gabay and Raymond Rodriguez to the Sanguinic. Oscar Hawkins, tall and lean, who has a natural ease in movement gave us the Phlegmatic and Anne-Marie Savoie was front, center and almost sassy in the Choleric.

I would like to see the company again in this and other Balanchine works. Its a nice contrast to the companys strong suit, dramatic and strongly theatrical works.

The matinee audience was given a Korean Don Jose to dance opposite Ana Lobes Carmen. What a stroke of luck that Kwang-Suk Choi left Atlanta Ballet for Cleveland. Lee Kopp, the company publicist, told someone next to me Luigi Bonino, who set Roland Petits work on the company, picked Choi out of the ensemble, working with him intensely for three weeks to prepare him to alternate with Olivier Munoz.

It was an exciting break for the audience. Choi is broad shouldered, slender of leg, possessed of a handsome face accented by a strong, square jaw and straight jet black hair. He has danseur noble possibilities in his demeanor, but he also a particular intense, direct energy which seems to characterize many men of Korean background. Generalizing, Koreans have the talent to throw themselves in character roles without any reservation, but also hinting that there is a reserve available which they can muster in totally correct Confucian tradition. It makes for a terrific set of opposite to draw on theatrically.

Ana Lobe, back from the birth of a daughter, seemed leaner and more intense than in prior roles. While her postures and gestures in head and arms echoed those of Zizi, who created the role, Lobe is the stronger dancer, making the impact of Carmen not just one of dancing and theatrical awareness. Lobe possesses a level of strong animal skill where Jeanmaire relied on personality. It was a wonderful contrast for the memory in a work which still is beautiful and tight after nearly fifty years after its creation.

It was fascinating to see Choi rise to the occasion. He had danced in the Korean National Ballet when Hae Shik Kim was artistic director. She was grooming him carefully and was sorry to see him leave for Atlanta. Kim would be proud to see how Choi and Lobe related during the work, playing off and to each others energy. Their enthusiasm was matched by every member of the company, plunging themselves into each dangerous situation and sordid action, filling the stage with the nervy-eyed alertness and fatality which makes Carmen, plot and music, such a constant symbol of the wages of uncontrolled passion and manipulation.

Shingo Yoshimoto made his own mark as the second bandit chief. He had made an impression in Jackson in 1998 when he competed in the Junior Division, and its obviously Nahat found him suited for his lively and diverse company. Hes clearly a comer in the company.

Thanks, Dennis Nahat, for such an unqualified theatrical treat.