© Steve Wilson PNB 'Jardi Tancat' reviews 'Jardi Tancat' reviews recent Pacific Northwest Ballet reviews KCB 'Still Point' reviews 'Still Point' reviews recent Kansas City reviews Washington 'Nine Sinatra Songs' reviews 'Nine Sinatra Songs' reviews recent Washington Ballet reviews more Oksana Khadarina reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

Pacific Northwest Ballet, founded in 1972 and currently one of the largest and highly recognized ballet troupes in the country, opened the triple bill with the somber Jardì Tancat (1983), a dance of heartrending narrative and emotional power created by the renowned Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato.

Inspired by the real-life events commemorated in Spanish folk songs recorded by Maria del Mar Bonet, Jardì Tancat (“Closed Garden” in Catalan) depicts a community of peasants facing severe drought, struggling to survive. The dance deals with themes of death and suffering. With deep sensitivity and humanism, through emotive and symbolic images, the choreographer portrays the people in their extreme poverty, their hardship and their attitude towards life.

As the curtain opens, we see the dancers kneeling down on the floor, their faces buried in their hands in an expression of grief. The stylized stage design – a circle of poles representing dry carcasses of trees – suggests a landscape burned by the merciless sun.

The dance begins in silence, and it takes a few minutes before the soundtrack starts. What we see on stage is a communal prayer which shortly breaks into a vignette of spiritual monologues, duets and ensembles. Dressed in the simple peasant closes, the dancers move about the stage with the earthy, spacious movements, their turns crouching and arms sweeping. At times, they stand motionless, numb with bitterness and despair, facing away from the audience as if hiding their tears. In one memorable scene, mirroring the outcries of the songs, their silhouettes resemble birds with broken wings. They dance barefoot to underscore the simplicity of their lives and endurance of their souls.

The six-member ensemble (Ariana Lallone, Casey Herd, Noelani Pantastico, Jordan Pacitti, Carrie Imler, and Kiyon Gaines) did justice to the work, soulfully expressing the dance’s heartfelt emotions through their evocative choreographic pallet. The cast genuinely communicated the work’s powerful themes: It was a dramatically strong, compelling performance.

There was a different kind of human suffering – a feeling of loneliness and rejection – in Todd Bolender's The Still Point , a poetic short dance which the Kansas City Ballet brought for its Kennedy Center debut.

The Still Point was choreographed as a modern dance and premiered in the summer of 1955 at the Jacob’s Pillow Festival. One year later, Bolender made its balletic version for the New York City Ballet with the original cast led by Melissa Hayden and Jacques d'Amboise.

Accompanied by the first three movements of Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor, The Still Point is a modern fairy tale and a meditation on human experience. It has the inescapable charm of an old Hollywood romantic movie, naïve and sentimental, with a predictable, happy end.

The main heroine is a young single woman. Rejected and cruelly treated by her friends, she feels vulnerable and isolated, longing for support and understanding. When, in a moment of despair, she seems to lose her courage, a handsome young man comes to her rescue, offering her comfort and love.

The dance unfolds in a sensitive, unpretentious manner. The elegant and unforced balletic movements, finely reflecting the compelling Debussy music, grab and hold our attention, more than compensating for the superficial plot.
 

Kimberly Cowen and Kansas City Ballet in The Still Point
© Steve Wilson

The graceful Kimberly Cowen gave a wonderfully articulated and utterly convincing performance as the heroine. Dancing with a simple, expressive flow of gestures, she was able to reveal the inner world of her character and ultimately connect with the audience. The romantic hero, the poised Juan Pablo Trujillo, was sympathetic and confident. Their final duet, the most poignant scene of the dance, proved an affectionate study on trust and kindness. The quartet of the dancers portraying the friends – Catherine Russell, Matthew Donnell, Chelsea Wilcox and Logan Pachciarz – was fine enough to rehabilitate their mean-spirited characters.

After intermission the curtain went up to reveal a spinning disco-ball scattering sparkling lights on the floor; and seven impressively dressed couples – the dancers of the Washington Ballet – took center stage in a glamorous ballroom dance showcase – Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs.

There are many delights in this popular and entertaining modern dance classic, which the choreographer created almost 25 years ago for her then-existing Twyla Tharp Dance Company. The dances, a fascinating sequence of intimate duets, dazzle in the details, featuring mesmerizing scenic designs by Jennifer Tipton; gorgeous ball gowns for the ballerinas and sharp tuxedoes for the men by fashion guru Oscar de la Renta; and of course, the heartrendering Sinatra songs as the soundtrack.

There was no dull moment in the Washington Ballet’s Sinatra Songs. Culminating the program, the beautiful and vibrant cast clearly had a blast.

The exuberant Jade Payette and Runqioa Du combined elegance and charm, dancing to the tender farewell “Softly as I Leave You.” In “Strangers in the Night”, Laura Urgelles was all glamour and poise, effectively partnered by Alvaro Palau. The audience’s favorite, Erin Mahoney-Du and Luis R. Torres as the tipsy lovers who wanted to appear sober, smartly paired playfulness with a slapstick comedy in “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)”. Morgann Rose and Jonathan Jordan, two formidable dancers, brought out the breezy-and-fun nature of their duet in the quick and amusing “Forget Domani.”

I couldn’t help but admire the performance of Sona Kharatian in “All the Way”. She is a subtle dancer; has a great technique and wonderfully smooth lines. She responds to music in a very natural, uninhibited way, which makes her dancing effective and genuine. Her duet with Chip Coleman in “All the Way” was something to behold.