Citizens Bank Opera House, Boston, MA.
March 28, 2024.
I’ve observed one thing intriguing in ballet packages introduced in recent times: two hours or so of dance together with each classical and extra modern works, generally works uniquely mixing the 2 modes. That permits viewers members with diverse tastes to get one thing that appeals to them most. In a wider, maybe extra consequential sense, such assorted packages each protect the artwork type’s custom and supply a platform for work that pushes it ahead right into a extra vibrant future.
Boston Ballet persistently, and thoughtfully, presents such a spectrum of labor. Each of the corporate’s packages gives a brand new manner wherein the previous and current of live performance dance are in dynamic dialog. Carmen did so in a manner that reminded us of the artwork type’s treasures that we could have left behind, and subsequently the best way that such treasures could be reshaped and repurposed to maintain shining all of the brighter.
The two-act program started with Kingdom of the Shades, an excerpt of La Bayadère (1877), with choreography from Florence Clerc (after Marius Petipa). The work was atmospheric, soothing and even meditative. Its starting set the tone, with a protracted line of dancers repeating the identical touring motion phrase – till they stuffed the stage with three diagonal strains of dancers. Benjamin Phillips’ modern, utilitarian design set them at numerous ranges in area (highest, larger and on the stage itself). Their unassuming white tutus and ethereal material infused a way of purity and poise.
Their motion matched these qualities; even by means of executing the identical motion again and again, they by no means signaled fatigue. Their tastefully low arabesques and restrained penchés weren’t precisely the peak of kinetic virtuosity – however that solely served the serene sense right here.
I mirrored on how the values and requirements of efficiency have shifted over time. As the expertise of the physique that’s ballet has advanced over the centuries, we’ve upped the ante on athleticism. Yet, maybe we’ve misplaced a few of that satisfying understatement, the type on supply with this work. Harmony was the secret.
Other sections within the work, if for not as lengthy, employed the identical motion mantra method – with dancers settling into repeated vocabulary. Moving in vertical strains (downstage to upstage), they prolonged their physique’s shapes and pathways by means of their veils. En pointe with arms in fifth en haut (raised overhead), their lifted sense had them feeling like a refrain of otherworldly beings – very classical in high quality, certainly.
A pas de deux and three solos additionally graced us. Yue Shi, supporting his associate Viktorina Kapitonova, superbly embodied the rating’s crescendo and decrescendo. Kapitonova’s high quality, like a feather floating in a tender breeze, additionally made Ludwig Minkus’ tender, dreamy rating splendidly tangible.
The three soloists (Lia Cirio, Chisako Oga, and Ji Young Chae) danced absolutely within the spirit of the work. They carried out with all of the requisite technical power, after all. Yet, extra so, they let the motion itself and the environment at hand do the work. “Pushing it” would solely really feel misplaced on this work. At factors, I may even really feel a way of pleasant play of their efficiency.
For viewers members who would stroll out of the theater to 1,000,000 notifications, signaling who is aware of what sort of private life craziness or unbelievable world information, such ease and calm could be the soul balm that we didn’t even know we wanted. Something dazzling, one thing pure, one thing soothing — a balm certainly, and a present in its personal manner. That’s not one thing to be absolutely forgotten as we carry the artwork type ahead.
The second act introduced a brand new one thing, fairly totally different in each tone and magnificence: Jorma Elo’s 2006 modern reimagining of Carmen (from Roland Petit’s 1949 premiere). Aesthetically creative and kinetically daring, it’s an exemplary reshaping and re-envisioning of a classical story ballet for the 21st century. Rather than the gritty streets of 19th century Seville, the story performed out on a contemporary trend runway. Carmen (Ji Young Chae) was a mannequin somewhat than a manufacturing unit employee. Don José (Jeffrey Cirio) was a enterprise mogul somewhat than rogue soldier, and Escamillo (Tyson Ali Clark) a Formula 1 driver somewhat than bullfighter.
Production design introduced us proper into this world of fame and fortune, of journal centerfolds and flashing cameras. The purple shade palette in Joke Visser’s costumes paid homage to the long-lasting imagery of matadors and flamenco. Yet, infusions of purples, golds, and even earth tones widened our lens and playfully challenged our psychological photographs. Bright lights, hung low and shone proper into the viewers, mirrored the blinding illumination of the runway – and even evoked the sense of being beneath a important public gaze (lighting design by Mikki Kunttu).
Elo’s motion improvements – at each the ensemble and singular physique stage – additionally shone by means of. Dancers transferring out and in of highlight, coming into and out of shadow, felt each visually and thematically wealthy. Vivacious ensemble sections had a crowd transferring round Carmen: giving the texture of flattering, but additionally unrelenting, consideration from followers.
The dancers stayed notably tenacious by means of lengthy sections of extremely quick, athletic vocabulary. Crisp accent gave the sensation of sharp castanet claps. The motion vocabulary, as a complete, rode the resonances and the full of life energy in Rodion Schedrin’s rating (after Georges Bizet).
Part of me did crave extra rooting into the stage, motion of a extra uncooked and earthy stage. Perhaps the excessive vitality at hand, and the sensation of fame’s freneticism, required a extra elevated bearing by means of the physique. Elo referred to as upon the dancer’s voices at one level, having the ensemble joyfully exclaim collectively. That was additionally one thing that I needed extra of; I questioned what it may have contributed as a motif somewhat than a one-off.
Elo’s constructing of the three essential characters, and the way the dancers portrayed them, felt extra solidified. Separate sections provided a large spectrum of qualities and emotional resonances. I considered the phrase “we contain multitudes” – and these three did certainly. Chae, specifically, introduced these diverse textures to full life – with equal components spunk and style.
Such advanced emotional life defies the generally reductive labels of hero, villian…and fewer savory ones slapped on ladies who dare to observe their very own passions. Carmen, as a story, has boatloads of uncooked potential for example that complexity in being human – an illustration maybe extra aligned with fashionable sensibilities than these of Petit’s time (and positively Bizet’s). Elo’s model, and the way Boston Ballet introduced it to the stage, commendably capitalized on that potential. At the identical time, it constructed upon the custom of this story performed out on levels – indispensably so, one may argue.
We can construct upon such basis of the previous – with what we’ve discovered, with what we’ve modified for the higher. To reject both custom or modernity outright solely denies us the magic that may occur once we carry their treasures collectively. Thank you to Boston Ballet, and all dance corporations on the market, who proceed to just do that.
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
