Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Dance Review: Madison Ballet's Push Repertory Program


Diana and Actaeon  © Kat Stiennon 2017
by Susan Kepecs
I saw Madison Ballet’s first repertory show of the season, Push, at the Bartell on October 20.  The program featured three neoclassical pieces by two choreographers working today – company artistic director W. Earle Smith, and frequent guest General Hambrick – plus four classical, pre-Balanchine pas de deux.  The neoclassical works were not the best I’ve seen from either choreograher, and for the most part they were overshadowed by the selection of classical standards. 
Smith’s French Suites (to J.S. Bach’s eponymous music), revised from its 2008 premiere, was the weaker of his two works, and the women were unfortunately costumed in long dark blue dresses with Empire waists that all but completely obscured their dancing.  A perky little allegro dance by Kelanie Murphy, Michaela King and Elisabeth Malanga was good enough to overcome the limitations of the outfits, and a floaty pas de deux by Kristin Hammer and the solid Jackson Warring was sweet and clean. Three long solos – “woman, dancing” variations for Hammer, Catherine Rogers, and Mia Sanchez – had some nice passages, but largely served as filler and should have been pared down substantially.
In Smith’s other piece, Concerto Veneto, to the Marcello Oboe Concerto in C Minor (also a 2008 premiere), the ensemble choreography in the first of the work’s three movements was repetitive,  
Concerto Veneto © Kat Stiennon 2017
static, and overly reliant on the spatial device of two diagonal lines. But the piece possessed a pair of saving graces – live accompaniment by members of Wisconsin Chamber orchestra with Naomi Bensdorf Frisch on oboe, and the pas de deux at its core danced by the lovely Annika Reikersdorfer, partnered by Jacob Ashley. Reikersdorfer, uncharacteristically, held back back a bit in the adagio; perhaps she was subdued by the marked plaintiveness of the music. But she sparkled in the third, allegro movement, pirouetting flirtatiously in the midst of the corps and flying across the stage in grand jeté, lifted by Ashley, who’s never looked stronger.  He was terrific here too, showing off his bounding cabrioles and second position pirouettes.
Hambrick’s piece, Capricious, a premiere (set to Pierre Rode’s violin caprices) served as the program finale, but was misplaced as such; it had much more in common with Smith’s neoclassical dances than with the set of classical pas de deux it followed -- it should have preceded them.  Hambrick knows how to use movement and space, and his piece – a play on what dancers do between class and rehearsal – was dynamic, but atypically light.  The narratives he always hides in his dances were there, but they concerned the friendships and rivalries among dancers in a company instead of the larger, more abstract, revelation-tinged mysteries we’ve seen in previous works he’s set on Madison Ballet. 
The four classical pas de deux – excerpted and adapted by Smith for this show – were a radical departure for Madison Ballet, and a tall order for his Balanchine-oriented dancers.  Given the deep historical value of these works I wondered about the order in which they were presented, since the first one up was Fokine’s 1911 Spectre de la Rose, followed by the pas from the second act of Petipa’s (1894) Giselle. This didn’t seem logical, since Giselle is the epitome of romanticism – highly emotional and fantastical – while Spectre – post-Petipa, neo-romantic, and a product of avant garde artistic exploration in early twentieth century Europe – challenges the credo of classical ballet in its choreographic freedom as well as in the fact that the danseur, not the ballerina, is the star of the piece.
Spectre de la Rose © Kat Stiennon 2017
Smith’s recreation of Spectre, set on Shea Johnson and Michaela King, neatly captured Fokine’s confection.  Johnson, as the spectre, imbued his performance with the spirit of the original.  You could tell he’d studied the famous photo of Nijinsky, on whom the role was created, wearing the original rose petal costume, forearms crossed over his head, hands framing his face like big rose petals.  It’s a pose Johnson, whose sense of drama is equal to his ability to launch himself into the air, struck repeatedly. King, convincing as the smitten somnambulist, cavorted with him, waltzing, being lifted and dipped and showing off her remarkable extensions – all with eyes seemingly shut.  Then she dropped, dead asleep, into her chair. 
The adagio plucked from the grand pas de deux of Giselle’s second act, set on Bri George and Andrew Erickson, was less successful. In the second act of this ballet the title character is a ghost; this pas is all about death, and the inability of the living to transcend its boundary.  The performance was technically solid; Erickson has grown dramatically as a dancer this year, and George, with soft arms sweeping through third position and her deep penche arabesques, arms crossed demurely in front of her chest, echoed the antique look Petipa himself was after when he recreated this ballet in 1880 from the 1841 original. But the emotional weight of peak romanticism didn’t come through – where was the great pathos this pas requires?
Black Swan © Kat Stiennon 2017
If the Giselle pas lacked drama, Swan Lake’s black swan pas de deux, danced by Elisabeth Malanga and Ashley, had it in spades. Malanga was a spitfire of a black swan, furious and flirtatious by turns. Her sense of timing was striking and strong, her back so flexible you could easily believe she had wings.  And her characterization of the role had a post-ABT, contemporary, bad girl quality that made this quintessential piece of Petipa’s 1895 ballet – perhaps the best-known pas de deux of all time – look surprisingly new.   
Agrippina Vaganova’s 1935 “Diana and Actaeon” pas de deux – originally a divertissement in her ballet La Esmeralda, based on an earlier Petipa production – was the showstopper, and it should have been the Push program’s finale.  Who else but Madison Ballet’s power pair, Shannon Quirk and Shea Johnson, could dance this bravura grand pas, its theme drawn from Vaganova’s somewhat garbled sense of Greek and Roman mythology involving Diana, goddess of the hunt, and Actaeon the hunter?
The chemistry between Quirk and Johnson, and their balletic virtuosity both as individuals and as a pair, were cast in radiant light.  Quirk bounded through space on legs of tempered steel, as only a goddess could possibly do.  Johnson, playing his role to the hilt, soared in huge flying spins, legs in attitude; he spun a string of second position pirouettes and then took a knee, bowing to the deities. Quirk lept onstage; tour jetes became fouette turns.  Johnson caught her mid-fouette and lifted her into a flying grand jete.  A second later she shot him with an imaginary arrow as he lept offstage. Superb.


Saturday, October 14, 2017

Dance Preview: Madison Ballet's "Push" Program

Quirk and Johnson in Diana and Acteon  © SKepecs 2017
by Susan Kepecs
Madison Ballet’s season opener, Push (at the Bartell, Oct. 20-21), may be the most diverse repertory program the company’s ever done.  On the bill are two works by artistic director W. Earle Smith, four classical pas de deux from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and a dance by frequent guest choreographer General Hambrick. 
Both of Smith’s pieces are highly neoclassical in style, and both premiered in Madison Ballet’s first repertory program, Pure Ballet, during the company’s debut season as a professional organization in 2008.  Madison Ballet has come a long way since then, and Smith has pushed these dances into new territory with expanded solos and much more challenging choreography.  In French Suites, named for the Bach work that accompanies the piece, dancers – solo or in small groups moving in and out of unison – navigate shifts in direction and tempo; at the heart of this work is an adagio pas de deux by Kristin Hammer and Jackson Warring.  It’s a luxurious piece, though in rehearsal Concerto Veneto, to the Oboe Concerto in C Minor by Alessandro Marcello, looked more polished; it revolves around a rich, complex grand pas de deux featuring Annika Reikersdorfer and Jacob Ashley. In performance, Concerto Veneto will have an added attraction – the score will be played live by members of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
King and Johnson © SKepecs

Smith’s neoclassical works are followed, on the playbill, by four pas de deux Smith has adapted from classical ballets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – a radical departure from the Balanchine-based, neoclassical style Madison Ballet is known for.  I wrote quite a bit about these pas de deux (Fokine’s  Le Spectre de la Rose; the Act II grand pas from Petipa’s Giselle; Petipa’s Black Swan pas, from Swan Lake; and Agrippina Vaganova’s “Diana and Acteon” pas) in my season overview, which you can read here. After watching an early run-through of the Push program, I am positive that the Vaganova pas is the perfect vehicle to showcase the
Malanga and Ashley © SKepecs
virtuosity of company power duo Shannon Quirk and Shea Johnson.
  The Fokine looked fresh and free on Michaela King and the inimitable Johnson.  And experienced newcomers Bri George (with Andrew Erickson in the Giselle pas) and Elisabeth Malanga (with Ashley, in “Black Swan”) brought new surprises to the table; it should be exciting to see them in their first performance onstage with the company.   
The Push finale is the premiere of Hambrick’s new work, Capricious, which I wrote about in my interview with the choreographer last week. Capricious, in rehearsal, was playful and lively, sweeping through space. And like all of Hambrick’s ballets it has subtle narratives built into its six movements for the viewer to discover.


Monday, October 9, 2017

Interview: Choreographer General McArthur Hambrick



Meet General MacArthur Hambrick, versatile veteran of the Terpsichorean arts.  Among his many credits, Hambrick worked with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre; he was a soloist with Fort Worth / Dallas Ballet, now Texas Ballet Theater, and with Minnesota Dance Theater in Minneapolis; he’s been in major Broadway productions including Cats and Phantom of the Opera; he’s a professor of dance and musical theater at West Virginia University; and he’s a frequent guest choreographer for Madison Ballet.  That connection goes back a long way – Hambrick and Madison Ballet artistic director W. Earle Smith met back in the ‘80s, when both were dancing with Fort Worth / Dallas. 
Hambrick’s unique choreographic vocabulary pulls together the neoclassicism of Balanchine and the black church-inspired, ballet underpinned modernism of Alvin Ailey; Hambrick often wields this rich style in service of abstract narrative works steeped in mystery and edged with revelation.  He was just in town to set a new work, “Capricious,” on Madison Ballet, for the 2017-18 season debut concert, Push, set for Oct. 20-21 at the Bartell. 
I’m always surprised and delighted with Hambrick’s dances, and I wanted to know more about the artist behind those works.  I thought you would, too, so I interviewed him the other day.

CulturalOyster: Way back in the beginning, how did you get started in ballet?

Hambrick: I was a fashion design major at Texas Christian University.  My teacher came up to me one day and said “you look like you could be a dancer.” At TCU it was very specific – you either did ballet or modern, so I took ballet.  I immediately fell in love when they took me into that class.  I said to myself “this is where I’m supposed to be.”  I dropped fashion design the next year and changed my major – and they gave me a scholarship to do it.


CulturalOyster: You and Earle [Smith] go way back — do you have any stories to share about the two of you in the old days at Fort Worth / Dallas Ballet?

Hambrick: Just that we danced together.  I was really quiet back then.  I wasn’t a very technical dancer – I would watch those guys and try to simulate their classical training.  We were all friends, we always got along great, but I just didn’t hang out a lot when I was in Fort Worth, I didn’t do many social things with the other dancers, at least not that I remember – it was so long ago!


CulturalOyster: What are some highlights of your days as a dancer?

Hambrick: One highlight was when I was in Minnesota Dance Theater in Minneapolis.  I was given the lead in a Lar Lubovitch piece, “The Time Before the Time After (After the Time Before).”  But the biggest highlight was when I was in Martha Clarke’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” in New York – she was one of the original founders of Pilobolus and we flew all over the stage in that piece.  I got my first writeup in The New York Times for that (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/theater/reviews/20gard.html) and I was on the front cover – that was a real highlight. 


CulturalOyster: How did you make the jump from ballet to Broadway?

Hambrick: I left the ballet company for a modern dance company in Dallas but I wasn’t happy with modern, and I wasn’t making enough money to get by.  So one of my good friends, actually a stage manager, said Cats is coming through town!  So I took off one day and went to the audition at Dallas Music Hall – and out of 52 guys, I got called back!  I got to tour Cats and after that I just stuck with Broadway. 
I’d done musicals as a child – my mother was a performer.  They’d just throw me onstage as a little kid, I think I started in Showboat.  At TCU I got to be a pretty good dancer, and I’d audition for summer stock so I had musical theater in me, but I’d wanted to be a company member in Dance Theater of Harlem, or the Ailey company. That didn’t happen, but Broadway felt right.  I went from Cats to Miss Saigon and just kept going.  It all worked out for the best.


CulturalOyster: Did you do any Broadway choreography?

Hambrick: No, not on Broadway, but I did choreograph for smaller theaters. 


CulturalOyster: But now you have this really unique choreographic style that we see when you set your works on Madison Ballet.  When you’re making a dance, do you start with an idea and then find the music, or vice-versa?

Hambrick: I almost always find the music first – I’m inspired by a piece and then I see a theme or a story – I think maybe there was one time where I had an idea first and then looked for music, but that’s not normally how I work.


CulturalOyster: Can you give me an insight or two into the new work you just set on Madison Ballet?

Hambrick: I heard this music [“Caprices for Violin,” an early nineteenth century work by French violinist / composer Pierre Rode] in a choreography class I was teaching.  I wanted my students to get away from pop and find something new.  One student brought in some of Rode’s music and I looked at the rest of the CDs he had and listened to the Caprices – they’re full of variations in emotion and attitude – and I said “oh! I can do little dances that are as surprising as the pieces he composed!”  So – not to give it away, but I made a series of little dances that are full of unexpected little shifts in tempi and that kind of thing.  I tried to work with the dancers on the idea of the emotions in the music.  Some of the Caprices are happy, some are what I’d call precious – there’s one, a solo I set in Jackson Warring, that’s filled with angst and not knowing where to go.  So for each one there’s a very abstract theme line.  And I wanted to go from old fashioned classical to neoclassical to contempory movement style, so the piece as a whole goes in and out of those styles.


CulturalOyster: Is there one overarching theme that ties your life’s work together?

Hambrick: Everything I do is for my mom.  She was a soprano, she did musicals and directed the church choir.  If it weren’t for her I wouldn’t have gone into the theater – my life would have been totally different.
_______________
interview by SK