“Bluegrass/Slyde,” “Romanze,” “The Eyes That Gently Touch,” “To the Beatles”
Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts
February 11, 2006
It’s possible that on hearing that Michael Smuin’s latest work, “Bluegrass/Slyde” involves dancing with poles, your eyebrows went up at the thought -- but rest assured, it’s a better concept than you might think.
Set to the Appalachian-inspired compositions of bassist Edgar Meyer – as well pieces by the uncredited virtuoso banjo-player Bela Fleck, fiddler Mark O’Connor, and James Taylor -- “Bluegrass/Slyde” saw Smuin Ballet taking a pleasantly athletic turn on the stage at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts.
The fire-engine red set, built by James Beaumont, has the look of a rock band rig, with three poles arranged across the middle of the contraption. The poles themselves revolve smoothly, and with a small step attached to the bottom, the dancers can jump on and spin like kids in a playground or fly through the air and grab onto the poles, swinging around à la Spiderman, or at least Gene Kelly.
The effect is compelling and gives the dancers a kind of ice skater speed along with an unusual flow of movement. The laconic swizzling perfectly fits the bass and slide-banjo twang and the dancers look like they’re enjoying the sailing through the air, particularly Ethan White who brings a genuine energy and zest to the task.
“Bluegrass/Slyde” isn’t a perfect piece. Once the novelty of the convention wears off, it’s hard not to notice that there’s an awful lot of running onstage. A tap number to “Limerock” doesn’t have quite the clarity it enjoyed when the piece premiered in San Francisco last September. And the sections choreographed for pointe work -- which look overly classical – make it apparent that, for this piece, the women are far more comfortable and rangy when they’re in soft jazz shoes and grounded.
Still, Smuin is at his best in a lazy diversion for three couples to O’Connor’s “Misty Moonlight Waltz.” Amy Seiwert and White deftly set up the mood within a few minutes, with White floating compellingly over her head as they spin lazily around the center pole, a picture of mellow romance.
“Romanze,” which followed on the program, remains one of Smuin’s loveliest small vignettes, and one of his most imaginative creations. Inspired by a Victorian diary that detailed a real and a fantasy day in the life of a young couple, it’s a clever blend of dance with film. The “real life” portion, supplied by Francis Ford Coppola’s film of Catherine Batcheller and Alexander Topciy (the original dancers at San Francisco Ballet) is shown on a scrim, through which we watch their inner passions unfold as danced by Easton Smith and Celia Fushille-Burke. As the screen image zooms in on a grassy meadow or ocean shore or a flower, the dancers appear through the projection seemingly floating through the visual space.
Though some of the choreography looked spatially compressed, as if the dancers themselves felt a bit limited despite the sweep of Antonin Dvorak’s music, it was a pleasure to see Smith, who returns to the company this season from Sacramento Ballet, and who has found a lengthened line, refinement and more confidence.
That kind of fully realized concept was missing from “The Eyes That Gently Touch,” a work choreographed by Kirk Peterson for three couples to the music of Philip Glass, which was pretty, but less left impact. Despite a flowing style with striking abstract sculptural qualities, on the whole, the ballet looked safe, both in its conception and execution.
Also on the program, which seemed a bit lengthy, was Smuin’s 2001 “To the Beatles, Revisited,” in a revised form that included only 11 sections. To judge by the costumes – by Sandra Woodall -- and steps, which included moonwalks and breaking moves to Fab Four favorites like “Help!” and “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the ballet seems set in the era of 80s nostalgia for the 60s. Still, there was a sense of fun that cut through some cheesiness, and the stellar Benjamin Stewart, who joined the company this year from Atlanta Ballet, dove into numbers like “Day Tripper” and “Come Together” with intelligence to match his good-natured energy.
This review originally appeared in the Contra Costa Times.
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