With plucky reliability, Diablo Ballet opened its 16th season at the Lesher Center for the Arts over the weekend, performing three very different works that showcased the nine-member company's dependable energy and unflagging enthusiasm.
Central to the success of the program was George Balanchine's "Apollo," a great classic of 20th century ballet, which elevated matters to a level worthy of this sturdy company. As the Greek god of the title, Jekyns Pelaez is refreshingly naturalistic and playful, rather than stylized. More formal - if a trifle stern at times - was Tina Kay Bohnstedt's Terpsichore, whose softness and delicacy in a duet with Pelaez was one of the evening's highlights. If there's a complaint, it's that the tempos of the recorded music by Igor Stravinsky seemed to drag, particularly in the duet for Mayo Sugano and Jenna McClintock as the muses Calliope and Polyhymnia respectively.
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