Smuin Ballet performs Petite Mort, Songs of Mahler and French Twist

For months, I've been looking forward to Smuin Ballet's spring season, which opened at Yerba Buena's Novellus Theater. In fact it started as soon as the company announced that Jiri Kylian's "Petite Mort" would be on the program.

(Smuin Ballet's Brooke Reynolds and Ryan Camou in Jiri Kylian's
Petite Mort. Photo: Scot Goodman)

Few Bay Area companies even attempt Kylian's work, which is really a pity. But after the performance that the company unveiled last Friday, I can only hope this won't be the last time Smuin Ballet tackles his work--these are ballets that needs to be seen here and the dancers are remarkably suited to the style.

In past years, I've seen quite a few other companies perform "Petite Mort" --it's a favorite ballet of mine. Of course, every troupe puts its own distinctive spin on the piece. Some give it a preternaturally cool execution and gasp-worthy synchronicity, others offer vivid movement quality.

In other versions, I have often admired the perfect execution -- the way the men spin their foils precisely in sync with each other, or swing them widely by the point so that every blade makes the same angle. But in those cases, I'm drawn in by the framework, but not necessarily the heart. What I love about Smuin Ballet's take on Kylian's "confrontation of the sexes" is the easy sensuality that the company brings to the choreography. As I read Kylian's choreography, it's not a sexy ballet per se, but then of course, with a title like "Petite Mort," the underlying sexual tension of man versus woman is hard to miss.

On Friday, as Brooke Reynolds dug into the duet with Ryan Camou with an inspired abandon, the immediate appeal was the sense that I was watching real people -- honest-to-goodness, flesh-and-blood. These were not just aesthetically pleasing, idealized movers doing things that regular folks could never do, but warm-blooded human beings capable of bringing great maturity to the movement.

There's a great move that the couples perform midway through "Petite Mort," in which the men hover over the women's bodies as their partners arch beneath them in a kind of jagged reflection on the floor. The pose itself is one of the memorable moments in this ballet-- a sculptural shape of tension and release that you can appreciate, almost dispassionately, for its abstract beauty.

(Travis Walker and Jessica Touchet in Jiri Kylian's
Petite Mort. Photo: Scot Goodman)

Watching the company repeat the move on Friday night though, I was struck by the sense of conversation between the couples-- not that they were consciously attempting to telegraph a thought or make you read an agenda in their body language, but something far more subtle -- a kind of communion between two bodies that takes you beyond words.

Days later I was still thinking about it --what exactly passed between the dancers, what did I think I saw, what did it all mean?--which I always take to be the mark of a great performance--one that would be worth seeing more than once.

The company's YBC program continues through May 16, before going on to the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek (May 21-22), the Flint Center in Cupertino (May 29-30), and the Sunset Center in Carmel (June 4-5).