{"id":30470,"date":"2015-11-08T01:37:54","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T07:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=30470"},"modified":"2019-11-15T10:46:03","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T16:46:03","slug":"triple-bill-ballet-wests-iconic-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/triple-bill-ballet-wests-iconic-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"Triple Bill: Ballet West’s Iconic Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ballet West\u2019s 52nd season opens with Iconic Classics<\/em>, a triple bill addressing milestones in 20th-century ballet, from its shifts towards two opposing directions \u2014 musical theatre and modern dance \u2014 to its classical apotheosis in George Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSymphony in C.\u201c<\/p>\n

Opening with Jerome Robbins\u2019 \u201cFancy Free,\u201d the company explores not only narrative fare which typically interests a broad public but also the resurgence of ballet crossing over into musical theater. With New York City Ballet dancers Robert and Megan Fairchild (who, by the way, are Utah natives) taking on Broadway roles, the resurgence of Robbins\u2019 work seems relevant on a local and national scale.<\/p>\n

Known most widely for choreographing \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d Robbins had a knack for choreographing theatrical scenarios with clarity: dancers move deftly and musically between complex phrase-work and simply walking across the stage. In solos exploring male bravado, Chase O\u2019Connell in particular demonstrates a unique blend of character and precision, his long limbs at times held in perfect control and, at others, sent across the space with abandon.<\/p>\n

After a recent performance in Minnesota, one blogger raised questions<\/a> about the relevance of \u201cFancy Free\u2019s\u201d story-telling. She saw the premise of the piece as problematic, that three sailors on 24 hour leave in the 40s would not successfully vie for a woman\u2019s attention by stealing her handbag. Although it\u2019s true that some of the content seems out of sync with current sociopolitical conversations, it\u2019s undeniable that Robbins had a gift for choreographing a narrative, if not supplying it.<\/p>\n

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Ji?\u00ed Kyli\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cOvergrown Path,\u201d is a significant shift in tone. Premiering in 1980, the choreography is based on a piano cycle by Czech composer Leos Jan\u00e1?ek that considers the loss of his daughter. A series of lush vignettes spill out of the score and Jenna Rae Herrera and Arolyn Williams capture the combination of strain and frailty that the narrative suggests, with its titles like \u201cA blown away leaf,\u201d \u201cUnutterable anguish,\u201d and \u201cIn tears.\u201d Throughout, mournful women clutch skirts to their chest, contract their bodies and fall back into the arms of their male partners.<\/p>\n

The structure of \u201cOvergrown Path\u201d is unquestionably ballet, beginning with an ensemble, meandering through small groups and returning to an ensemble. But Kyli\u00e1n\u2019s moving material calls to mind many women of modern dance. In a program of icons who all happen to be male choreographers, this reminder of works by Helen Tamiris or Martha Graham seem as topical as the work\u2019s original dedication to Anthony Tudor.<\/p>\n

Kyli\u00e1n\u2019s work served as a touchstone into idioms popular in contemporary ballet, but the program concludes with Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSymphony in C,\u201d a crown jewel of classical ballet. Ballet West has previously performed excerpts but this concert shows the full work and utilizes so many dancers that advanced students are also included to round out the corps de ballet.<\/p>\n

Opening night featured a few technical missteps, but if anything, this highlighted the soloists commitment to Balanchine\u2019s aesthetic of fully moving off the leg and manipulating their torso to elongate the body. The women, in white tutus and tiaras, are the embodiment of the ballerina in the jewelry box if her spring was loosened a bit. Unfortunately no such metaphor exists for the men so that the musicality and depth of performances by Adrian Fry and Rex Tilton lack appropriate description.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Ballet West\u2019s Iconic Classics, at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre, Salt Lake City, Nov. 6 -14, www.balletwest.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This review appeared in the November 2015 edition of 15 Bytes.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballet West\u2019s 52nd season opens with Iconic Classics, a triple bill addressing milestones in 20th-century ballet, from its shifts towards two opposing directions \u2014 musical theatre and modern dance \u2014 to its classical apotheosis in George Balanchine\u2019s \u201cSymphony in C.\u201c Opening with Jerome Robbins\u2019 \u201cFancy Free,\u201d the company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":861,"featured_media":30471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1450],"class_list":["post-30470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","tag-ballet-west"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/bw6.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 12:39:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30470"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48298,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30470\/revisions\/48298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}