Ballet West exults with color and joy in “Pictures at an Exhibition”
Ballet West opened its season two weeks ago with a dark Jekyll and Hyde. The company’s second program of the season, Pictures at an Exhibition is its polar opposite, with three ballets that, in their own way, explore movement and feelings of playfulness and joy.
The program opened with George Balanchine’s Serenade, a work that has been popular at Ballet West for decades. On opening night, principals Emily Adams and Adrian Fry were perfectly synchronized and flawless in their execution. Their quick, precise footwork and elongated extensions were the embodiment of Balanchine technique. Although Serenade—set to Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings—doesn’t have a narrative story, it is full of occasions with distinct emotional character. The “Elegy” section performed by Emily Adams, Katlyn Addison, and Victoria Vassos while partnering with Dominic Ballard was full of longing, possibility, and poignant depth.
Also noteworthy was the women’s corps who are a constant throughout the ballet. The Ballet West dancers were the driving force behind the emotional transitions of the piece, quickly changing from athletic strength to ethereal lightness in a way that seemed effortless.
Within the Golden Hour by Christopher Wheeldon is a new ballet for the company and the first Wheeldon piece in their repertoire. In this work, which was premiered by San Francisco Ballet in 2008—Wheeldon explores movement and form through repetition and multiple visual levels. Wheeldon set Within the Golden Hour to an assortment of short works by Antonio Vivaldi and Ezio Bosso and Dancers reach high, then plunge to the floor in an organic evolution that plays off of syncopation and perpetual motion in an exciting way. He also incorporates moments of dancers in stiff, angular shapes, which then shift beautifully into curves and softness.
On opening night, Lexi McCloud and David Huffmire performed the first duet, which had the feeling of sweet, romantic flirtation. Wheeldon combined elements of social dancing with ballet to create an upbeat, playful, and joyful interlude. This contrasted beautifully with the next pas de deux by Victoria Vassos and Dominic Ballard. Their duet was warm and regal, and their partnering felt like two people melted into one. With complex strength and balancing at the end, they left one breathless.
The Ballet West Orchestra under music director Jared Oaks featured just the string players for both Serenade and Within the Golden Hour. The orchestra leaned into Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings with a lush and layered tone, which contrasted nicely with the more transparent solos of Bosso and Vivaldi.
The program concluded with Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which received its Utah premiere this weekend. Ratmansky, unexpectedly, uses Mussorgsky’s original piano version rather than the colorful Ravel orchestration. Rather than reproducing the narrative of each section or painting, Ratmansky is inspired to explore different creative directions and stories. A painting by Wassily Kandinsky is the inspiration behind the costuming and projected backdrop.
The piece opens with ten dancers crouching together and taking turns for a quick, exuberant solo. With so many movements in the piece, and brief interludes of the opening “Promenade” theme that return throughout the score, Ratmansky explores different combinations of solos, duets, and ensembles, which builds an unexpected curiosity for which dancer will appear next. Katlyn Addison scuttled energetically over every inch of the stage in “The Gnome,” while other movements had dancers skipping, swinging, and prancing. The somber, searching energy from Adrian Fry in “Catacombs” was a vivid contrast to the frenetic, exaggerated gestures of David Huffmire in the “Hut on Hen’s Legs.”
Vera Oussetskaia-Watanabe was the solo musician, performing the piano score while beautifully matching the energy and nuance of the dancers.
Ballet West’s Pictures at an Exhibition continues through November 16. balletwest.org
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