4 ARTS Friday, October 28, 1983 The Michigan Daily Page 6 ir." . 4 c , + , Need an outlet for the 4. tom Uninspired footwork fails PRESSURE 7j2 /6cGUIDE fampus GUIDE (4-8433) on-campus DIAL Students Helping Students Crisis Intervention, Peer Counseling, Referrals Weekdays 5pm - 9am Anytime Weekends Sponsored by Counseling Services By Ellen Rieser I AM RARELY bored at the ballet. After two decades of viewing all sorts of dance companies from small civic and chamber groups on up to American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Ballet, and the Royal Ballet, I have found that most performances give me something memorable to take away from the theater. Perhaps it is a new interpretation of an old and tired piece. Perhaps a dancer rises above the corps de ballet and adds an extra zip to his or her attack. It may be something as in- definable as a unique style or as insub- stantial as a lovely stage presence. I am not a ballet snob - performan- ces by hard-working civic companies and unknown members of the corps frequently give me as much pleasure as do performances by the likes of Martine van Hamel and Peter Martins. Unfor- tunately, the Wednesday evening per- formance of New World Ballet of Caracas (Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas) at the Power Center was one of those few times when a performance failed entirely for me. This is not to say that New World Ballet gave a terrible performance or to imply that technically they are an awful company. They do have technical problems (the men especially), but technique does not ex- plain the failure of the performance to please. The performance fizzled because of lack of excitement in both choreography and dancing. The first ballet on Wednesday's program was Quicksilver, choreography by Dennis Nahat, set to Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1. This was an attractive piece in three movements that was not danced well by the company until the final movement. In the first movement, the men ten- ded sloppy arms and unpointed feet. Even worse, for movements one and two, there was no electricity, no sense of contact with the audience. Until the third movement, when the dancers ac- tually looked at the audience and at each other, the audience could have t - - - - been watching molecules in a chemical solution for all the interest and emotion that seemed to be happening on stage. Apollo and Daphne followed Quicksilver. In this piece, Renato Magalhaes as choreographer took a stab at interpreting what has become a modern ballet clique piece - Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun. It is difficult to say anything new with this music and Magalhaes did not succeed in his at- tempt. VanessaOrtiz as the female lead in this pas de deux was technically ex- cellent. She was flexible 'and strong throughout the many difficult tran- sitions between poses on pointe. Manuel Molina was a considerate partner for Ortiz, but rather wooden when occasionally on his own. The real flaw in the ballet, however, was the abysmal choreography. It was never clear who the characters were and why suddenly at the end the char- ming Vanessa Ortiz turns into a tree. Why and more importantly, who cares? (Yes, the myth of Apollo and Daphne is that Daphne was a nymph who attrac- ted the love of Apollo and was pursued by him. She prayed for escape and so was turned into a laurel tree. But that's not the point here.) After the disappointments-of the first half of the program, the third work presented, Lost Cry, offered hope for the rest of the evening. First, the ballet was by Choo San Goh, a popular young choreographer-in-residence with the Washington Ballet. Choo San Goh works in an eclectically pleasing style that combines elements of both ballet and modern dance. Second, the music selected for Lost Cry was by Alberto Ginastera (Concierto para Cuerdas, Op. 33), an unusual choice. New World Ballet danced Lost Cry quite well. As the female lead, former ABT principal dancer Zhandra Rodriguez showed off her fluidity and exquisite balance. This ballet provided the first bit of genuine emotion of the evening. As Rodriguez and her partner (Alejandro Menendez) were threatened by groups of identically dressed dan- cers, it looked like something was ac- tually happening on stage. Lost Cry wasn't the most original ballet-never- I 4 4 The choreography doesn't work for the Caracus New World Ballet. theless, for what it was, it worked and the company performed it well. New World Ballet of Caracas ended its program with a ballet grandiosely entitled New Dawn. Unfortunately, at least for ballet, it wasn't. The music was pleasant (Heitor Villa-Lobos), the choreography wasn't bad (Carlos Orta, New World's resident choreographer), and Zhandra Rodriguez looked nice in the steps as did the rest of the company. All this considered, the piece lacked distinctiveness. What makes a review such as this so difficult to write is that New World Ballet of Caracas should be capable of giving a better performance. The com- pany has toured extensively. By now, its dancers should know how to relate to an audience and how to dance a piece as opposed to merely pacing through it. Furthermore, New World Ballet's ar- tistic directors, Zhandra Rodriguez and Dale Talley, should know better than to put together a program of four works that are too much alike in choreography and feeling.* By the second half of the program, it became difficult to remember which ballet I was seeing. New World Ballet's repertoire con- tains interesting and different works by such choreographers as Hans Van. Mannen, John Butler, and Asaf Messerer. These are works that I suspect the company dances well. In- deed the Van Mannen work (Five Tangos) and the Messerer work (Spring Waters) are prominently featured for the company's November performances at New York's City Cen- ter. Why New World Ballet didn't choose to vary its program and present some of these works in Ann Arbor is a mystery. I won't give up on the New World Ballet. But I'll be interested to see what sort of programs they present in the future. j 4 """"" """""T " E """'""""""E MUG 994O Egg Biscuit Hash Browns & Coffee breakfast served 7-11 am coupon good while supplies last offer expires 11-4-83 UNION Ground Floor '-4 A very X-traordinary group By Frank Sehraner D ON'T LET the title of its latest album, More Fun in the New World, fool you - X is just being sar- castic. X's music still deals passionately and intelligently with the sleazier and less than "fun" aspects of life on planet earth - loneliness, drunkenness, poverty, violence - no silly love songs on its fourth album. Detroiters will get a chance to hear X's new music performed live, as the Subscribe to the Michigan Daily-Phone 764-0558 I I I h. J J band will be appearing at St. Andrew's Hall tonight. X remains one of the few bands whose lyrics consistently avoid rhyme, yet still work. "The New World," the album's opening cut, for instance, alludes to ineffectual politicians and economic desperation in America: All we need is money just give us what you can spare/20 or 30 pounds of potatoes or 20 or 30 beers/A turkey on Thanksgiving like alms for the" poor/All we need are the necessities and more/It was better before, before they voted for what's-his- name/This was supposed to be the 4 new world. Detroiters will no doubt appreciate the song's oft-sung line,. Don't forget the Motor City. "We're Having Much More Fun" con- tafies a reference to X's hometown and an ace simile; Los Angeles treates everyone like a drunk in bed/Washing dirty bums with rain., like dishes on the floor. , -"" -" - -""- "- ' "" -* villa o Apothocary 1120South Universiy 663-5533 X is not without a sense of humor. Consider the following lines from "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts": The food cooks poorly and everyone goes hungry/From then on it's dog eat dog, dog eat body, and body eat dog. i.. ., -IvlesMe ~ t "Poor Girl" is one of X's most melodic songs to date and features a fine solo vocal performance by bassist John Doe and a downright pretty chorus. X exposes some of its roots by vigorously covering Jerry Lee Lewis' "Breathless" and by incorporating par- ts of numerous '50s and '60s tunes into "True Love Pt. -2," the album's last song. Doe and wife Exene's vocal har- monies are truer than ever on this disc; on two of the tracks, they allude to the banality of current American rock radio, exhibiting a bitterness toward a medium which has largely ignored them Gunitarist Rillv7Zom exhibits his ,I