Arts
Page 6
Wednesday, May 5, 1982
The Michigan Daily
PBC adds divc
By Ellen Rieser ficult not to admire a ballet- company
that presented works as varied as those
P E N N S Y L V A N I A BALLET, by Balanchine, Limon, and Anastos;
bringing several new works to Ann modern pieces; and traditional
Arbor, was in fine form during its three classical ballets such as Swan Lake all
days of performances at Power Center, during its short three-day stay.
April 19th, 20th, and 21st. While not all Even more delightful, in this day of
it attempted was a success, it was dif- taped music, Pennsylvania Ballet
rsity to dance
Company (PBC) arrived with its own
orchestra, the Pennsylvania Orchestra
led by Maurice Kaplow. It was a
pleasant experience for the Ann Arbor
dance audience to once again be able to
see a major dance company perfor-
ming to live music at Power Center.
Pennsylvania Ballet's opening night
performance began with Square Dance,
a vintage Balanchine piece (1957) set to
the lively music of Vivaldi and Corelli.
It was a good choice for a curtain
raiser. The company stylishly whizzed
through Square Dance's many difficult
beats and jumps en pointe-and looked
like they were enjoying themselves
hugely. Tamara Hadley, dancing the
lead couple with William DeGregory,
sparkled throughout, as the ballet
showed off her superb balance and
beautiful, supple feet.
Resettings, receiving its Ann Arbor
premiere, is an episodic modern work
by Senta Driver. Although its steps
were not drawn from the ballet
vocabulary, the work was nicely (and
humorously) danced by the Pen-
nsylvania Ballet. Resettings featured
music by the dancers themselves: foot
and finger tapping, clapping, hum-
ming, and even recitations in coor-
dinated cheerleader fashion of chants
such as "wonderful, marvelous, ex-
cellent, effortless.'
To the beats of this eccentric music,
the thirteen dancers played with dance
conventions such as norms of par-
tnering (why not have women lift
men?) and music (why not use silence
as well as beats?). Jeffery Gribler, un-
ceremoniously dragged across the
stage by a woman, at the beginning of
the work, gave a delightful performan-
ce during later cartwheels and capers.
Towards the end of Resettings,
"Dido's Lament" by Purcell was sud-
denly introduced. The sudden playing
of the orchestra served to emphasize
how much music there had actually
been before and how the audience (af-
ter the initial shock) had not missed the
orchestra.
The opeining night's performance
concluded with a version of Swan Lake,
Act II, staged by Benjamin Harkarvy
(artistic director of PBC) after the
original Ivanov choreography. Unfor-
tunately, what should have been a
grand finale turned out to be a flat per-
formance that lacked both spontaneity
and good artistic sense. As Odette,
Melissa Podcasy alternated between
frantic flutterings and overly controlled
deliberate movements.
The rest of Swan Lake, Act II, was
equally disappointing. The cygnets in
the famous pas de quatre were
technically correct but looked grimly
determined in what is supposed to be a
cute and fun-looking variation. That it
is also an extremely demanding
variation to dance is beside the point.
To be successful, the little swans pas de
quatre requires that the dancers per-
forming it look moderately happy in the
limelight.
Edward Myers, who is capable of be-
ter performances, was not particularly
inspiring as Prince Siegfried, nor did he
seem inspired by the production.
Finally, the new choreography by
Harkarvy was rather static and did not
serve to improve what can be some of
the most beautiful and inspiring
choreography in the ballet repertoire.
As with Pennsylvania Ballet's
opening night, the following evening's
performance offered a similar por-
pourri of modernistic pieces and
ballets. The concert began with
Galaxies, by Loyce Houlton, set to
Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie. This
was an elaborate ballet with a changing
back-cloth that represented a myriad of
star clusters at night and a stunning
scrim that created the illusion of
galaxies swirling across the stage.
The choreography, which featured
much pointe work and romantic par-
tnering, was pretty but lacked a sense
of both drama and music. It was im-
possible to determine any dramatic or
lyrical rationale behind the
choreography. The steps danced by the
nine dancers and lead couple (Tamara
Hadley and Edward Myers) could have
been any other dance steps. Because of
this, Galaxies quickly became rather
boring.
After the traditional dance of Swan
Lake, PBC presented Yes, Virginia,
Another Piano Ballet, an hysterically
funny but good natured spoof of piano
ballets such as Jerome Robbins' Dan-
ces at a Gathering. Originally created
by Peter Anastos in 1976 for the famous
male ballet company en travisti Les
Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo,
PBC's version of Yes (with two new
sections) has survived its transfor-
mation splendidly.
As soon as the Boy in Blue, played by
Paul Vitali, walked out, wandered
aimlessly about the stage, picked lint
off his costume, and then proceeded to
pull up his tights into a more comfor-
table position, the audience knew that it
was seeing something very
special-very crazy too, but special
nevertheless.
Set to the archetypical ballet music of
Chopin, Yes, Virginia featured a duel of
pointed feet, assault with a deadly piano,
partnering work similar to unarmed
combat, and the discovery of an uncer-
tain material on the stage. The audien-
ce at Power Center loved it.
The evening's program concluded
with Under the Sun (choreography by
Margo Sappington, commissioned
score by Michael Kamen), the ballet
usually considered to be Pennsylvania
Ballet's signature piece.
Under the Sun was created to be a
whimsical celebration of the mobiles,
toys, and miniature circus of sculptor
Alexdander Calder. All of the costumes,
props, and music served to echo
Calder's works. The dancers wore
costumes with wiggly balls, cones, and
hoops magically adhering to them;
large cylinders sneaked across the
stage, and blue spheres floated down
from the ceiling.
Backing up these theatrics was the
strong dancing from the entire cast.
Tamara Hadley as Corolla, the Sun
Child, and Melissa Podcasy as Entin-
celle, Queen of the Mobiles, were
especially fine. Jeffrey Cribler showed
great form in the jazzy circus pas de
deuxwith Hadley.
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Jeffrey Gribler and Dana Arey dancing in Pennsylvania Ballet's 'Reset-
tings.'
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