Rear Mirror

Rock & Roll: "High Lonesome", "Fluctuating Hemlines", "Rooster"
The Washington Ballet
Harman Hall
Washington, DC
February 17, 2011

by George Jackson
copyright 2011 by George Jackson

Looking back to post-World-War-2 pop sensibility were three temperamentally different choreographers - Trey McIntyre, Septime Webre and Christopher Bruce. I'm not trying to psychoanalyze these artists, but their dances strike me as stemming from distinct moods. McIntyre, even when joking, elicits melancholy chords. Webre is quicksilver, action being both his impulse and response. Bruce, whose work I've seen least, seems sanguine and thoughtful. Certainly this program's variety of feelings was welcome. In sum, though, these views of what we passed through a few decades ago appeared more remote than ballets that are over a century old. Yesterday can seem longer ago than last year. 

An inquisitive, insecure, incestuous family of five is at the core of McIntyre's "High Lonesome". The way the story is told doesn't totally reveal the relationships among the family members - a sophisticated woman, an earnest and perhaps younger female, a sporty man, a man in coveralls and - most importantly - a boy. Interactions among the five are supposed to teach them emotional lessons - especially the boy, who is the odd man out. At previous performances, the boy (Jonathan Jordan in all but one of the casts I've seen) gained wisdom during the course of the ballet. This time the work's impact, although intense, was sullenly static. The boy's Buddha pose near the beginning seemed just as knowing as at the end. Nor at the end did he project a sense of acceptance. The rock-and-roll music, mostly by Beck, began with the country atmosphere of "Ramshackle" but went on to more grating numbers, concluding with "Where It's At".

Fun in "Fluctuating Hemlines" are designer Fritz Masden's takeoffs on mid-20th Century fashions - outrageous fluff for the ballet's six females and rather straight laced apparel for the six men. These costumes are takeoffs literally, because the cast strips down to underwear for most of the dancing. It is vigorously physical dancing, based on classroom showoff steps that Webre tweaks and varies rhythmically to match Tigger Benford's rock-and-roll. The score is played live by the composer's Native Tongue quartet which is seated in an alcove to the left of the stage. Washington Ballet looked hard working and attractive, although the animal passions promised in a program note never quite emerged. Even in revealing white underwear, the company conducted itself like ladies and gentlemen.

A rooster strut, of course for men, starts Christopher Bruce's "Rooster" to music by The Rolling Stones. Bruce is skilled at taking behavioral movement and transforming it into dance that is reasonably inventive. He has a sculptural way with bodies, both groupings and individual forms, lingering over linearities and volume. Moreover, both the dancing and the behavior - risk taking and shyness, trust, exuberance and other attitudes - portray the people and the society for which rock-and-roll was entertainment, escape, excuse and addiction. By the time the strutting recurs at the end of "Rooster", it seems a  bit thin. Still, Bruce's ballet was the best crafted on the program.

Jared Nelson, Sona Kharatian and Jayde Payette appeared prominently in all three works, with Nelson particularly looking the star.