"Uneven", "Stomping Ground", "Red Sweet"
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 24, 2011
by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2010 by Mary Cargill
The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is celebrating its 15th season, quite an achievement in this era of budget cutting. The 10-member company danced three pieces at their recent Joyce appearance--at least there were three different titles, but the works (by Cayetano Soto, Jiri Kylian, and Jorma Elo) were so similar that it seemed like one long dance punctuated with some changes in sound. The choreography was as mannered and predictable as any drawing-room comedy, with the staccato, sway-backed, butt-sprung jerky movements danced in harsh lighting so familiar to audiences nowadays. Instead of a gilded youth bouncing on stage with "Anyone for tennis?", all of the ballets had black leotard clad automotons emerging from the back of the stage apparently saying "Twitching, anyone?" since all three works involved a whole lot of shaking. The pieces all involved a great deal of anonymous ferocity, and were without structure, form or craft, and the dancing was impressive without being interesting.
"Uneven" is by the Spanish-born, German-based Cayetano Soto, to music by David Lang, played live by the cellist Kimberly Patterson. The women, dressed in flattering black and white leotards, had occasional insect-like movements; indeed it seemed as if Soto's view of women began and ended with "The Cage". Kylian's "Stamping Ground", too, featured dehumanized dancers, this time moving in silence punctuated by vigorous slaps, which was eventually replaced by percussive music. "Red Sweet" by the ubiquitous Jorma Elo, was set to music of Vivaldi and Biber (roughly a contemporary of Vivaldi), so the musical accompaniment didn't have the abrupt switches in mood that many the works using multiple composers do. But there was no apparent attempt to get inside the music, it was just used as wall paper behind the same jerky movements that the earlier works featured. The very appealing dancers worked up a sweat, and certainly deserved their applause; they also deserved better choreography.
copyright © 2010 by Mary Cargill
Photos by Rosalie O'Connor
Top: "Uneven"
Bottom: "Red Sweet"