“Les Noces,” “Skara Brae,” “Grand Duo”
Juilliard Dances Repertory
The Peter Jay Sharp Theater
New York, NY
March 23, 2011
By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2011 by Carol Pardo
Three distinct tribes shared the stage in Juilliard Dances Repertory. Russian peasants saw two members of their village wed in Bronislava Nijinska’s masterpiece. Eliot Feld took his inspiration from Skara Brae, a Neolithic settlement in the Orkney Islands abandoned, for reasons unknown, about 5,000 years ago. Mark Morris defined his clan through his chosen score, Lou Harrison’s “Grand Duo for Violin & Piano.”
The biggest draw of the program, “Les Noces,” so rarely performed in New York, was the deepest disappointment. The ballet’s construction was as clear and amazing as ever, but the performance lacked force and feeling. Ballet and modern dance meet in “Les Noces” for it blends pointe work from the one with an emphasis on weight, mass and force most often allied with the other. Juilliard is known for concentrating on the latter more than the former but this marriage took place in a no man’s land between the two. Some moments looked too balletic, too princely. The women looked unstretched on pointe and not uniform. Ranged across the stage, they should be as strong and immovable as a stone wall; the chinks showed. That the score was taped and thin didn’t help. “Les Noces” should be full-bodied and robust. This was a skeleton without sinews.
“Skara Brae” pays homage to its inspiration only in the reference made to boots for an Arctic climate on the dancers’ shins. Otherwise it’s pure ‘80’s: dressed in headbands and lycra, the corps executes stretches and yoga poses. All that’s missing is a Jane Fonda workout tape. The dancers look fine: fluid movers at ease with the ballet’s demands. Feld is at his best in smaller doses: the pas de deux and solos. McKenna Birmingham and Alexander Hille executed the somersault lifts of the adagio with admirable aplomb. Casia Vengoechea, on her stomach, orchestrates the movements of head, hands and legs, almost unconsciously, as if lost in contemplation of a summer day on sunlit grass. Yet even they couldn’t save “Skara Brae” from itself: sleek, suave, monotonous and far too long. If only there were some variety of texture, or resistance to vary the tone. After all, the grating of one object against another is the genesis of a pearl.
“Grand Duo” eschews a specific time or place to focus on behavior. Here two militant gangs go at it, there a community in harmony, in thrall to the speed and joy of a round dance, finally all define their turf by shared gestures, twirling their fingers or slapping their thighs. As in many of his works, Morris makes folk dancing theatrically thrilling while permitting us to retain the illusion that we can all join in. The dancers went at it with gusto, if not with the intensity of Morris’ own troupe whose thighs must be black and blue after all that slapping. These students are more reticent in their attack, their thighs not bruised. Most wonderful was the presence for the first time during the evening, during a performance at a pre-eminent music school, of live music. It may not make all the difference, but it certainly makes a difference.
Photograph: "Les Noces" by Rosalie O'Connor