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Fringe Mix

The 15th Annual New York International Fringe Festival
New York City

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2011 by Martha Sherman

In the riot of offerings that is the International Fringe Festival, it’s hard to pick and choose – and hard to generalize. Many of this year’s pieces were identified as crossing several disciplines: drama, dance, performance art, music, puppetry, humor. Of the almost dozen dance performances presented, this sampling of four included two memories and two dreams. They weren’t particularly complex or subtle works, but each was well danced and effective in its single-minded way, and short enough to not outstay the idea’s welcome.

Home on the Range

"The Four Temperaments", "Grand Synthesis", "Sinfonietta"
Ballet West
Filene Center
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Vienna, Virginia
August 23, 2011

by George Jackson
copyright 2011 by George Jackson 

Ballet West brought 48 dancers East, to Wolf Trap. That's slightly more on-stage performers than the Ballet Russe companies used to tour but those legendary, long vanished caravans also traveled with enough musicians to form a small orchestra. In contrast, Ballet West danced to recorded music for this visit, live sound being something current economics simply won't allow. Still, this company can count on something the Ballets Russes only dreamt of - a permanent home. It sounds good. In practice, though, a home base can be both a blessing and a burden. Salt Lake City, Utah where Ballet West rehearses, tries out new productions and performs regularly, isn't on the international dance circuit. That imposes obligations on the company - it must keep its steady audience educated and aware because that public has no other source for standards, trends, traditions and innovations or for just about anything else. Moreover, when Ballet West travels it is expected to be distinctive, to represent its home and "the spirit of the West". Doing all of that is far from simple and easy. For this one night stand at Wolf Trap, Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute chose familiar works by 2 internationally famous choreographers and a newer piece by a dance maker not from the West but from Wolf Trap's neighborhood - the Washington, DC area.  

Sound and Line of Sight

"Heartbeats", "Rite of Spring", "Trouble in Paradise"*
National Ballet of Mexico, La Catrina Quartet, Jacquelyn Helin and Debra Ayers - pianists
Ballet Pro Musica Festival
Albuquerque Journal Theater, Roy E. Disney Performing Arts Building
National Hispanic Cultural Center
Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 12 & 13, 2011

by George Jackson
copyright 2011 by George Jackson

The music's rich body, its ripe sound throughout the program, was fundamental to this festival's purpose - providing a feast equally for the eye and ear. Henry Holth, a former dancer and a founder and the general director of Ballet Pro Musica, treats the fine musicians he presents like royalty i.e., like star dancers. They play not invisibly, not submerged in a pit, but in what he calls the musicians' loge i.e., on the orchestral platform raised high enough so that the instrumentalists can be seen infront of the dancers throughout the course of a ballet. In the Albuquerque Journal Theater it is possible to do this and only obstruct the view of the stage from a few seats. Leaving those seats empty is a minimal loss compared  to the gain of seeing the music being made and hearing a fuller chamber music sound. Maurice Ravel's "F Major String Quartet", the two piano version of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" and Robert Schumann's "F Major Quintet for Piano and Strings, Opus 44" were played and heard with a devotion and an attention to detail rare for music at dance performances.