"Pacific", "Twilight", "Solo", "Play"
Houston Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 22, 2013
by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill
The Houston Ballet, directed by the Australian choreographer Stanton Welch, returned to the Joyce for a week-long season, with four works (two with live music), variable choreography, and strong, confident, and appealing dancers. Mark Morris' "Pacific", to two movements of a Lou Harrison trio, opened the program. It was choreographed in 1995 for the San Francisco Ballet, and combines point shoes with unusual, shifting movements. It is uni-sex; both men and women wear long pastel chiffon shirts that shimmer when they move. It is a ballet of mood, catching the up-beat rhythms of the music with quirky, stylized movements. Three men (Ian Casady, Oliver Halkowich, and Joseph Walsh) open the work, dancing in unison with quick, fast floating jumps. The dancers were terrific, dancing with an open-hearted generosity and flowing, graceful moves. They were replaced by four women dancing with a slightly ominous intensity, but with equal grace. The center of the work, a pas de deux for Melody Mennite and Joseph Walsh, was, in typical Morris fashion, a somewhat oblique examination of missed chances, as the couple rarely connected. No cliches here, just lush, interesting and every-shifting moves.