“Petite Mort,” “Seven Sonatas,” “Sombrerisimo”
The Washington Ballet
Jacob’s Pillow
Beckett, MA
August 26, 2017
by Gay Morris
copyright© 2017 by Gay Morris
Former ABT ballerina Julie Kent became artistic director of The Washington Ballet just last summer, with her husband Victor Barbee, another former ABT principal, joining her as associate artistic director. This bodes well for the company, which, despite being in existence for more than seventy years, has never made a major impact on the national dance scene.
Judging from the company’s performance on Saturday at Jacob’s Pillow, Kent and Barbee have brought new discipline and technical refinement to the twenty-five-member group. There is more work to be done, but they have made a good start. Kent will probably also improve the repertory. At least that is a priority she has mentioned in interviews, and there was proof of that in the one work at the Pillow that she has brought into the repertory: Alexei Ratmansky’s “Seven Sonatas.”
Photo: Tamás Krizsa and Francesca Dugarte of The Washington Ballet in "Seven Sonatas" by Alexei Ratmansky. Photo Brooke Trisolini.
This is a lovely, nuanced set of dances to Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. Its centerpiece is a pas de deux that is both meditative and tender, two lovers who seem to be thinking of their time together, knowing they will soon part. It was danced very well by Francesca Dugarte and Tamás Krizsa, as was a lighter, quicker duet by Tamako Miyazaki and Andile Ndlovu, and a third duet by EunWon Lee and Brooklyn Mack. “Seven Sonatas” is the kind of ballet the company can grow into, as the dancers improve in technique and mature in artistry. This work also boasted the only live music performance of the program: Glen Sales’ sensitive playing of the Scarlatti pieces.
The final work of the day was Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Sombrer- isimo,” originally created for Ballet Hispanico in 2013 and added to The Washington Ballet’s repertory in 2015. Set to music of Banda Ionica & Titi Robin, it is exuberant and allowed the dancers to show off a bit. In it, six men wear derby hats, which they toss, drop, exchange, and otherwise manipulate in good natured rivalry. This work is a marked improvement over Ochoa’s “Línea Recta,” which Ballet Hispanico danced a few weeks ago at the Pillow. Nevertheless, Ochoa is a choreographer whose work is conventional in her use of vocabulary and the way she moves groups of dancers about the stage. “Sombrerisimo’s” main advantage is that it is lively and the dancers look as if they are enjoying themselves performing it.
This leaves Jiří Kylián’s “Petite Mort.” There are so many reasons to drop this work from the repertory, including its dated choreography. Kylián created it for Nederlands Dans Theatre in 1991 and although neither he nor NDT are French, it is very much in the mode of lesser French choreography of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s in its use of gimmicky props like dress mannikens attired in black tulle evening gowns. The women wear white bustiers, and occasionally sit or crouch behind the mannikens to make it look as if they are wearing the gowns. The mannikens are on rollers, which are pushed about the stage. The men are nude except for what might be described as genital corsets, tight little white pants with corset-like striations. The ballet is danced barefoot in the typical European “modern ballet” style developed by choreographers like Glen Tetley and John Butler in the 1960s.
“Petite Mort” starts with six men dramatically wielding swords (what a surprise) on a semi-dark stage, slashing and pointing, jabbing and whipping the blades about. They later use the swords in some of the dances with the women. The ballet, as its title indicates, includes a fair amount of (simulated) orgasm. One supposes the ballet was meant to be risqué, which it might have been, if it had been created during the Eisenhower administration. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t offensive. To begin with, the ballet is danced to parts of Mozart’s piano concertos in A Major KV 488 and C Major 467, which is a horrible thing to do to this exquisite music. The philistinism is rounded off by using the adagio of KV 488 and the andante of KV 467, as if to improve on Mozart’s compositional choices.
Worse, though, is that the ballet is relentlessly heterosexual, male dominated, and violent. Men grope women, women obediently spread their legs. We live in a time when the US president is notorious for bragging about groping women and how they accept it because of his power. Is this message of heterosexual male violence and power really what The Washington Ballet wants to send? My guess is that it isn’t, and in line with Kent’s intention to improve the repertory, it will soon disappear. It can’t be too soon.
Photos:
Dancers of The Washington Ballet in "Sombrerisimo" by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Photo by Brooke Trisolini.
Dancers of The Washington Ballet in "Petite Mort" by Jiří Kylián. Photo Brooke Trisolini.