DANCE REVIEW: Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers at Jacob's Pillow

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on July 22, 2010 - 11:04am

Dance

JACOB’S PILLOW
Doris Duke Theatre
Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers
July 21-25, 2010

Review by Seth Rogovoy

Drew Jacoby (woman) and Rubinald Pronk (man) of Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers [photo Marty Sohl for Dance Magazine/courtesy Jacob's Pillow]

(BECKET, Mass., July 22, 2010) – If I get this right, Jacoby & Pronk isn’t even a company. They’re just dancers, but they come as a pair, and in just a few short years as partners, Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk have established a name for themselves (in the tradition of Rogers and Astaire, Nureyev and Fonteyn, Marge and Gower Champion, and, of course, Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis), so much so that their first-ever headlining performance as a presenting duo (plus other dancers) attracted a packed house last night at Jacob’s Pillow, and will continue to do so over the course of their run this weekend, which ends on Sunday.

And all for good reason, as was demonstrated in this unique program designed exclusively for Jacob’s Pillow, a showcase for Jacoby and Pronk and their signature approach to contemporary ballet. Drawing on choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Hans van Manen, Lauri Stallings, Christopher Wheeldon, and Leo Mujic, with music ranging from Bach and Vivaldi to Arvo Pärt and contemporary Dutch minimalist composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis, the dynamic duo made as strong a case as any for the health and artistic relevance of contemporary ballet in their spirited, expressive and virtuosic performance.

Drew Jacoby (woman) and David Hallberg (man) of Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers in "Both" [photo Liza Voll/courtesy Jacob's Pillow]

Of course, so much of the duo’s success has to do with their own virtuosity, their defiant approach to the rigors of the ballet form, and, as the five-foot, eleven-inch Jacoby bluntly admitted in a recent interview, “I think people come to see our bodies.” En pointe, Jacoby even occasionally towers over her six-foot two-inch partner, but more to the point, they are awesome physical specimens. Their expertly controlled, impossibly long limbs -- including feet that can touch the sky from a standing position seemingly as easily as they reach the ground – their ripplingly muscled torsos and backs, and their expressive faces – no blank slates these neoclassicists – already give them a huge boost in pure visual appeal.

Rubinald Pronk (man) and Drew Jacoby (woman) of Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers in Rhapsody 'Fantaisie' [photo Liza Voll/courtesy Jacob's Pillow]

The fact that they can use all these assets in the service of relatively formal choreography and movement that, while pushing the borders of what is acceptable without ever entirely shattering the rulebook, uses it in new and unique ways, very physical and sexual, for sure, but also very witty and critical of the form itself, is what gives their work its singular appeal and makes it transcendent – and this is presumably why Pillow executive director Ella Baff chose to bring them to the festival for a headlining gig as featured artists, instead of in their oft-played role as guest artists with other companies.

And pity those guest artists – the other three dancers – that accompanied Jacoby and Pronk last night, including American Ballet Theatre principal dancer David Hallberg. He, who is not chopped liver himself, appeared downright scrawny and intimidated dancing a duet with Jacoby, who looked like she could make mincemeat of Hallberg should she so choose.

Rubinald Pronk (man) and Drew Jacoby (woman) of Jacoby & Pronk and Dancers in One [ photo Liza Voll/courtesy Jacob's Pillow]

Several of the evening’s dances were world premieres, including One by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Originally created as a pas de deux for Jacoby and Pronk and reworked here as a pas de quatre, dancers Victor Mateos Arellano and Shirley Esseboom, who anywhere else would have made a fine, striking couple, were simply knocked out of the ring when Jacoby and Pronk followed their pas de deux with one of their own. It was like, watch us to see how it’s done. The lighting design, however, by Mary Louise Geiger, which made use of opening and closing silhouettes that made the dancers look like space aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was fabulous.

Dances were interspersed with short film clips of Jacoby and Pronk by Alvin Booth. Several of these featured the dancers as if seen through a kaleidoscope, split and multiplied and spinning around in patterns and designs. The final clip, Le Beau Est Toujours Bizarre (Part Seven), with music by Quixotic Fusion Ensemble and the Scandals featuring Peaches in “The Dogma of Music,” was literally a faceoff between the two that played like an MTV-style rock video. It was awesome, and could or should be burning up YouTube right now.

Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living’s award-winning editor-in-chief and critic-at-large.

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