DANCE REVIEW: Nina Ananiashvili and State Ballet of Georgia at Jacob's Pillow
Dance
JACOB’S PILLOW
Ted Shawn Theatre
Ted Shawn Theatre
Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia
June 23-27, 2010
June 23-27, 2010
Review by Seth Rogovoy
(BECKET, Mass., June 23, 2010) – There could not have been a better programming choice to open the 2010 summer season at Jacob’s Pillow than Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia and, in particular, the program of dances that Ananiashvili herself (perhaps with the consultation of Jacob’s Pillow) chose for this kickoff-week presentation.
The generous, two-hour-plus evening of dance served as a journey through dance history at the same time that it represented a lesson in the evolution of ballet into modern and contemporary dance while it also worked as a sampler of the types of dance that audiences will typically see over the course of a summer at Jacob’s Pillow.
The evening began with four rarely performed short dances choreographed by Frederick Ashton, one of neoclassical ballet’s choreographic masters, including three duets – the first featuring Ananiashvili herself – and one solo. The dances formed a showcase of Ashton’s development, going as far back as 1952 and as recent as 1985, just a few years before he died.
These pieces, danced variously to music by Massenet, Offenbach, and Johann Strauss II, were serious works of beauty emphasizing classical technique and form. Ashton loved iconic tableaux, and he followed the lead of the music in suggesting themed poses – Asian and Egyptian, for example. He let his hair down somewhat with the comical La Chatte (The Cat That Turned Into a Woman), a piece from 1985 in which Lana Mghebrishvili, made up in whiteface and whiskers and outfitted in frilly white dress, wristbands and armbands that made her look more like a French poodle than a cat, took the form of a cat lounging around on a divan and, as the title indicates, slowly metamorphosing into a woman, only to be joined by a mouse, played by a radio-controlled toy mouse.
After a brief intermission, the second act, so to speak, was constructed around paired duets. Duo Concertant, made by George Balanchine in 1972 to an eponymous score by Igor Stravinsky and performed here live by violinist David Southorn and pianist Jeannette Fang of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, plunged dancegoers into an entirely different world from that of Ashton. The musicians were onstage and incorporated into the action, as the pair of dancers alternated standing by the piano, listening to the music, and then going off and dancing to it. The most striking segment came early on in the piece, when the Stravinsky, composed early in the 20th century yet anticipating the prevailing minimalism of the second half of the 1900s, was at its most dissonant and abstract. Working with Stravinsky’s incessant rhythmic pulse, the dancers pulled the abstractions into place through Balanchine’s finely wrought minimalist gestures.
Alexei Ratmansky’s recent Bizet Variations Pas de Six paired off six dancers in a ballet miniature.
The final piece on the program was Jiri Kylián’s Falling Angels, a dance for eight female dancers from 1989 that takes on the wonderful challenge of creating movement equal to the suggestive power of Steve Reich’s seminal 1970/71 composition Drumming. While Kylián’s strategy of relying on African-like gestures, including thigh slaps and shaking hands, worked well with Reich’s polyrhythms, and while the piece gained impact for being so unlike anything that came before in the evening, what was most striking about this piece was that it was practically choreography via lighting design (Joop Caboort) along with costumes – black leotards with shoulder straps – that rendered the dancers as not much more than necks, shoulders, faces, and limbs, as the bulk of their torsos were in silhouette throughout most of the piece.
Dancers lived in rectangular boxes of light that accented and brightened their limbs, and most of the action was in unison, representing shifts in direction timed to the subtle shifts, or phasing, of Reich’s score.
After a touching and heartfelt speech paying tribute to Jacob’s Pillow’s progressive-minded executive director, Ella Baff, Ananiashvili called back a troupe of dancers for a final, unscheduled piece, that she described as a “gift from Georgia,” a dance combining folk touches with modern pop.
The Georgian State Ballet and Ananiashvili displayed remarkable virtuosity, discipline, and range in their program, firmly rooted in an early-20th century classical aesthetic, comfortable with the innovations of the second half of that century, yet yearning to break free fully from the past to make a completely contemporary statement. A lot like Jacob’s Pillow itself these days.
Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living’s award-winning editor-in-chief and cultural critic.
Free Events at the Pillow June 23 – 27
Free “PillowTalk” Discussion - Virginia Johnson Returns
NEW DAY Thursday, June 24, 5pm
Blake’s Barn
Precisely 40 years after her Jacob's Pillow debut in the Dance Theatre of Harlem's first professional engagement, former DTH ballet star Virginia Johnson returns in an exciting new role as Artistic Director. As founder Arthur Mitchell's designated successor, Johnson reflects on her past triumphs with DTH and outlines its future in this hour-long talk.
Free “Inside/Out” Performance - Viewpointe
NEW TIME Thursday, June 24, 6:15pm
Inside/Out Performance Space
Artistic Director Helen Heineman, former soloist with acclaimed contemporary company Nederlands Dans Theatre and principal with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, and her contemporary ballet company perform Collage, full of graceful balletic movement, and Bluegrass, a sprightly work set to music by American banjo artist Béla Fleck.
Free “Inside/Out” Performance - Dancewave Company
NEW TIME Friday, June 25, 6:15pm
Inside/Out Performance Space
This company of young student dancers performs works from internationally renowned American choreographers, including the funky Flashback/Flash Forward by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women, among other energetic works.
Free “PillowTalk” Discussion - Virtual Pillow
Saturday, June 26, 4pm
Blake’s Barn
With selected PillowTalks and other unique content now available online, Jacob's Pillow is reaching out in fresh ways to ever-wider audiences. This informative session explores the concepts behind the current efforts, demonstrates some of the newest initiatives, and previews what's next on the horizon.
Free “Inside/Out” Showing - The School at Jacob’s Pillow - Ballet
NEW TIME Saturday, June 26, 6:15pm
Inside/Out Performance Space
International ballet luminary Anna-Marie Holmes and Ballet West Artistic Director Adam Sklute showcase the Ballet Program dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow in classical ballet variations, and a new work created for the Festival Season Opening Gala choreographed by acclaimed choreographer Karole Armitage.
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