Nine Sinatra Songs

A Ballet British Columbia production. At the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Thursday, October 2. No remaining performances

So you think you can dance? Try leaping from frothy pointe-shoe pirouettes to avant-garde acrobatics to swanky ballroom dance over the course of a single evening. Ballet B.C. did just that with its Nine Sinatra Songs program, determined to prove its chops with some of its finely tuned repertoire.

The question is not whether the company has the ability, but whether audiences, especially regular subscribers, want to see work that's already graced local stages at least once or twice in the past several years. Artistic director John Alleyne has programmed almost an entire season of old repertoire-with the word old a fairly relative term when it came to this mixed bill: Alleyne's own Schubert is a 2000 piece that's been seen twice in the ensuing years; Dominique Dumais's 2001 commission Petrouchka was last remounted in 2004, and Nine Sinatra Songs was last seen only three years ago. On the plus side, the pieces showcased the range and talent of a fairly new corps; big names like Edmond Kilpatrick and Acacia Schachte have left the company since it last performed the works. And at least two pieces on this program-Schubert and Sinatra-were honed for the troupe's recently ended Korean tour.

Although Petrouchka was by far the most striking and challenging choreography on the bill, its execution wasn't as tight as that of the other two. Sinatra and Schubert were as polished as the gigantic mirror ball that glittered over the show's title work. In American icon Twyla Tharp's salute to Old Blue Eyes, the dancers paired up to swirl around the stage in a balletic riff on both ballroom styles and male-female relationships. Although all the performers seemed to float several inches above the floor in their swishy Oscar de la Renta gowns and tuxes, it was the senior members who really sizzled. Simone Orlando, back from a serious injury, brought a seasoned sultriness to her duet with smooth Donald Sales for "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)"; it was the kind of tipsy-lusty seduction that might come after a night out at the Rat Pack's favourite club. And Jones Henry's gum-chewing tough guy, obliviously catching the red-dressed vixen who was throwing herself at him (Makaila Wallace), made "That's Life" an audience favourite.

Overall, though, it was pretty to look at and not too deep. Ditto for Schubert. Set to the composer's lilting Trio in E Flat, Op. 100, the piece is some of the most classical choreography Alleyne has ever created. Twirling about in gauzy, sunset-shade confections, the ballerinas showed some serious talent en pointe: Alexis Fletcher, Wallace, and Maggie Forgeron are all accomplished. But, here again, Alleyne's programming worked to highlight the depth a more mature artist can bring to a piece: Orlando poured everything from pain and elation to quiet reflection into the delicate gestures.

With its punk-haired puppets twirling on long red satin ribbons and swinging on steel bars, Petrouchka seemed like it was from a different solar system than Schubert. But on this night, save James Gnam's sympathetic portrayal of the title character, the boldly contemporary twist on the Igor Stravinsky classic seemed a little rushed. The choreography, with its bizarre doll awkwardness and birdlike flourishes (the Woman flirtatiously flutters her fingers from her hind end like feathers), is difficult to pull off, but it wasn't as organic or involving as it has been in past performances.

Still, unlike, say, Nine Sinatra Songs, Petrouchka is the kind of risky repertoire that sets Ballet B.C. apart. And maybe that message is one that takes a second or third viewing to sink in.