Legends of 20th Century Dance

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      A Ballet British Columbia presentation. At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Thursday, April 12. No remaining performances

      In its solid Legends of 20th Century Dance program, Ballet British Columbia treated Vancouver dance fans to works by the art form's masters. Each piece sparkled.

      George Balanchine's Allegro Brillante was a spectacle. The late New York choreographer once said of the 1956 ensemble piece: "It contains everything I know about classical ballet in 13 minutes." Marked by breathtaking beauty and technical exactitude, the steps are tiny, swift, and as intricate as embroidery, complete with rococo flourishes of the hands. Elevating the fast and furious footwork to stunning heights is Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 75. The five couples, led by Fei Guo and Shannon Smith, pulled off most of Balanchine's demanding movements with aplomb.

      Altogether different and full of surprises was Appalachian Spring by Martha Graham, which tells the tale of a husband and wife building a home in a frontier town. Joining the couple are a revivalist preacher and his four followers, who give the 1944 work the most edge and eccentricity. Superbly danced by Guo, Simone Orlando, Kai Davis, and Maggie Forgeron, they prayed to the heavens and shuffled across the floor in deep crouches, swishing their long skirts from side to side. Graham constantly pulls out the unexpected: tuck jumps, steps inspired by folk dance, marionettelike motions, and distorted poses. Aaron Copland's career-forging score juxtaposes peaceful harmonies with discordant, foreboding sounds. The latter matched Donald Sales's fire-and-brimstone sermon, to which Tara Lee, as the bride, responded with distress. She was restrained where she needed to be and full of youthful joy elsewhere.

      Twyla Tharp's Baker's Dozen brought the evening to a celebratory close. Tharp created the piece for six couples in 1979, and it's as effervescent now as it was then. Solos morphed into duets that melted into trios. The men passed women back and forth before all 12 dancers joined in kaleidoscopic patterns. Swooningly elegant, Tharp's vocabulary is also playful, the dancers sometimes flirtatious. The men, especially, had some memorable moves: Chengxin Wei was full of funky pizzazz in one solo, while Jones Henry positively got jiggy with it in another. Set to Terence Dawson's springy live piano-playing–the score consisted of music by Harlem stride pianist Willie "the Lion" Smith–Baker's Dozen wasn't as challenging as the preceding pieces, but it still shone.

      Program opener Inspiration, by Mario Radacovsky, was the evening's most romantic piece. The duet for Orlando and Edmond Kilpatrick paired Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 with steps that were equally lovely. The couple had great chemistry: it wasn't clear whether Orlando was Kilpatrick's wife, lover, or muse, but it was evident that she moved his soul.

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Claudia

      Jan 6, 2011 at 5:28am

      I love dance! Aspeicaly Ballet! I have been in it scence I was 4!

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