Pop Culture Review by Tulsa World
Apr 20, 2010 in General
'Pop' rocks: 3 ballets are exquisite
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. Tulsa World Scene Writer
Published: 4/20/2010
Click here to read the full review
Tulsa Ballet has commissioned and premiered about 20 ballets over the last 15 years. The newest additions to this select group of dance works — the three ballets that are getting their world premiere in the mixed-bill "Pop Culture" — are easily among the best of the bunch.
We feel comfortable saying that, even though we have not seen two of the ballets presented as their creators wished.
Demi-soloist Mugen Kazama, who had featured roles in all three ballets, suffered an injury during his performance in the opening piece. He managed to finish that ballet, but was unable to continue. Corps de ballet members Ian Buchanan and Andres Figueroa took over his roles in the second and third works.
Even so, two duets that Kazama was to perform in the subsequent ballets were dropped.
Still, what happened onstage at Tulsa Ballet's Studio K theater Friday night was an extraordinary night of dance theater, as choreographers Ma Cong, Edwaard Liang and Young Soon Hue delivered three ballets that were choreographically distinctive, physically demanding, emotionally rich and thoroughly entertaining.
Cong's piece "Speaking of Each" opened the evening on a high note. This is simply the best ballet yet by the company's principal dancer-resident choreographer.
Cong has always been an innovative and unconventional choreographer, whose work has always incorporated elements that are far removed from the classical vocabulary. But with this piece, set to a mélange of music from France,
Brazil and Japan, it is as if Cong has really come into his own as a maker of dances.
If you watch enough ballets, you notice certain steps, combinations and transitions that show up again and again. These are things that are familiar, that accomplish the goal of getting dancers from one place to another, and there is no shame in using them.
But you don't see that in Cong's "Speaking of Each." This was one of the most unpredictable ballets I've ever seen — you could never anticipate what a given dancer was going to do next.
And you realized, while watching it, that what you were seeing was a choreographer who had developed his own, unique vocabulary, and was using it to say startlingly beautiful things through movement.
Like several of Cong's works, the structure of "Speaking of Each" followed the course of a day, evoking the metronomic force of rush hour; the anonymity of city life; the antic silliness of children at play; the delicacy of romance; and the high-octane explosion of night life.
It's a true ensemble piece, but still filled with standout moments: Ricardo Graziano's solo that opened the second section, setting off a series of interlocking solos and duets; the playground scene, with Kazama, Buchanan and Rupert Edwards yanking each other all over a small bench; a gorgeously fast-paced pas de deux danced with marvelous passion by Alfonso Martin and Karina Gonzalez; and the thrilling can-you-top-this quality of the high-energy finale.
Liang's "Beautiful Child" used songs by Rufus Wainwright for its score. And just as these songs tended to focus on romantic angst, Liang's ballet was at its best when the cast was reduced to just two people.
The ensemble sections that open and close the piece have some intriguing moments amid much conventional dancing. But give Liang a couple of dancers and some wide open space, and the results are pure magic.
"The Consort," danced by Wang Yi and Soo Youn Cho, and "I Don't Know What It Is," performed by Martin and Gonzalez, were densely choreographed displays of joyous, romantic passion filled with unusual partnering and some striking visuals.
The two other duets were more about romance not going quite so well. "Vicious World" featured Cong and Ashley Blade-Martin in an unusual dance in which the two mirrored each other's movements yet at a distance — a pas de deux in which the dancers never make physical contact.
"Vibrate," on the other hand, was pure comedy, as Beatice Sebelin tried in all sorts of ways to capture the attention of Martin, who wants nothing to do with her — down to tossing her back onto the stage at the end of the dance.
Hue's "BOB (Best of Beatles)" is a series of deliriously campy dances set to nine Beatles songs. Hue's choreography here often looks as if the dancers are improvising on the spot, which usually means the piece is as tightly constructed as a clock.
It's also a ballet very heavy on men, with "Come Together," "Twist and Shout" (with Alberto Montesso tearing things up) and "Money," featuring Cong, Yi, Rupert Edwards and Figueroa mimicking the Beatles, being all-male affairs.
Women, when they do appear in this ballet, are usually alone, strolling across the stage to drive the guys into paroxysms of passionate gyrations, as in "Day Tripper" or "Lady Madonna," where Alexandra Bergman works her wiles on the men.
Then there's the duet to "Oh Darling," with Martin writhing and shaking and leaping and twitching around Gonzalez in moves that mirror John Lennon's raw vocals.
The one serious pause in all the fun was the duet by Graziano and Kate Oderkirk to "Things We Said Today."
"Pop Culture" continues with performances at 7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Studio K, 1212 E. 45th St. Tickets are available by calling 596-7111, or online at tulsaworld.com/mytix .
