Miami City Ballet dancers in Serenade. Choreography by George Balanchine. Photo:Gene Schiavone.
Miami City Ballet has established itself as an integral force of dance in Southern Florida. As the flagship dance company in Miami, the opening night performance of Program II at the Ziff Opera House of the Adrienne Arsht Center last Friday, played numerous roles. First and foremost, the evening was in loving memory of Charles Cinnamon, arts advocate, press agent, mentor and friend to Miami City Ballet. Many attendees in the house were there on Cinnamon’s behalf, some who had not been to the ballet in a while. It was a perfect marriage of opening dance perspectives and honoring one who had been such a dance supporter for so many years in Miami.
For the audience, the evening also expanded thoughts as to what a ballet could be. Many individuals think of a ballet, as director Lourdes Lopez said, “(as) a story, tutus and a tiara.” While that is certainly one aspect of ballet, well trained dancers, especially in this day and time, can do pretty much any type of dance. Friday's performance was a telling example of this. While not every piece was suited to the taste of every audience member, perhaps the idea of what a ballet is and what dancers are capable of in the balletic style was opened.
The third benefit of a program such as Program II is not seen as well by the audience, but is something more internal. It challenges the dancers technically while strengthen their sense of community, of working together. This was especially so in the big ballets presented in this program such as “Serenade” and “Glass Pieces” with very large casts, unity and cohesiveness is a must to execute and be true to the dynamic and challenging ensemble deliveries.
MCB dancers Nathalia Arja and Kleber Rebello in Calcium Light Night. Choreography by Peter Martins. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
Opening the program was George Balanchine’s classic, elegant and timeless, “Serenade” to the familiar Tchaikovsky score “Serenade in C Major for String Orchestra.” (Thankfully, live music has become a staple at MCB performances.) Relocating to America in 1933 to start a company, Balanchine was disappointed with the technical ability of dancers. His now famous words, “but first a school” were the impetus for creating his first American school and his first ballet, “Serenade.” In 1934, Balanchine created this ballet for his students. It was meant to challenge and train dancers who were to become the future muses in the Balanchine "American neoclassical" style of dance, a style that was a fusion of Balanchine’s training from the Russian Imperial School and other forms of dance with his work on Broadway and in Hollywood.
“Serenade” is essentially plotless. It conveys the passions and sometimes, simple innocence of youth. The MCB dancers are well trained, each capable of executing the fluid arms, impeccable technique and light as air essence. In the opening performance, symmetry and lines could have been tighter in this work that was initially a training ground. Tricia Albertson, with her cool presence, appeared effortless in her encounter with the solid Reyneris Reyes. Jeannette Delgado flew on and off the stage with assurance, never missing a beat with her polished craft. Emily Bromberg as the "Dark Angel" was etherial and elegant as partnered by Didier Bramaz. Balanchine said, “dance is woman.” Today, we see dance as more encompassing, as was beautifully executed by the men in “Serenade.”
The airy and light Jennifer Lauren encounters ruffian, Renan Cerdeiro, in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s “Carousel Pas de Deux.” The technical forté displayed by Cerdeiro to the explosive Richard Rogers score was hard to resist and the audience enthusiastically responded. Love the story or not, Lauren and Cerdeiro, were touching in this fleetingly dangerous young love story.
In the 1978, “Calcium Light Night,” Peter Martin’s first balletic creation, we were given a taste and glimpse of what would be Martin’s future as Ballet Master in Chief of New York City Ballet, following Balanchine. Not afraid to think "outside the box," Martin’s ballet is gritty and humorously combative, difficult and, as delivered Friday evening, sometimes robotic. Kleber Rebello evoked memories of the Jester in John Cranko’s “Jeu de Cartes” with the flexed feet weight changes and almost matter of fact delivery.
Rebello was serious and internal in the third solo complementing the challenging Charles Ives score. Quirky and creaturesque, Nathalia Arja made the most of minimal choreography that was much more difficult than it appeared. In executing a duet so well, some of the impetus was vague. The rousing battle, the cause and reaction and the personalities that both bring to the table could have been stronger, with more tongue and cheek humor, even while the duet is difficult and exhausting.
What could be finer than to complete the evening with a large percentage of the company in an intense, visually stunning display to a Philip Glass score? This was the MCB company premier of the 1983 Jerome Robbin’s ballet “Glass Pieces.” Just as Robbin’s 1958 “NY Export Opus Jazz” was reflective of a post war New York City, “Glass Pieces” evokes technology, computers and the digital age, even now over 30 years later. Against a white grid backdrop, dancers with purpose and with reason traversed the stage while individuals and couples broke out at random times. These were dancers who were also people. One such couple was Albertson and Cerdeiro in roles that seemed custom fit for them. Add the sinewy Jordan-Elizabeth Long with elegant Chase Swatosh, fluid Callie Manning with the energetic Jovani Furlan and there were three couples unified in execution, separate in their delivery intertwined in a solid ensemble.
MCB dancer Renan Cerdeiro in Carousel Pas de Deux. Choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
Today there are graphic programs to create moving, symmetrical back drops. Interestingly, in the second movement, real women were silhouetted, creating shapes, musicality and uniformity across the backdrop. Led by the austere Simone Messmer and Rainer Krenstetter, this was a movement of lushness and passion against the driving static shapes of the silhouettes. Stillness that had breath, seamless lifts into promenades, the couple was captivating until they disappeared just as they had entered. A lovely moment in time.
While we often see groups of women dancing, the third movement allowed an opportunity to see only the men as an edgy mass moving to a pulsating drumbeat. It was a brilliantly conceived intense study in driving pattern changes, swirls that became positions, lines and groups that magically unified again. The ladies entered only to join the men in an explosive passage of circles, patterns, lines, and seemingly organized chaos. Yes, lines could have been cleaner, and patterns more obvious, but what the audience was left with was the idea that dance is an effusion of data for the senses. It is accessible, it is hard, it is beautiful and it is stimulating.
Don’t miss a program that excites the senses, to see dancers that can deliver and choreography that is timeless.
Performances continue Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20, 21 at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22 at 1 p.m. at the Kravis Center, Dreyfoos Hall 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 Kravis Center 800-572-8471 Tickets at max.kravis.org. Also, Saturday Feb. 4 at 8 p.m.and Sunday, Feb 5 at 2 p.m. at The Broward Center for the Performing Arts Au-Reine Theater 201 Sw 5th Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312 (954) 462-0222 Tickets at ticketmaster.com
Information at www.miamicityballet.org
