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icepixieJust in time for Halloween, the Nashville Ballet put on a three-piece program consisting of Balanchine's Valse Fantasie and two pieces by artisitc director Paul Vasterling, Ballet: Tango and Dracula. I saw yesterday's matinee.
The Valse was...lackluster. It looked like it hadn't been practiced very much, and to be honest, even if it had been done well, I don't think I would've liked it, because, while the music was pretty (it's Glinka), the dance had no soul. More accurately, I suppose, it had no story. Although I've liked other dances with no story, so I don't know that that's the answer. Anyway, about all it had going for it was the pretty costumes.
Dracula was definitely better than the first piece. It had two nice pas de deux with Jonathan Harker (danced by one of the two best dancers in the company, by far) and Mina, and Renfield (the other best dancer) had some great moments. Dracula was a overly clumpy (although his cape was cool--he should've worn it every time he was onstage), but the undead minions were fairly nifty. I also liked the section with the Victorians, and the "set" was pretty awesome (it was a mottled background that got switched to lights and cloisters and windows and such via application of different lights. Okay, there was a giant yellow cross at the top at the end that was...ill-advised...but overall it was well-used). I liked that there were a few sections where women danced with each other, rather than in mixed-gender couples--and it was together, not a parallel-at-the-same-time kind of thing. You couldn't call what Lucy and Mina did together a PdD, but it had that flavor, sort of. It was a nice counterpoint with the men dancing together in the Ballet Tango, more on which below.
Ballet: Tango...was amazing. That was really, really cool. By far the best portion of the program. Like the Valse, it didn't really have a story, but it certainly had a soul. It managed to blend the angularity, and definitely the passion of tango with the flowiness and power of ballet. I couldn't identify tango steps or anything (well, except for the practice hold; that was in there in a couple places), but the feeling of it permeated the piece.
The program explains that sailors in Argentina, who invented the tango, often practiced with each other due to a lack of women. (Which I didn't know. I had figured the ratio of sailors to prostitutes was pretty even.) And so this program included one woman to eight men. I've seen a couple all-male dance and drama productions, and they all seemed to have a gimmicky tone that this one completely lacked. They all had the dead seriousness that makes tango what it is.
I thought it was neat that due to the gender mismatch, the guys often danced both as a group and with each other (here's where the practice hold came in). There were even lifts! It also allowed both of the best male dancers (who also played Jonathan and Renfield) to be highlighted as soloists, and man, did they get some applause, cause they were awesome. The ballerina was pretty awesome too; she got to do some cool stuff in addition to assuming the traditional Argentine tango leech position (which somehow looks a lot prettier when ballet dancers do it, but anyway).
About the only bad thing is that I still have "Libertango" running through my head. Small price to pay.
The Valse was...lackluster. It looked like it hadn't been practiced very much, and to be honest, even if it had been done well, I don't think I would've liked it, because, while the music was pretty (it's Glinka), the dance had no soul. More accurately, I suppose, it had no story. Although I've liked other dances with no story, so I don't know that that's the answer. Anyway, about all it had going for it was the pretty costumes.
Dracula was definitely better than the first piece. It had two nice pas de deux with Jonathan Harker (danced by one of the two best dancers in the company, by far) and Mina, and Renfield (the other best dancer) had some great moments. Dracula was a overly clumpy (although his cape was cool--he should've worn it every time he was onstage), but the undead minions were fairly nifty. I also liked the section with the Victorians, and the "set" was pretty awesome (it was a mottled background that got switched to lights and cloisters and windows and such via application of different lights. Okay, there was a giant yellow cross at the top at the end that was...ill-advised...but overall it was well-used). I liked that there were a few sections where women danced with each other, rather than in mixed-gender couples--and it was together, not a parallel-at-the-same-time kind of thing. You couldn't call what Lucy and Mina did together a PdD, but it had that flavor, sort of. It was a nice counterpoint with the men dancing together in the Ballet Tango, more on which below.
Ballet: Tango...was amazing. That was really, really cool. By far the best portion of the program. Like the Valse, it didn't really have a story, but it certainly had a soul. It managed to blend the angularity, and definitely the passion of tango with the flowiness and power of ballet. I couldn't identify tango steps or anything (well, except for the practice hold; that was in there in a couple places), but the feeling of it permeated the piece.
The program explains that sailors in Argentina, who invented the tango, often practiced with each other due to a lack of women. (Which I didn't know. I had figured the ratio of sailors to prostitutes was pretty even.) And so this program included one woman to eight men. I've seen a couple all-male dance and drama productions, and they all seemed to have a gimmicky tone that this one completely lacked. They all had the dead seriousness that makes tango what it is.
I thought it was neat that due to the gender mismatch, the guys often danced both as a group and with each other (here's where the practice hold came in). There were even lifts! It also allowed both of the best male dancers (who also played Jonathan and Renfield) to be highlighted as soloists, and man, did they get some applause, cause they were awesome. The ballerina was pretty awesome too; she got to do some cool stuff in addition to assuming the traditional Argentine tango leech position (which somehow looks a lot prettier when ballet dancers do it, but anyway).
About the only bad thing is that I still have "Libertango" running through my head. Small price to pay.
