By Roger Costa
A biennial up-class event taking place at The Joyce Theater in Manhattan, The Ballet Festival showcases the exceptional talent of new choreographers, as well as serves as an important platform to explore the unique work and techniques of some recognized artists and the vibrant energy of some emerging dancers. The Ballet Festival kicked off last week with the much-awaited and highly praised return of Emery LeCrone Dance. The choreographer created a marvelous piece for her sister, New York City Ballet’s Megan LeCrone, who opened the evening with an elegant, delicate, splendorous solo called “In Memory”. The work was presented for the first time as a World Premiere and the audience raved with grand enthusiasm the highly emotional performance of dancer Megan LeCrone. All the other premieres, the sensual and energized “Beloved”, “Radiant Field” and the duet “Time Slowing, Ending” showcased the improvement in talent and resistance of wonderful dancers such as Sarah Atkins, Lukasz Zieba, Nick Burrage and guest Amber Neff.
They embodied perfection through a powerful chemistry, enriched by the exuberance of the choreographer’s unique blend of contemporary, vibrant ballet and classic methods. Next, came the debut of Claudia Schreier & Company, presenting her work for the first time and immediately conquering the audience with her stylized, poetical, vigorous introduction of modern ballet. Audiences highly applauded the entire program with extra enthusiasm for collaborations with renowned artist dancer Wendy Whelan. It opened with the World Premiere of “Wordplay”, a sensual Tango/Bolero stylish choreography by Claudia Schreier, danced by Unity Phelan and Jared Angle, both wearing a matching black-and-red costume. The visual and movements are fabulously hypnotic. Wendy Whelan devoured the stage, pairing with Da’Von Doane for the following duet, “Vigil”, a beautiful, ritualistic piece performed with a fantastic group of singers A cappella surrounding them. She also dominated the spectacle with the World Premiere of the solo piece “The Thrilling Wire”, where she courageously embodied all of Claudia’s perspectives on modern ballet. The other choreography are also exuberant, joyous, and energized, as well as constantly developed through the emotional tone in the pairs, the connection between male and female, their experiences and encounters: “Tranquil Night, Bright and Infinite” accompanied by a lovely clarinet and piano live music, and the celebratory “Charge”, where the entire company performed with such joy and preciseness, proving the future of dance is guaranteed.
The Ballet Festival 2017 at The Joyce Theater continues through next Saturday July 29th. The Festival’s following schedule is: Tonight CIRIO COLLECTIVE performs with dancers Isaac Akiba, Paul Craig, Brooke Naylor and others; GEMMA BOND DANCE performs Tuesday and Wednesday and AMY SEIWERT’S IMAGERY returns with performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets start at $10. Find more information: http://joyce.org/performances
Comments