Joffrey Ballet at Cal Performances October 9, 2007
Joffrey Ballet dancing Tharp’s Deuce Coupe
Forgive me for the lack of updates. My non theater life has recently swelled up and taken over my life – aside from my career as a theater lover/avid attender, I am taking a break from being a full time medical student in order to pursue a PhD degree in Neuroscience. In short, grad school is getting really overwhelming these days, with difficult experiments and deadlines, and more than feeling like a confident student, I’m feeling more like a drowning one. Thank God for the number of friends and family that have stepped up to support me, as always. I don’t know what I would do without them.
I saw the Joffrey Ballet perform at Cal Performances this past weekend. A few thoughts: the first being, this is the first time that I’ve seen a “premiere American ballet company” perform contemporary works so well. There was an ease of movement, and lack of awkward posturing that often comes from a clashing of ballet training and modern dancing. The highlight for me was Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe, where a lone female ballerina (dressed in white/pink with her hair up in a bun) is juxtaposed against an ensemble of modern dancers, partying it up to the music of the Beach Boys. As the piece progressed, the clashing contrast between the prim and proper ballerina and the fun and free modern dancers decreased, and melded into a unifying dance form in the end. One of my favorite moments was when the ballerina is doing what looks like normal center exercises during ballet class, and mirroring her movements is a modern dancer, mirroring her but reacting to the her movements, satirically and making comments on her ballet moves, almost as if she is making fun of her. It made me look at ballet in a new way, and it was like watching witty dance commentary.
This was in stark contrast to the first piece, in the form of classical ballet, Pas des Deesses. Choreographed by Robert Joffrey, inspired by a lithograph of Arthur St. Leon, Marie Taglioni, Fanny Cerrito, and Lucile Grahn, I found the choreography simplistic and uninspiring. Fabrice Calmels danced the role of the sole male in this piece – his impressive height (at six foot six inches) made for beautiful lines, but looked a tad unfinished as if he wasn’t in complete control of his long limbs in classical ballet vocabulary. But in Tharp’s Deuce Coupe, he looked completely at ease rockin’ out to the Beach Boys.
I really think the Joffrey Ballet is great for new audiences that aren’t exposed to ballet. They are excellent in contemporary dance, and would love to see them do more – Mark Morris, Paul Taylor, and more Twyla. Deuce Coupe was worth the ticket price, and I’m glad I finally got to see them perform.
I found a really fun link, a blog maintained by the Joffrey Ballet, including recent entries on their time in Berkeley. I especially enjoyed the view of the Zellerbach auditorium from the stage.
Some really exciting things coming up at Cal Performances, such as the Miami City Ballet, ABT, and Morris’ Hard Nut. Check it out.
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt, and lack of awkward posturing that often comes from a clashing of ballet training and modern dancing [...]
Thanks for a great review, Jolene. I really liked Deuce Coupe when I saw it performed by Juilliard students at their student showcase. I liked it for the same reasons you did, but you put it very eloquently. It WAS a witty commentary on ballet — I hadn’t thought of it that way!
And, oh my gosh, you’re pursuing both a medical degree and a PhD in neuroscience! Wow!
I miss the joffrey.
The male dancers, on the whole, have always been a tad on the weak side, but its a fascinating company.
If they still have it in the rep, seeing sacre de printemps was always fabulous. Its a recreation of the original, and is shockingly good. You can maybe find it on youtube or tape, but it loses a huge amt of its impact that way (ok dance usually does, but given the sort of ritualistic nature of this piece the loss was especially dramatic).
I saw video footage of sacre de printemps as a revival of the original, I wonder if it was the Joffrey version I saw? It always amazes me, not only for its quirky and mesmerizing choreography, but also for its history. Thanks for the suggestion! I would love to see them do the original onstage.