Saturday Matinee

Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg and Carlos Miguel Guerra in Nine Sinatra Songs

I just got back from watching the Miami City Ballet perform at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, and it was such a high. They are an amazing company, with a great energy and an eye for detail. The show started out well with Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs. It definitely led to a different interpretation of having a different couple tackle each Sinatra song, which is different from the Sinatra Suite which features only one couple. It offers snapshots of different relationships, all featuring an Upper East side glamor girl with a partner in an Oscar de la Renta tux, beginning with the sweeping lovely “Softly as I Leave You” (with a gorgeous Haiyan Wu who had gorgeous lines), to the love-abusive “That’s Life”. Call me picky, but I wished they had featured the guy in “That’s Life” (danced by Renato Penteado) putting the gum in his mouth and chewing it. You could hardly see it unless you were looking for it, like I was. “One for My Baby” featured the leggy Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra – it wasn’t the sweeping lovely duet as “Softly as I Leave You”, with some awkward poses and parternering (inventive, nonetheless, and very interesting), but both worked together well to overcome the difficult poses with a smile. I’m sure there’s a metaphor in there somewhere about relationships. The men were very strong – not overwhelming and very comfortable in Tharp’s choreography; I was afraid it would look too “ballet” but it didn’t. Overall, a lovely seductive sweeping piece with a strong dose of bittersweet nostalgia.

Second piece was Balanchine’s Agon. It really was the concentrated distillation of ballet and modern art. The angular movements reflected Stravinsky’s music well, with a stark clarity reminiscent of a modern Martha Graham Greek tale. It’s not one of my favorite Balanchine pieces (most likely I didn’t understand it completely?), but the delivery was sharp, and you can sense the competitive nature of the “contest” that Balanchine was trying to portray, and the tension was apparent throughout the piece. Balanchine’s experimentation with pointe and partnering and ensemble work is always a joy to watch.

The show ended with a rousing rendition of Tharp’s “In the Upper Room”. I’d only seen pictures of people in loose striped scrubs with red pointe shoes that doesn’t represent the piece at all because those pictures didn’t look particularly appealing – this piece is all about the movement. Haunting music by Philip Glass is fundamental to this piece; Glass features music that has a lot of bubbling movement within arches of singing string melody, with an anticipatory beat and a few hemiolas thrown in for unexpected pleasure. The busy movement is mirrored in the craziness of the dancers’ movements. Perhaps Glass is the new contemporary baroque composer? His music, in my limited experience, is evocative and moving, and the terms “movie music” kept on coming to mind, but in a good way. His music is perfect for dance. There is so much to say about this piece, from the perpetual fog that made mysterious entrances from upstage really cool (sidenote: it must be horrible to dance and breathe in), to the most athletic piece of dance I’ve seen in a really long time, to the complexity and brilliance and the musicality of movement that included groups of dancers in tennis shoes and red pointe shoes. There was a sense of fun, rousing competitiveness, and feeding off of each other’s energy, that kept it really fun to watch. And the music presented a sense of urgent anticipation that kept everyone leaning forward until the very end.

The audience favorite were the three stomping guys, danced by Alex Wong, Jeremy Cox, and Daniel Baker. Alex Wong (one of the writers for The Winger) stood out to me, dancing with an all-encompassing passion during every onstage moment, with an intense gaze and a great modern sensibility that made it hard for you not to watch him. An intense gaze is so important, for an audience connection! Maybe it’s because the eyes are seldomly choreographed, and so if you see fire in a dancer’s eyes, you know it’s because the dancer’s full being is in the moment. It was a joy to watch him; he had great stage presence, and I’d love to see him dance bigger roles (Prodigal Son, maybe, depending on his acting ability? Spectre de la Rose? Bluebird is an obvious one). In the Upper Room was a definite crowd pleaser, but a good one. Good endings are also important, and this one was a great punchy one.

I’m highly disappointed that the SF Chronicle didn’t even have a review of MCB’s presence in Berkeley. In fact, I can’t find any local papers that covered it. Maybe one will be published tomorrow…?

I know Alastair Macaulay (dance critic of the NY Times) hinted that perhaps Miami City Ballet isn’t a “world class ballet company”, but in my mind, it truly is. Maybe there is a lack of glaring obvious individual superstars (although if they performed a flashy piece like Jewels, I’m sure I can pick out a few superstars from that). Ensemble work was seamlessly cohesive, matching their styles impeccably. I can’t imagine a better company performing the same works, in the sense that they did justice to the original choreographer in presenting pieces in the way that they were meant to be presented, with the right heart. Everything felt right. I came away from this performance, very satisfied and very happy.