 |
 |
|
N
E W S ...&...
R E V I E W S |
|
Live Music and ballet mix in graceful evening at Bass Hall The Metropolitan Classical Ballet was sultry and elegant at Bass Hall on Wednesday.
|
|||
|
Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2009 By
Chris Shull FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra announced last week that it would be playing for ballet performances by Metropolitan Classical Ballet next season. As great as that news was, it was nothing new for Metropolitan Classical Ballet. The Arlington-based ballet company, led by Paul Mejia and Alexander Vetrov, has often employed live music in its concerts. It did so for its Nutcracker performances in December, and it did so during its spring repertory program Wednesday night at Bass Hall. Of three ballets presented by the company, two were accompanied by violinist Eric Grossman and pianist Gleb Ivanov. Stationed at the side of the stage, they gave a bravura concert unto themselves. To the strains of the Violin Sonata in D minor by Saint-Saens, Andrey Prikhodko and ballerinas Marina Goshko and Olga Pavlova traced the music’s graceful intensity to choreography by Mejia. The company magnified the sexy, sultry moods of eight Spanish Dances by Pablo de Sarasate — from a sassy Habanera (by Olga Voloboueva and Prikhodko) to a gracious Playera by Pavlova and Yevgeni Anfinogenov, again to Mejia’s movements. Pavlova’s arms seemed to float and stretch out forever in the languid Romanza Andaluza; the finale combined the color and movement of tutus and toreador tights with the violin’s taut phrasings. Lighting by Tony Tucci exquisitely bathed the scenes. Though the live violin performance was a standout, the memorable moments of Wednesday’s concert came during the ballet The Time, with recorded music from Tabula Rasa by Arvo Part. To a slow, cycling bass line and sad, open chords gilded by violin harmonics, dancers presented a primordial play of earth and fire, time and memory. Choreographer Anatoly Emelianov took center stage as a silver-painted god, an Apollo to a sextet of golden nymphs. The dancers traced a relationship of both power and need — as he passed over them, the six women, flat on their backs, burst upward, spindly arms and legs flaring like lotus flowers blossoming. A child (Keisey Thomas) came quivering into their midst, a new generation folding into the passage of time. It was a mesmerizing performance, provocative and moving — exactly the kind of contemporary dance theater that will be made more powerful when live musicians accompany the dancers full time next year.
© Copyright 2009 Star-Telegram Operating, Ltd |
|
||
|
|||
|
||
|
