The Washington Ballet’s Contemporary Masters program, which opened Wednesday night at the Harman Center for the Arts and continues through Sunday, is a master class in late 20th Century modern dance works that is both thought-provoking and awfully fun to watch.
Artistic director Julie Kent has chosen to present three pieces by modern dance masters whose choreography, personalities, and artistic outlooks couldn’t be more different. The works go far in showing off her dancers’ versatility, their growing confidence as individual artists, and how far they have come since she took the reins of the company two years ago.
The program opened with Mark Morris’s Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, a modern ballet Morris created for American Ballet Theater in 1988. Based on a 1616 love poem by Ben Johnson, the work is not exactly a romantic ballet. Instead it’s a playful and fascinating ensemble piece for 6 women and 6 men dressed in white who flood across the stage with sweeping port de bras (the movement of the arms) and fleet, precise footwork. Set to Virgil Thomson’s, Etudes for Piano, the 12 dancers moved in and out of patterns and groupings beautifully and with ease in this fast-moving piece.
And then there are the pirouettes. This work includes a tricky but inspiring section for one man, later joined by a second, who must execute a sequence of four such turns arriving out of the last one with his leg stretched out to the side at a 90-degree angle, make yet one more rotation in that position, and then perform a beautiful but extremely difficult circular movement with that same raised leg called a rond de jambe en l’air.
He must carry out the combination of turns twice in a row with only a few little jumps in between. This requires a tough-as-nails command of classical ballet technique and Daniel Roberge rose to the occasion with precision, grace, and the invisible grit a dancer needs to make this sequence of turns look easy and comfortable. He even exhibited a touch of insouciance throughout like he was enjoying himself.
A note about the music: Thomson’s score isn’t particularly pleasant listening, at least not for this audience member, but the incomparable pianist Glenn Sales made it much more so with his sensitive and skillful playing.
Morris’s work was followed by Merce Cunningham’s Duets, which the late choreographer created for his own company in 1980 and set to abstract electronic music by his frequent collaborator, John Cage. This piece for 6 couples is textbook Cunningham right down to the Crayola Crayon-colored costumes: yellow leotards and red tights, anyone? Despite the jarring colors however, it’s impossible to look away from what these excellent dancers are doing. Cunningham’s movements here are earthy and imbued with a kind of heft that when performed by Washington Ballet’s dancers does not come across as heavy or cumbersome, but strong and assured. Sonia Kharatian and Eunwon Lee particularly stood out for their laser-like focus and authoritative interpretations of Cunningham’s choreography.
The program closed with Paul Taylor’s playful and sometimes eerie Company B, a World War II era romp to Andrews Sisters songs from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Taylor, who died in August, created this work on his eponymous company in 1991 and it seemed fresh and adorable back then; its hints of the violence of war an afterthought, even. Today, Taylor’s creation is still innovative in its own way, but Kent’s company of dancers brought to it something different: a less jocular, more poignant display of young people who are desperate for fun, love, and laughs but who can’t seem to shake the weight of war lurking just underneath their sunny facades.
Washington Ballet, presenting its Contemporary Masters programs of three works. The Harman Center through Sunday, November 4, 2018. Artistic Director, Julie Kent. Choreographers featured: Mark Morris, Merce Cunningham, and Paul Taylor. Reviewed by Maria Di Mento.
Tickets available here.