Uwishunu.com

Tweet

 

Photo by Alexander Iziliaev – Full cast of BalletX in the final scene of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s STILL@LIFE.

Ask your average person on the street what they think of when they hear the term “ballet” and you’ll get a litany of responses, most of them less than enthusiastic.

“I’d say long, slow, inaccessible, and hoity-toity,” said my friend Riff as we walked down Broad Street in the pouring rain to catch the premiere of the All Female Choreographer’s Project, presented by BalletX.

Needless to say, we were both blown away.

Now as a reporter, I had done my research prior to attending, and I knew that the AFCP was far from your typical ballet. Yet nothing could have prepared me for the eruption of energy, movement and music that exploded on the stage like fireworks.

First up was Union, a frenzied, frenetic piece choreographed by Helen Pickett. Themes of action/reaction and symmetry/asymmetry were at the forefront here, as the dancers broke apart and came together in perfect synchronicity. The piece started slowly, with just one dancer on a near silent stage, and then evolved gradually as others joined in and the pace increased to a pounding drum beat. The piece ended with a bang, lights out, curtains down, and Riff and I sat frozen in our seats.

“That was pretty good,” I remarked.

“Good?” stammered Riff. “That was freaking incredible!”

Next up was Christine Cox’s Numb Roads, an edgy, alluring act choreographed to Portishead. The 6 dancers flitted around the stage like nymphs, engaging in acts of flirtation and seduction, chasing each other across the stage and moping listlessly as their lovers passed them by.

Writes Cox in the program notes, “Numb Roads is a piece inspired by the challenges people face when in a relationship or single, and how we deal with the loneliness that can happen in both”¦when you are alone, you look for your partner, and when you are together with someone, you look to keep it fresh and new.” I never knew ballet to be so philosophical!

The evening ended with Still@Life, an interpretation of the life and works of Michelangelo, as choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Here, the dancers took on the role of both artist and subject, coming together to form remarkable tableaus, and dragging each other across the stage, shaping and molding each others’ bodies to reflect various artistic visions. There was a playful, fun quality to the piece, as the dancers frolicked across the stage gleefully, juggling apples and pirouetting exuberantly.

When the curtain fell for the final time, the audience was ecstatic, and I was too. While perhaps not your typical night on the town, the All-Female Choreographers Project was rich, variegated, and entertaining and certainly as enjoyable as a movie or rock concert. Not to mention, with a running time of about 90 minutes, there’s still plenty of time to hit the bars afterwards.

BalletX at the Wilma Theater, July 23 through July 27
265. S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-893-9456
www.wilmatheater.org