SMUIN CONTEMPORARY BALLET

Review by Celia Ipiotis

As much a dancer as a choreographer, Michael Smuin knew how to grab an audience’s attention. Once a member of ABT, and San Francisco Ballet, on his weeks off from the ballet, he and his wife were featured exhibition ballroom dancers, applauded for their spectacular lifts.

After winning Tony and Drama Desk awards in choreography, Smuin launched Smuin Contemporary Ballet in 1996. When he passed — while teaching class — Celia Fushille took over the company. Soon, leadership will flow to a former company member and rising choreographer Amy Seiwert. An attractive dance company, the mixed bill presented at the Joyce Theater included works by Seiwert, Val Caniparoli, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

Ochoa, primarily known in NYC for her work with Ballet Hispanico, wiggled into a dark Elvis ballet in Tupelo Tornado. Danced to a soundtrack of Elvis discussing his life and career, the text deepened this flirtation with Elivs who evidently relaxed by singing gospel. Clearly a devout Black music lover, and appropriator, Elvis’ searched for love in drugs. With his head encased by a TV monitor illuminated with white lights, Brandon Alexander (as the Elvis figure)  shimmied his legs and shook with the iconic Elvis boogie-down hip liberating dance style. Well intentioned, Ochoa’s choreography lost traction.

Almost as if nodding towards the antics of Mark Morris, who is known for inverting Baroque music and adding witty asides while paying homage to the balletic form- Val Caniparoli flicked humor and pedestrian steps into his 2014 work Tutto Eccetto Il Lavandino (Everything But the Kitchen Sink–yes, the sink appears at the end).  

One of the most successful pieces, rolled into the center of the evening. Seiwert’s Renaissance (2019) exuded a rirtualtistic sensibility that drew the dancers into huddles and circles of support. Set to the haunting slavic songs by the women’s ensemble, Kitka. The dancers break into deep, bent-kneed strides and interconnected groups striking memorable images of community and eternal connections.

The company features a committed group of dancers and it will be interesting to see where Seiwert takes the company.

. EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis