RED CARPET|Paris Opera Ballet

Review by Celia Ipiotis

Considered one of the world’s premiere ballet companies, the Paris Opera Ballet graced City Center for a week-long season performing Israeli born, London based Hofesh Shechter’s Red Carpet. Moving far from the classical ballet aesthetic born in Paris  under the enthusiasm of King Louis XIV, in Red Carpet, not a single tutu, traditional pirouette or attitude materialized in the entirety of the evening-length contemporary piece.

Instead, a constellation of bodies undulated and snapped limbs with the crispness of branches cracking in an ice storm. Bathed in a spray of sharp white light by Tom Visser, a  dynamic quartet (drummer,  cello, double bass and thumping tuba) was positioned in a circular bandstand at the back of the stage playing danceable, Klezmer style music that drove the insistent dancers. They strutted in a procession, leaned back into their shoulders, kicking feet forward with arms hanging loose.  Dancers’ insouciant looks and intense nonchalance underscored the contemporary costumes ranging from evening-wear chic to body stockings by Chanel.

Splitting into solos and duets, the thirteen dancers ultimately drew back into their organic knot of humans. Compelled to move in symphony, the company shifted from defiant arms thrust outward, to feistily meltings into shoulder shakes and circle dances reminiscent of the Hora. 

Overhead an ornate, Baroque style chandelier, much like the famous one dominating the Palais Garnier, hung over center stage. Like moths drawn to the chandelier, the dancers merged underneath it, thrusting chests forward, loping round and round.

Running 80 minutes with no intermission, there were audience members who hoped to see the perfection of ballet expressed through these supremely trained dancers, and yet, an enthusiastic crowd cheered.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis