DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET

Review by Celia Ipiotis

City Center presented the attractive Dutch National Ballet interpreting five different ballets proving they are capable of managing the classics and enlivening contemporary choreography.

Those from NYC might still remember Peter Martin’s Asian-scented ballet to The Chairman Dances extracted from John Adam’s opera,  Nixon in China opera. Similarly intrigued  by the score, Ted Brandsen (DNB Artistic Director), smartly turns his version of The Chairman Dances into an abstract, gender neutral ballet where men and women wear white, long flowing bodice gowns by Francois-Noel Cherpin.

Suggestive of a grand ball, long lines of dancers weave in and out, legs rising amid cascading runs that quickly split into couples dancing in a large, round circle. In a pleasant shift, Adam’s minimalist music breaks into feisty rhythms that surge over duets, punctuated by tango style head snaps. 

Two and Only by Wubkje Kuindersma benefits by the onstage performance of Michael Benjamin playing and singing his own music on guitar and piano. Choreographed in 2017,  Timothy Van Poucke and Conor Walmsley appear in the demanding duet originally created for a female and male.

Full of emotional fluidity, the bare chested men in black pants trade steps, engage in soft lyrical lifts and fleeting embraces. Constantly paired in a back and forth of emotional connectivity, they duck under legs soaring over the others’ head like a balletic Capoeira competition. But in the end, the partnership dissolves when Van Poucke  slips out of Walmsley’s embrace.

Movement flows throughout Other Dances by Jerome Robbins to the piano music of Chopin. This crowd pleaser provides a fine showcase for Olga Smirnova and Jacopo Tissi who move in unison, share space and fall into each other’s arms.

Known for her luminous technique, Smirnova’s fluid torso floats over the notes in languorous arches. Gallantly partnered by Tissi, puffs of air transport Smirnova when she’s suspended in a balance, or unfurling arms and legs from a series of curling turns. Although both deliver strong performances, they lack chemical sparks. Clean and concise, Tissi loosens  up in the final stages, softening his shoulders and releasing his head. A handsome couple, Smirnova and Tissi exude a sense of elegance.

For the fun of it, Alexei Ratmansky designed the comedic Trio Kagel to music by Maruicio Kagel gamely performed by accordionist Vincent Van Amsterdam. In a way, Trio echoed a time in the 19th century when Russian street artists played accordions while their pet bears awkwardly danced for the public. Throughout Trio, the frolicking dancers — Lore Zonderman, Kira Hilli, and Giorgi Potskhishvili — jostle and prank one another. They hop up and down, click heels, clap hands and rustle full skirts spiked with red petticoat. Harmoniously accenting the music, the choreography throws body parts off kilter, flattening feet and hopping around on point.

In the midst of the carousing, Potskhishvili pops off a solo of amazing technical magnitude combining cork screwed leg jumps and fouettes into sinking pirouettes of countless revolutions. What is the highlight of the dance is in part lost because his black pants are absorbed by the black background rendering some of his most spectacular moves unreadable. That said, the audience was thoroughly charmed.

Frank Bridge Variations by Hans Van Manen unfolds to Benjamin Britten’s instantly recognizable music. Totally unmannered, Van Manen speaks clearly through a vocabulary of simplicity that demands concentration. Strips of light on the floor draw a handful of dancers wearing thin-strapped unitards.

They skid horizontally where the women join forces in clean modern ballet steps, spreading arms and legs apart in a state of constant motion.  A languorous duet by Qian Liu and Young Glyu Choi, features long lunges opening wide and  then plunging to the floor in splits. Totally unmannered, Van Manen speaks clearly through a vocabulary of simplicity that demands concentration.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY – Celia Ipiotis