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Regional Dance America, Pacific Region's Ballet
Festival
by Dean Speer
May 13, 2004 -- Tucson
Convention Center, Tucson
Amid the sparkling blue fountains
and water features of the Tucson Convention Center in beautiful downtown,
ballet bunheads and future premier danseurs poured into the Music Hall
Theatre to see a program of works by "Emerging Choreographers,"
associated with Regional Dance America companies. I might note that this
show was at the ungodly hour of 8:00 am! So bravo first off to the many
dancers and crew who braved the early morning sun to make their way to
the stage and to the peer audience members who, like me, looked forward
to seeing what this up and coming talent had to offer and what the fare
would be.
You would not have known it was a crack-of-dawn performance. Each company's
dancers were fully "on" and gave each of their pieces their
full attention.
Of the companies represented -- Ballet Yuma, Mid-Columbia Ballet, Crockett-Deane
Ballet, State Street Ballet Young Dancers, Orange County Regional Ballet,
Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, Whidbey Dance Theatre, Columbia Dance Ensemble,
and Olympic Ballet Theatre -- I was particularly impressed by Chloe Felesina's
work, "Calm," for Crockett-Deane Ballet and Spenser Theberge's
piece, "One Good Flaw," for Columbia Dance Ensemble. Tatiana
Cater gave us national and ethnic-flavor with her triptych, "Mardi
Gras," for Olympic Ballet Theatre.
Felesina seems to understand form, function, and composition. Her white-costumed
ballet began with a simple port de bras motif that built and was used
as the catalyst for the extension of the piece. She also knows how to
move people around well, using interesting patterns, layerings, and levels.
While yet building her statement, she also surprised us and gave us fresh
movement that also seemed logical, as if that was the only way a particular
phrase could go. Felesina also gave us one of the better endings. It was
clear she had thought about and planned how she wanted he work to conclude.
As the great American Modern Dance pioneer Doris Humphrey wrote, "Don’t
leave the ending to the end!" While "Calm" was calm, it
also had a tension and a visual edge to it that kept the viewers' interest.
Theberge, who also danced in his quartet, made us a "chair"
piece, albeit with stools. He was inventive in his use of this prop, and
I liked how he moved the dancers around and how they played against and
with each other. A contemporary "isolationist" work, it was
very well danced by his cast, Laura Brandfield, Julie Kern, and especially
by the amazing and gifted Franco Nieto. A solo work for Mr. Nieto someday
would be welcome, particularly if it's choreographically as strong and
as sound as "One Good Flaw." Mr. Theberge is a high school junior
and shows much promise and talent both as a dancer and budding dance-maker.
I was happy that Tatiana Cater tackled character dance as the premise
for her "Mardi Gras" work. While we do teach and expect dancers
here in the USA to learn and perform this kind of technique in ballets
like "Nutcracker," etc., it's not too often a choreographer
will choose to use this style for a ballet, so it was fun to see Cater's
work. She made use of three types -- Ribbon (Chinese); Skirt; and Children,
who gave us as kind of younger-crowd version of Irish Step Dancers. I
liked how she brought the children on from behind the Skirt dancers, and
even though we all knew intellectually they were there, it did have the
effect of surprise and was rather charming. Cater took this further by
having all three groups come together at the end for a strong, lively,
and fun finish.
Again, "Bravos!" to each and every dancer and "emerging"
choreographer for taking the courage to show us their "inner"
artistic landscape and to glimpse a bit of the talent of the future --
and at the crack of dawn, in sunny Tucson!
Edited by Lori Ibay
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