The Boston Ballet resumed a 2021-2022 season “in person” and presented its program at the end of winter ChoreograpHER. Or an evening of five creations choreographed exclusively by women. Beyond the obvious interest of redistributing the cards deciding who has the possibility of choreographing ballets today, this colorful program offered on stage wonderful creationsmaking you want to see these collaborations continue.
Butterflies Don’t Write Book de Melissa Toogood – Boston Ballet
Like more and more companies around the world, the Boston Ballet seeks to feminize its choreographic production, hitherto dominated by men. Over his last five seasonsexcept this program, only 6% of the company’s choreographies were indeed signed by women. That’s why Boston Ballet started the program ChoreograpHER, “her” being the feminine possessive pronoun in English. A process broader than this evening of ballets since it began in 2018 with choreographic workshops for women at the Boston Ballet School and creations posted online, in particular by members of the company. If this kind of practice could make people react and create debate in France, it does not cause a stir in the United Statesa country that regularly practices – and in all fields, including cultural ones – policies that highlight social groups that are more invisible.
Tiler PeckPrincipal star of the New York City Ballet, opens the ball with his choreography Point of Departure. This pas de six with colorful costumes throws a spring feeling on the stage. The music is also a recent composition by a woman, Caroline Shaw., which supports this ballet particularly well – the quartet composed of a piano, a cello, a viola and a violin, is also playing directly in the background. The spatial organization is globally very successful, with the curtain opening onto a painting linking the six dancers and dancers. The influence of Jerome Robbins is always present in this dance with neoclassical accents. Certain moments are particularly tasty, such as when the music punctuated by the high pizzicatos of the violin evokes a few drops of rain falling on the stage, underlining the sharp precision of the performers’ gestures. The Principals Derek Dunn and Coach Fentroy They are excellent as usual. However, the complex pas de six which opens the ballet unfortunately quickly falls into a more conventional scheme crossed pas de deux between three couples of artists. This ultimately gives a fluid and catchy balletbut who could have afforded to explore even more the composition in pas de six.
Point of Departure de Tiler Peck – Boston Ballet
Any other atmosphere with Butterflies Don’t Write Book from Melissa Toogood. The latter is forged using the Merce Cunningham method which she teaches. But she nevertheless proposes here a fairly narrative and figurative work, seeming to relate the blossoming of movement among male and female dancers, perhaps like those of the butterflies mentioned in the title (“Butterflie”). The gestures are really trying to convey a story or a feeling. Thus the hatching is difficult, the initial atmosphere is cold and dramatic. Performers attempt to rise from the ground but often fall heavily. But the warmth comes from the colors projected on a large background sheet, and the music evolves towards softer sounds. The dancers are individualized little by little by finding their own movements. At this game, My’kal Stromile, still in the corps de ballet, stands out and shows a beautiful presence on stage. Very successful piece, Butterflies Don’t Write Book skilfully uses changing rhythms and moods to expose the search for a movement. Without being linear, it retains a part of the unexpected.
Lia Cirio takes over the program. Joining the troupe in 2003 and Principal since 2010, she is one of the stars of the troupe. In recent years, she has focused more and more on choreography and Chapters in Fragments East his first major work. This piece is divided into three parts: two short moments danced with a piano alone or in silence frame an orchestrated part. The intro is really good. A dancer is on the proscenium, the rest of the group being separated by a veil. Smoke and lights recreate moonlight projected on clouds. The rest of the composition is very fluid, and the swaying to the rhythm of the violins is particularly pleasant. However, we remain a little perplexed about the message that the choreographer wants to convey through this composition. pleasant without being revolutionary. Coming to greet at the end, her emotion was however palpable for her first performance in her own home.
Kites de Shantell Martin – Boston Ballet
Shantell Martinwhich comes next, is an artist known for her large drawings composed of black lines on a white background. English, she has been working for fifteen years in the United States and Kites and his first choreographic creation for a company of this stature. A large canvas created for the occasion serves as background scenery. “Kite” means kite and the choreography makes great use of the idea of a thread that is pulled and stretched. This allows the dancers, permanently together on stage, to find lines, with their own bodies, but also between them and them to create dynamics and movements. The side playful and childish kite is also present. The rhythm is dynamic and the music makes extensive use of percussion that could evoke children hitting buckets at the beach. Kites is a short piece but it almost makes you want to explore all the ideas introduced on stage at greater length.
The last work, titled Slipstreamsis a real success signed Claudia Shreier. It brings together around twenty dancers, including the excellent Lia Cirio mentioned above as a choreographer. The costumes are variegated leotards in green and blue tones, reminiscent of the sets of Sign by Carolyn Carlson. The choreography is moreover similar to a dance tableau where the protagonists alternate between poses and imbalances. The number and complexity of staves is impressive, even if it gives rise to some hiccups during this first performance. The ballet begins grandiloquently with all the performers on stage to brilliantly accented music. Gradually, the choreography also addresses the theme of exclusion. The character thus danced by Lia Cirio sometimes finds himself apart from the group, rejected. The situation creates some very interesting moves where she is pushed back by other dancers while sliding. Claudia Shreier is an experienced choreographer and she proves with this ballet strong group control teeming with artists. We hope to see this work on the program again soon.
Slipstreams by Claudia Shreier – Boston Ballet
So many new things this evening ChoreograpHER ! It is obviously essential to rebalance gender differences in choreographic productions. But beyond this pure social aspect, the effort of the Boston Ballet to go seek lesser known nameschoreographers different from its usual programming, favored a real artistic impulse, a concern for creation and innovation. In the end, it gave an exciting and stimulating evening, rich in proposals and collaborations that we would like to see continue thereafter. All carried by the exceptional level of the dancers of the Boston Ballet, a true spine of this artistic abundance.
ChoreographHER program by the Boston Ballet. Point of Departure by Tiler Peck, with Derek Dunn, Chyrstyn Fentroy, Tigran Mkrtchyan, Chisako Oga, Ao Wang and Patrick Yocum; Butterflies Don’t Write Books de Melissa Toogood, avec Abigail Merlis, Alec Roberts, Haley Schwan, My’Kal Stromile, Paulina Waski et Patrick Yocum : Chaptered in Fragments by Lia Cirio, with Paul Craig, Daniel Durrett, Louise Hautefeuille, John Lam, Soo-bin Lee, Chisako Oga and Lawrence Rines; Kites of Shantell Martin, with Isaac Akiba, Ji Young Chae, Ekaterine Chubinidze, Tyson Clark, Madysen Felber, Sage Humphries, SeokJoo Kim, John Lam, Abigail Merlis, Chisako Oga and Nations Wilkes-Davis; Slipstream by Claudia Schreier, with Lia Cirio, Derek Dunn, Daniel Durrett, Louise Hautefeuille, Jasmine Jimison, Graham Johns, Viktorina Kapitonova, Lasha Khozashvili, Sangmin Lee, Nikolia Mamalakis, Patric Palkens, Alec Roberts, Haley Schwan, Gearóid Solan, My’Kal Stromile, Addie Tapp, Demi Trezona and Ao Wang. Thursday March 3, 2022 at the Citizens Bank Opera House. Watch online March 17-27.