Los Angeles Ballet Next Steps Review
March 24, 2024 | The Broad Stage – Santa Monica, CA, USA
Los Angeles Ballet’s Artistic Director Melissa Barak is on a mission to transform both her company and the L.A. dance community at large. Last weekend’s program, the aptly named “Next Steps,” marked a significant move toward doing just that.
“Next Steps” was the first billed program of Barak’s inaugural programmed season with LAB. Striking at the core of this season’s overarching theme – “A New Era for Dance in LA,” “Next Steps” demonstrated how LAB is expanding its repertoire; it featured a U.S. premiere by Hans van Manen, a world premiere by Barak herself, and a LAB premiere of Justin Peck’s Belles-Lettres.
Los Angeles Ballet Next Steps Review
First up was Peck’s Belles-Lettres. Originally choreographed for The New York City Ballet, Belles-Lettres is typical Peck. It is a plotless yet evocative constellation of captivating configurations threaded together by a series of at-times-awkward-but-collectively-stunning steps of the choreographer’s own design.
Belles-Lettres opens on a cast of nine – two couples and a lone male – arranged in a more or less flower formation with the lone male (danced by Cesar Ramirez Castellano) occupying the center.
As the music – composed by César Franck – begins, the dancers launch into a series of interlacing movements that work to repeatedly expand and contract their formation like a Hoberman sphere. This rolls into a series of striking pas de deux, solo, and larger group passages.
Part of what makes Belles-Lettres so visually compelling is its subtle use of motifs. All dancers, while similarly costumed, are set apart by phrases distinct to each couple or, as for Ramirez Castellano, dancer – be it bravura dips, punctuated leaps, impressive press lifts, or luscious penché promenades. This makes the sporadic synchronized moments all the more potent.
One of the cardinal rules of performing live is: mistakes happen.
Far from an indication of the dancers’ amateurism, the handful of hiccups seen in Sunday night’s performance of Belles-Lettres reflect the dancers’ respective drive to take risks. This is something I believe should be prized over accomplishment, especially early in one’s career as it seems most of LAB’s dancers are.
If anything, the missteps were indicative of the dancers’ competence; if you blinked, you might not have seen them, as the dancers who did falter immediately regrouped and refused to let it shake them.
Of the cast, there were several who were especially captivating. Ramirez Castellano, for one, stood out not just for his soloed role but for the way he relished every step. Meeting the dynamic rhythm and structure of Franck’s score with exactitude, there was a fire and punch to his movement; but there was an easy, unforced quality as well.
Julianne Kinasiewicz and Jake Ray were likewise exciting to watch. The harmoniously paired couple channeled the music’s lyricism into a somewhat haunting pas de deux replete with rock-solid partnered pirouettes and lifts that give the illusion of ease.
Second on the bill was Hans van Manen’s Frank Bridge Variations, a piece originally created for the Dutch National Ballet. While there’s no overt story in this piece, there’s plenty to read into.
According to the program notes, it is a loose, amorous narrative that
“delves into the complexities of relationships, the intricacies of individuality, and the transformative power of music.”
Frank Bridge Variations – set to Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge – opens on an empty stage. The stillness, however, is broken by Marco Biella who in turn calls upon 10 other dancers to join him.
United, the cast breaks out into a fast-flowing stream of moving pas de deux, assertive solos, and dramatic ensemble passages that holds the viewer captive through the curtain’s close.
Much like Peck’s, van Manen’s choreography is a stylized patchwork of movements interspersed with classical ballet, contemporary, and everyday movement language.
Together, Belles-Lettres and Frank Bridge Variations evidence LAB’s profound literacy of multiple dance vernaculars.
The more striking passage from this piece was perhaps the more technically undemanding. Following a bright, well-performed solo by Ray, the mood and physical lighting in the auditorium darkened as Britten’s score shifted into an eerie, noirish sound. The passage then proceeded like a game of Snake.
Biella – the first dancer to appear – started off this passage by slowly stalking across the stage. Upon reaching the opposite side, he changed directions; simultaneously, he was joined by two more dancers who emerged stealthily from the wings. Together, they stalked the stage in chilling unison.
This pattern of stalk, collect, pivot, repeat continued until the entire cast had returned to the stage. The ominous foreboding of this procession was augmented by languid head rolls, daggered glances at the audience, and the ghastly yellow lights that illuminated the dancers from below as one might be while reciting a ghost story around a campfire.
Of the pas de deux, Biella and Brigitte Edwards represented the strongest pairing.
They appeared to be in an unspoken dialogue as Biella – while excellent in his own right – supported Edwards through a stirring series of sensual lifts, fluid développés, and other serpentine maneuvers that showcased both strength and flexibility.
The program culminated with Barak’s new work Cylindrical Forces, a dazzling composition of sustained high points set to a new score by award winning film composer Kris Bowers. Barak’s choreography is innovative and tough.
Performed well, Cylindrical Forces evidenced the wealth of talent and imagination across the company’s ranks.
The music sounded before the curtain rose. As the curtain lifted, the dancers – moving in disharmony – appeared in silhouette against a colorful backdrop. Eventually, the stage lights lifted to reveal the afternoon’s cast and the true atrocity of their costumes – bi-toned pastel capri unitards with a thin black and white striped band just below the bust; unflattering on all, they resembled a boy’s Victorian bathing suit.
As the piece progressed, the colors of the costumes appeared to correspond to the dancers’ respective grouping on which Barak capitalized to create a torrent of fractal-like and rotationally symmetric shapes. My surmise is that this is from where the piece – untitled in the program – eventually got its name.
Cylindrical Forces was exciting but busy, making it difficult to focus on just one thing. That was until Cassidy Cocke stepped onto the stage and drew eyes in the way she brandished the impossible speed and lightness of a hummingbird. She was a flurry of grace and pizzazz.
Jacob Soltero was another one to watch. A naturally charismatic dancer, he danced with the skill and verve of a seasoned professional. Good thing for the audience, he’s only just begun. Soltero not only executed each step with precision but embraced every nuance – e.g., a suspended leap, a lingered spot, the release of the head – to deliver a decidedly stellar performance.
On the whole, “Next Steps” was an impressive, delightfully fast-paced program one wouldn’t mind seeing again and again.
If this is just the first big step in Barak’s reign, I can’t wait to see what else the company has in store.
Featured Photo for this Los Angeles Ballet Next Steps review of the company in Melissa Barak’s Cylindrical Forces. Photo by Cheryl Mann.
