Sarasota Ballet at The Joyce Review
August 16, 2022 | The Joyce Theater – New York, NY, US
Metamorphosing from the Vic-Wells Ballet to the Sadler’s Wells Ballet to finally, The Royal Ballet, Sir Frederick Ashton matured as a dancer and choreographer alongside the famous British ballet company. Joining in 1935, just four years after Vic-Wells Ballet was founded, Ashton helped popularize the British ballet aesthetic known for pure lines and meticulous precision.
Sarasota Ballet’s program at The Joyce, which will close the theater’s Spring/Summer 2022 season, featured two Ashton numbers.
Ashton’s Birthday Offering is a jubilant affair, complete with a set of low stairs, billowing white curtains, and twin candelabras.
At The Joyce, it gives off the look of a big ballet squashed onto a small stage but the dancers make the most of it. The seven couples enter in a snaking line of pique attitudes and bouncy waltz steps, like a group of party guests moving from one room to the next, already in mid-conversation.
The costumes by Andre Levasseur are immediately striking, one could use up all the time during the dancers’ entrance to soak up the wardrobe details. Each couple has their own hue, the soloists in muted colors with black tulle overlays and the lead couple in a bright yellow. Playful stripes, chevrons, polka dots, and stars add just the right touch of whimsy to the fastidious choreography.
Alexander Glazunov’s cheeky score adds another layer, prompting the choreographer to include flirtatious head tilts and smug finishing poses to solos. The dancers tackle the necessary balance of challenging steps and lightheartedness through clear footwork and sublime upper body port de bras.
The soloists each brought a luscious quality to their – at times – arduous solos. Emelia Perkins was notably cheerful while conquering her difficult direction-changing turn sequence.
Traditionally, female dancers spend more time perfecting their unison work while men have less opportunity to do so. I was delighted to see the men of Sarasota Ballet dance both robustly and synchronized especially after standing at the back of the stage through the solo dances. Ashton must enjoy making his dancers stand on stage because he required the same of the men in his Symphonic Variations and Eros in his Sylvia who stands on stage for twenty-two minutes before dancing!
The heart of the piece was the principal couple, Macarena Giménez and Ricardo Graziano.
The pair were well-suited for each other, as if they had been long-standing partners despite Giménez only starting with the company this year. Graziano showed off strong, sequential double tours and Giménez had the audience under a sweet, sugary spell which only doubled with every extended balance she confidently pulled off. At times, it looked like Giménez closed her eyes, as if the scent of warm, birthday cake overwhelmed her, causing her to melt into her partners’ arms.
Sarasota Ballet at The Joyce
The second Ashton piece on the program is less successful as an entertaining number and more successful as an interesting history lesson. Varii Capricci was meant to contrast the English classism expected of The Royal Ballet at the 1983 Britain Salutes New York Festival at the Metropolitan Opera House. The piece had been in mid-creation for his friend and composer, Sir William Walton, when commissioned for the festival. The last performance of the piece was in 1983 and thanks to Sarasota Ballet and repetiteur Grant Coyle, the piece has been revived along with the first and only recording of the revised fifth movement.
Centered around a lavish garden party around the 1920’s, the guests are enamored by a vainglorious Casanova-type character, embodied by dancer Ricardo Rhodes.
He struts in with dark shades, a sequined shirt, and flashy saddle shoes. When portraying a highly characterized role like this, one must give it their all to sell it. Rhodes does excellently with subtle comedic timing, driving the audience to chuckle at the simple gesture of smoothing his hair.
Danielle Brown plays the extravagant hostess who welcomes the seduction with multiple come-hither shoulder rolls and inviting caresses.
The costuming is lovely (original designs by Ossie Clark), the female dancers in pastel art deco bedazzled dresses and the men in dress pants and shirts with overly structured shoulders. Its Gatsby-esque but danceable.
A bit slow in the middle, this one was less exciting choreographically than the other pieces on the program, however it does usher feelings of camaraderie, regarding the efforts taken to resurrect the number, and nostalgia.
Bookended by the Ashton pieces was the world premiere, Shades of Spring, by Jessica Lang.
An extremely sought-after choreographer, Lang has a notable resume as a graduate of Juilliard and numerous original works staged on companies across the globe. This is the first piece I’ve seen of hers that ventured away from her jazzier works like ZigZag and Let Me Sing Forevermore, both done on American Ballet Theatre. Shades of Spring is a more contemporary approach although still softened by ballet shapes.
Heavy on metaphor, the stage is equipped with a mirrored ramp, a mirrored panel of marley, projections of glass-enclosed plants, and half rehearsal-wear, half performance-wear costumes. The steps blend from organic to inorganic, the latter being categorized by more structured ballet steps.
Similarly, the projection is of a natural object (the plant and its roots) in an unnatural environment, sterile glass jars and fluorescent lighting.
Joseph Haydn’s formal Piano Trios accompaniment is yet another mixed metaphor. It’s clear Lang has a message to convey, perhaps one that attempts to connect two oppositions:
without darkness there cannot be light, you can only go forward if you look back, happiness is only cherished when sadness is overcome.
Program notes reveal plant roots as inspiration for Lang and costume designer Jillian Lewis. Dancers connected by laying in piles on the mirrored ramp or linking arms to represent roots, at times an outstretched hand might reach to another dancer.
There were also several wonderful moments outside of the straightforward root structures; a pair of dancers stacked their bodies to make a walking bug figure, a couple intertwined in a lift and then tilted back and forth like a drinking bird toy dipping its beak into a cup of water.
However, across the six movements there lacked a distinct repeated thematic quality to tie the piece together, creating a detachment between sections.
It’s evident the company approaches the art form with a curiosity for the new and a reverence of the past.
They honor both with the passion and quality they bring to the stage. At the close of the program, I felt as if I got to know the dancers. Perhaps it was the combination of the dancers’ expressive performance across different genres of dance and the wonderful coziness of The Joyce Theater.
Featured Photo for Sarasota Ballet at The Joyce of Emelia Perkins in Jessica Lang’s Shades of Spring. Photo by Steven Pisano.
