REVIEW
What: Romantic Hearts (Ballet Victoria)
When: Friday night
Where: McPherson Playhouse
Rating: 3 1/2 stars (out of five)
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This weekend Ballet Victoria delivered a Valentine's gift to this city that was breezy, enjoyable and showed glimmers of real promise.
Romantic Hearts is a something of a dance bon-bon. Running less than 90 minutes, including intermission, Ballet Victoria offered a little ballet (the pas de trois from Paquita as well as The Dying Swan) and a two new ballet-contemporary works, one set to songs by Leonard Cohen, the other to Jacques Brel.
On Friday night, the highest points were a guest spot by Oregon Ballet Theatre principal Gavin Larsen, and pleasing duets featuring artistic director Paul Destrooper and Andrea Bayne, a recent Alberta Ballet School grad.
No matter how many times one has seen this solo, The Dying Swan, set to Saint-Saens' familiar music, cannot fail to charm. Larsen imbued the dance with a beguiling combination of elegance and athleticism, with lovely languid arm-work. Having a cellist and violinist play on stage -- the evening's only live music -- was a nice touch. Larsen's pointe shoes tapped softly, the strings played with restraint. Brief... and beautiful.
With Cry Sigh Hungry Kiss, receiving its premi猫re performance, choreographer Bruce Monk interprets three Leonard Cohen pieces. My favourite was Suzanne, a lyrical and helplessly romantic dance well performed by the talented Bayne, wearing a loose white shirt, and Destrooper, a veteran performer who dances with confidence and panache.
The song Hallelujah -- sung in this recording by k.d. lang -- was a solo for Megan Cox, dispatched with a certain coltish joie de vivre.
Cry Sigh Hungry Kiss ends with the light-hearted Closing Time, for four dancers. This is the wittiest piece of the three. Dancers frolic on office chairs, and the piece ends as a slightly drunken celebration.
Monk is having smart fun -- when Cohen sings the words "Looks like freedom but it feels like death" the two female dancers stand, albeit briefly, on the chests of their prone partners. Overall, Cry Sigh Hungry Kiss would benefit from more precise technique and passion (it still seems a touch tentative in places). Enjoyable, though.
Destrooper's own Amsterdam bears some similarities to Monk's piece. Once again, we are treated to an en pointe/contemporary style of dance set to songs by a master of the bitter-sweet: Jacques Brel. And once again, Destooper and Bayne shone, this time with a romantic, lyrical dance -- punctuated with bold lifts -- set to Brel's Ne me quitte pas.
Lynda Raino's The Ten is clever and quite a lot of fun. The comedic dance uses synchronized swimming as its premise. Surrounded by a giant rectangle of white tubing to represent the surface of a swimming pool, six dancers (dressed in one-piece bathing suits and caps) deliver semi-submerged gymnastic routines. Synchronized swimming is well-trodden ground as far as comedy goes (Martin Short's and Harry Shearer's famous Saturday Night Live skit immediately comes to mind). Yet Raino imbues the dance with a puckish intelligence and waggishness all her own.
Paquita, opening the night, seemed a trifle weak on the technical side, although Peter Smida impressed. Destrooper's Dear Heather, also set to a Leonard Cohen song, is a one-joke comic trifle, with four dancers -- blue wigs, red dresses -- performing with their backs to the audiences. It's a bit of a throwaway; still, the audience appeared to enjoy it.
Ballet Victoria is a project in development, but there are the seeds -- even sprouts -- of something exciting and worthwhile here. With Romantic Hearts, Destrooper's goal of presenting accessible, well-performed, entertaining dance is achieved.
