Smuin Contemporary Ballet kicked off its new season on September 16 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts with “Dance Series 1,” featuring the world premiere of a new piece by Cuban choreographer Osnel Delgado.
The San Francisco-based company consistently excels in putting together diverse programs that encompass the broad category of “contemporary ballet” – from neoclassical works showcasing solid classical technique and cutting-edge work to modern works requiring more organic movement. , often merging the two seamlessly.
“Dance Series 1” opens with the dazzling “Take Five,” choreographed by Rex Wheeler, a former member of Smuin and recent runner-up on the reality show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Set to music by jazz legend Dave Brubeck, the energetic and colorful piece showcases the dancers’ stellar technique and expression.
Most impressive is how the music, choreography and dancers come together to create a tangible atmosphere on stage. The chemistry between the dancers is especially visible in a small venue like MVCPA, where audience members can see the performers’ expressions, their eye contact with each other, and how they engage dancer to dancer.
“Requiem for a Rose”, choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, highlights a startling combination of a raw movement style with the traditional conventions seen in classical ballet. A barefoot soloist opens the room, a single rose held in her mouth as she writhes center stage to music that sounds like something out of a modern horror movie. Shortly after, a body of men and women dressed in red skirts and appearing topless, take over the scene. They perform a beautiful classical movement on a romantic score by Franz Schubert which sometimes seems to belong to the dream scene of a classical ballet.
The show ends with Delgado’s “The Turntable”. It features a spinning disc just big enough for a dancer as a central prop, with dancers flowing over and around it, creating a powerful metaphor for the constant spinning of life.
“Turntable” is about the cycles we constantly build and break – the seamless transition from joy to sadness, the way we feel when we’re part of something bigger than ourselves only to be plunged into loneliness. sudden. It also conveys how we form relationships and then lose them, the internal patterns we form and then release – all the constant shifts between cycles that make life a confusing and sublime experience.
The chance to see “Dance Series I” in Mountain View has passed, but there are opportunities to see it performed elsewhere. Shows are scheduled for Friday and Saturday and the following weekend at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco, and October 7 and 8 at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.
