Michael Smuin set out to, in his words, “infuse ballet with the rhythm, speed, and syncopation of American popular culture.” At this, the founder/choreographer was eminently successful. Classical ballet form is braided with modern movement such as unexpectedly bent knees, flexed feet, rolled shoulders, shimmies, jumps, stomps, imaginative lifts…Humor often abides. The combination creates a captivating evening of fresh dance.
Tutto Eccetto Il Lavandino (2014): everything but the kitchen sink
New York Premiere
Choreography – Val Caniparoli
Music – Antonio Vivaldi
The first piece is a series of buoyant parentheses performed by the company wearing shades of moss green, as if uprooted flora exulting in freedom. Mixture of choreography and theater gestures makes it playful. Jetés glide to the floor. (The dancer springs from one foot to land on the other, with the working leg brushing out and then extending into the air. ) Smuin is particularly adept with stage to floor choreography creating sculpture in the air between.
Cassidy Isaacson and Ian Buchanan
A flirty mating dance is joined by others. Arms entwine vertically. Performers move across the stage, arm and leg postures evoking hieroglyphics. Elbows bend, fingers lock behind heads. It’s a high leg march. The group gathers. One by one dancers begin to silently cry, each in his/her own way from quivering lip to howl.
Chicken wings are emulated by bent elbows, hands at the hip, then on either side of the head. Women revolve as if on turned pedestals gently pushed by men. Legs scissor during assisted lifts. Fan kicks unfurl. Leaps are followed by falling back against another dancer. A pas de deux by Dominic Barrett and Marc La Pierre is quite beautiful. The troop assembles, then jauntily exits. A kitchen sink glides out on the empty stage.
Lovely, though consistency of facial expression would be welcome.
Renaissance (2019) New York Premiere
Choreography – Amy Selwert
Music – Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble
Silky beige skater dresses and tights elicit calm. Women’s voices rise and slightly echo like chanting monks. Vocals are gorgeous throughout. The piece is gothic, solemn. A woman is ceremonially handed from man to man. Bodies touch with deference – foreheads, backs, thighs – brush. A goddess/queen appears (the contemporary costume jars). Men are acolytes at her feet. She’s proud, entitled, at first inflexible, then walking on successive backs up to one dancer’s shoulders.
Right: Terez Dean Orr and Ricardo Dyer
Dappled light hosts couples concave, convex, complicit. A dancer is vertically lifted from the floor, feet around her partner’s neck. Shoulders undulate, torsos bend. Atmosphere is one of tradition, history. Whirl, plié, arabesque, hop, run – amazingly fluid. Oddly, the worshiped figure is not central to the piece’s finale.
Beautifully executed with grace and symbiosis.
Tupelo Tornado (2024) New York Premiere
Choreography – Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Sound Design – Jake Rodriguez
Elvis – Brandon Alexander
A red neon sign reads: ON THE AIR. Curtain rises to a five inch Elvis Presley doll front and center. The company wears charcoal grey with blue shoes and opera gloves. Elvis has a television over his head. We see his face in the cut out screen, often lip-synking. Sound is dense and dissonant, a cacophony of Presley songs, snippets of interviews, rap and gospel. In my opinion, too much.
Dancers come down hard. Moves are sharp, cool; part modern, part hip-hop. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Black or white,” says the Black dancer playing Elvis. (Recorded.) “I’m Evil,” Presley sings. Dancers’ hair is down, flying, whipped around. Elvis shimmies. We hear a real blues arrangement of “Hound Dog.”
Brandon Alexander, Center, and the Company
Dancers cross the stage before the back, brick wall in flat top, Fosse hats. They weave among benches, lights, a camera, doors on wheels. (Cluttered.) Presley, sings “Fever.” The dancer wears a white cropped jacket and pants, familiar red scarf dangles.
Soundtrack includes intermittent screaming women and applause. Everyone’s in Elvis masks. ”After we did the show,” an interviewee says, “he’d make us go to his rooms in the hotel and sing gospel all night.” A dancer in short white jacket with four foot fringe turns, flails, flutters. Crowns are carried in with reverence. We hear “Blue Moon.” Moves are fast and tight. On the recording Presley taking drugs. Tessa Barbour and Dominic Barrett offer a marvelous pas de deux to “Love Me Tender.”
Cassidy Isaacson and Ricardo Dyer with Brandon Alexander, right.
Dancers are wonderful, but too much goes on and we never understand the message.
A company with original approach and accomplished dancers. Both balletomanes and modern aficionados will find much to intrigue and admire.
Photos by Chris Hardy
Top: Smuin Contemporary Ballet performing Val Caniparoli’s Tutto Eccetto il Lavandino
Smuin Contemporary Ballet/30 Years
Founder – Michael Smuin
Celia Fushille – Artistic Director
Through July 14, 2024
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street
