Washington Ballet at the Kennedy Center
With over a dozen dancers, three programs and two well-know composers, the Washington Ballet offered a compelling night of dance this past weekend at the Kennedy Center. The troupe displayed their versatility, presenting performances of wildly different styles.
Starting the performance was Jerome Robbins’ In the Night, a set of romantic pas de deuxs scored to a few Chopin nocturnes. Robbins is best known for his inventive choreography in the film version of West Side Story. (Yes, he's the one that made street gangs dance.) Those looking for that level of invention would have been disappointed; In the Night is very much a classically styled ballet. Three couples, representing different relationships, danced out their stories under a night sky. The first two couples, “new love” and “marriage,” performed well, despite a few ungainly lifts. The fighting couple stole this section of the show. With a flurry of movement, the couple raced through lifts with elegant raggedness. They managed to provide an emotional intensity the overall piece seemed to be missing.
Conversely, the company’s original contribution, oui/non, was positively lush. Born from a collaboration between Artistic Director Septime Webre and vocalist Karen Akers, the piece transported the audience to a French cabaret. The singer and her band delivered torch songs from one side of the stage while dancers performed in cream colored costumes. The backdrop was an artfully lit painting, Piotr by Elizabeth Seyton.
The segments varied in tone, from the somber “La Vie en Rose” (you know it; you just don’t know you know it) to the athletic and playful “Padam, Padam.” Webre clearly has affection for his dancers’ forms, creating physical puzzles that have the troupe utilizing great swaths of the stage and the vertical space. Dancers intertwine and release with the fascinating precision of turning gears. Though the slow numbers were solid, the program best displayed Webre’s sense of humor. This was particularly true in the charming “Sympathique,” a mock musical theater number complete with faux tap dancing. Webre is also to be commended for creating a believable ballet with the sensual tango, “Au Suviant.” In the end, however, these performances were outshone by the glow of Akers gripping performance — but this is likely the best of flaws.
In the Upper Room comes from another great American choreographer, Twyla Tharp. She may be best known as a force behind Movin’ Out, one of the more palatable jukebox musicals. She’s recently given a similar treatment to the works of Bob Dylan, with questionable results.
The curtain lifted, revealing a stage clouded with smoke; dancers metered from the crafted cloud in striped jumpsuits. Dancers entered and left the stage in sneakers and red-toe shoes; their movements were, similarly, in a wide range of traditions. Tharp’s style was athletic, modern and refreshing — adventurous but with enough familiar elements to keep her audience engaged. With an eye for balancing clean lines, she creates a pattern, then alters and repeats it. While interesting, the repetition began to wear thin near the end.
The biggest hump for the performance was the Philip Glass score. The while bright, the modern composer’s work almost became white noise, drifting to the back of one’s consciousness and making the unfavorable elements more apparent. Yet, at the last possible moment, Tharp provided an ending that legitimized the piece as a whole. When the curtain fell, one felt as if something powerful had happened on stage.