Nashville Ballet flexes its muscle in eclectic Winter Series
by Martin Brady
If dancing were all audiences got out of Nashville Ballet's current program—with 16 veteran company members plus six apprentices working four challenging pieces over two hours—they'd be getting their money's worth. But the Winter Series offers a great deal more in the way of diverse music, smashing costumes and eye-catching lights and settings.
The evening begins with artistic director Paul Vasterling's "Adjustable Wrench," an ensemble piece that balances its essentially light and airy character with the occasional tension inspired by composer Michael Torke's nervously rhythmic horns, strings, slap bass, piano and percussion. This dance was originally workshopped in the ballet's "Emergence" program but makes its official premiere here.
As a warm-up set, "Adjustable Wrench" does just fine. Performers, clad in Aubrey Hyde's snappy mauve outfits, prance and bound with lithe enthusiasm, yet almost seem to back off from breaking totally free. Some of the group moves lacked absolute precision, but the four principals, led by Sadie Harris and Kimberly Ratcliffe at last weekend's Sunday matinee, delivered standout individual moments that boosted the overall effect.
The second offering, "Sinatra Suite"—distinctive certainly, but not the most satisfying for hardcore dance enthusiasts—features five of Frank's best-known recordings, elegantly interpreted by Christine Rennie and Jon Upleger in Oscar de la Renta evening-wear. (FYI: Different dancers handle lead roles at alternating performances.)
"Strangers in the Night," "All the Way," "My Way" and "That's Life" benefit from some tightly achieved muscular moves balanced with occasional humorous interplay, passionate lifts and a general sense of sophistication that evokes the cinematic dance interludes of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire (or Gene Kelly, take your pick). Upleger finished off the suite with a masculine, melancholy solo rendition of "One for My Baby."
The best is saved for last, with the final two program excerpts showcasing the company at its energetic best.
In "Clowns and Others," Timothy Rinehart Yeager re-creates Salvatore Aiello's original choreography, as 14 dancers—sporting Douglas Barger's wryly stylized harlequin costumes—flit through multiple tableaux, including a funeral procession, a tightrope act, fun with balloons and also a delightfully comic romantic encounter starring Christine Buttorff (who is rather tall) and Robert Poe (who is decidedly shorter). Robert Marler offers a sensational performance of the accompaniment, Prokofiev's frenetic piano études Visions Fugitives, Opus 22, which exhibit the keen influences of Satie's idiosyncratic whimsy and Ravel's rich, ringing harmonies.
Choreographer James Canfield's "Jungle"—driven by an exotic soundscape of prerecorded electronica, with incessantly pulsating rhythms and eerie vocals—closes the performance. Tom Cramer's sumptuous costumes and sets accent the action in broad, colorful strokes, with the company members moving gradually from a single spotlight into a stage-filling surge of fast-paced movement that seamlessly incorporates classical techniques with the expressive vocabulary of modern dance. The six-movement set is highlighted by a stellar duet between statuesque Grace Rich and David Gensheimer, who both project a stirring and totally admirable larger-boned athleticism softened with cat-like poise.
Eight of Nashville Ballet's dancers have at least seven seasons on the local scene, and this profile of solid general experience helps explain the company's consistency and strength throughout the past few years. Yet Rich, in only her second season, and Gensheimer, a first-year apprentice, point the way to an infusion of newer talent that is always welcome.
Dollar daze
Among the many alarming calls to arms sounded in these treacherous financial times is that of Tennessee Repertory Theatre, which recently announced a $100,000 challenge grant fundraising plan, delivered via email in the somewhat fearsome undertones of a venerable institution suddenly in trouble. If the Rep can raise $100,000 by Feb. 28, that sum will be matched dollar for dollar by an unnamed arts philanthropist. To that end, the company seeks generosity from everyone and anyone, in smaller or larger amounts—from $10 to $10,000—and optimistically reports reaching half its goal at the time of this writing.
Maybe what's most disturbing about The Rep's version of a rent party is the fact that the company's artistic fortunes have never been higher. They're in the midst of yet another wonderfully produced season of plays—their switchblade staging of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross closes this weekend at TPAC—and frankly it's hard to remember when the state's largest professional theater last mounted anything even close to a turkey. Recent leadership under artistic director René Copeland has been virtually flawless, with exciting and varied play selections, including local premieres, smaller but talent-rich casts, and budget-conscious but creative use of TPAC's Johnson Theater. But such are hard times, and bailouts are all around us. When Mamet devised his maneaters' mantra of "always be closing," we're pretty sure The Rep isn't what he had in mind.
Donations are tax-deductible, of course, and can be sent by check to Tennessee Repertory Theatre, ATTN: Challenge Grant, 161 Rains Ave., Nashville, TN 37203. For more information, visit tennesseerep.org/challenge_grant.php.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
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