Nashville Ballet’s Spring Series

Apr. 23-24

Polk Theater, TPAC

The Nashville Ballet presented its spring concert last weekend at TPAC’s Polk Theater. Four short pieces, all contemporary in tone, were artfully calculated to show off the troupe’s strengths. Adding to the overall energy of the evening was local singer Jonell Mosser and her group Enough Rope, who performed the music for a new ballet. Mosser’s exuberant musicality helped to put everyone over the top, and the dozen or so dancers in this small company danced their collective hearts out. All in all, the evening was great fun.

Trey McIntyre’s exquisitely envisioned ballet “Like a Samba”—the evening’s opening number—demonstrates why this rising young choreographer is called upon to stage his ballets for the Bolshoi in Russia and create new ones for the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany. McIntyre’s hand as choreographer is both sure and subtle—even though this piece featured Brazilian music, he sparingly used hip and pelvis movements and instead concentrated on conveying the mood of the music. His is an original voice.

The program inaccurately credited all of the musical selections to Astrud Gilberto, though the Brazilian vocalist was prominently featured in the score, in particular on Stan Getz and husband Jo—o Gilberto’s recording of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “The Girl From Ipanema.” Kathryn Beasley played The Girl From Ipanema, dressed in an outfit reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe’s dress in Seven Year Itch. She was the epitome of cool elegance and sultry sexuality as she strode across the stage, long-legged and on point, as if stalking some imaginary prey. Two men watched her every move, but as the lyrics reminded us, “she doesn’t see” them. Or did she? The choreographer deliberately exaggerated the dancer’s flirtatious narcissism and left the question unresolved.

Anna Djouloukhadze, dancing with great panache, performed in several episodes. One memorable tour de force was filled with quirky movements and flailing arms to which she brought a logic of her own. The lighting design by Michael Mazzola was particularly effective at the start, when dancers stepped in and out of silhouetted rectangles of colored light.

Mayumi Hanabusa and Alexei Khimenko performed the grand pas de deux from Balanchine’s ballet Stars and Stripes. Hanabusa played her role exactly right, with a kind of delighted, detached amusement while she twirled and leapt and popped up on point in traditional bravura style. Khimenko was the exultant whippersnapper who performed entrechats, or beating steps, high in the air with his feet flexed and his right arm in military salute position. Balanchine confided to a friend that he had originally conceived the piece as a musical joke and intended this pas de deux as an ironic tribute to Dwight D. Eisenhower and Mamie. A joke it might be, but it took two technically brilliant dancers like Hanabusa and Khimenko to carry it off properly.

The highlight of the evening was the world premiere of “Pop,” a new piece by company artistic director Paul Vasterling that utilized the onstage talents of Jonell Mosser and her band while underscoring the company’s own versatility and dynamism. In keeping with Mosser’s bluesy music, some of the movements were pretty funky—for example, dancers would hold their arms high in V-shape formation while lowering their heads and shaking them repeatedly. Colored disco lights swirled about and added to the choreographic chaos, while dancers rushed about madly. Anna Djouloukhadze was clearly having a great time dancing with four male dancers in the song “Ordinary Splendor.” One by one, she tried out every guy, except the one who extravagantly adored her—until the end, when she selected him above all others.

In “What You Did to Me Last Night,” a mock wedding took place while the band rocked and Jonell Mosser belted in trademark fashion. Vasterling’s choreographic style worked particularly well with the vocalist’s sense of humor, and he saw to it that the company was not overwhelmed by her presence. Indeed, everyone involved seemed to feed off each other in a true artistic ensemble, without any one element taking a backseat to the other. A hard act to pull off, when you have the likes of Jonell Mosser in the spotlight.

Vasterling presented one other piece, “Remnants of Light,” which dates back to 1995 and shows how much the Ballet has grown in the last four years. The group is small, and consequently each dancer’s versatility is at a premium. At one point in the season, they must perform a traditional classical piece that demands precision and high endurance; at another, they are cast in high-voltage pieces in which they have to pull out all the stops. Under Vasterling’s choreographic leadership, the company has demonstrated its ability to take on dynamic dance pieces with a contemporary and hard-edged tone—no mean feat in itself.

Naked ambition

Friday, Apr. 16, Sonjé Mayo presented her highly sophisticated multimedia performance Naked in America. The evening-long dance concert so mesmerized the audience that the black walls, black tile floors, black ceiling, and black bleachers of TPAC’s Johnson Theater faded into the background. The props were black too—a 12-foot ladder and a bed decked out in black linens. This was a bold move for Mayo, a choreographer who loves a challenge, and her gamble succeeded. The extraordinary dancers in this highly kinetic troupe kept all eyes transfixed on the action.

Saimir Elir Avdyli, the leading dancer, appeared in a variety of all-American guises. In a relationship gone abusive, he performed a highly erotic duet with Kaylee Cahoon in which his stone-cold rejection inspired her to cling all the more: He pushed her from behind; she fell backward onto him. He yanked her by the wrist; she hurtled toward his chest, only to land in his arms. The dancers took daredevil chances in this highly dramatic duet, both physically and emotionally.

Sonjé Mayo’s choreography was particularly brilliant when she confounded the audience’s expectations. At one point, five dancers, dressed in chador, entered together swaying demurely; covered from head to foot in black, they cast aside cloaks to reveal sexy red-velvet gowns. With provocative glances and sultry undulations, they paraded before Avdyli. He chose the blonde, who turned out to be—surprise!—a man. A fistfight ensued until, even more surprising, Avdyli found himself attracted to his sparring partner. In a final shock, the man turned out to be an undercover cop. As the woman-turned-man-turned-policeman, dancer Daniel Lee Wooden accomplished his metamorphosis with great subtlety; Mayo’s ingenious choreography made the most of his transformation.

In fact, the dancers, almost all pros from the Tennessee Dance Theatre, were consistently great. And under Mayo’s tutelage, they revealed unexpected dramatic depths. Cari Barfield showed herself to be more sophisticated than in previous performances, while she and Kirsten Heinrich were just about perfect together in their deadpan satire of Barbie-doll cheerleaders. Elke Schwartz had great presence as an oh-so-tempting Eve. Rebecca Gose, beautifully cast as the Earth Mother, never looked more radiant and serene, while 18-year-old Dewayne Williams was my candidate for the best theatrical debut of the season.

In theory, Jean Dell’s narrative worked well as a counterpoint to the choreographed themes, but the logical connection that tied together speech, musical interludes, and dance was somewhat tenuous at points. Mayo’s individual choreography for each piece, however, packed a sophisticated theatrical punch that more than made up for the looseness of the episodic structure.