"...grace, restraint and technical brilliance"

8/04/04 performance at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, reviewed by Connell McGrath

Peter Boal is a clear, expressive and surprisingly humble ballet dancer. He brings a few friends to Jacob’s Pillow this week to share with us some of the contemporary dances that interest them, but refuses to take center stage. Peter Boal & Company consist of four dancers from the New York City Ballet. Boal has been a principal dancer there since 1989, performing leading roles in over sixty ballets. He has been described as the quintessential classicist, and his form and style certainly bear that out. Joining him is Wendy Whelan, principal dancer at NYCB since 1991, and Benjamin Millepied, originially from France, and now also a principal dancer at NYCB. Lastly, the young Sean Suozzi joined NYCB’s corps de ballet in 2000.

One of the refreshing aspects of a performance such as Boal & Co. is that they aren’t dancing their own works—there’s less personal charge or investment in presenting these dances. This also gives the company the freedom to choose diverse pieces to present, as they do this week.

Boal and Whelan started with Herman Schmerman, a pas de deux by the great American ex-pat choreographer William Forsythe. This is an easy, sweet piece that has a great deal of charm and subtle humor. The dancers often function as cogs in a greater machine in the work, “pushing” each other—and sometimes themselves—into and out of movement. The piece is set to a quirky electronic score by Dutch composer Thom Willems, with costumes by Gianni Versace and lighting by Mark Stanley.

Next, Suozzi gets a weird little solo called Mopey by new German choreographer Marco Goecke. Lighting by David Moodey is remarkable in this piece. Suozzi never gets full light tho the stage is brightly light from above. While the piece is energetic, it never flows, and Suozzi comes to abrupt stops and changes of direction. Much of his movement mimics the frenetic self-frisking of an OCD sufferer. The piece expresses disconnection, and Suozzi dances it well.

Suozzi is somewhat out of his depth in Variations, Opus 30 from Balanchine’s Episodes set to music by Webern. This is an extremely demanding piece, and Suozzi can’t seem to find his calm in it, though it’s hardly a calm piece. The piece is an excellent example of Balanchine’s brilliance as a choreographer. One odd item found in the program notes as follows: “The performance of Episodes, a Balanchine® Ballet, is performed by arrangement with The George Balanchine Trust, and has been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style® and Balanchine Technique® Service standards established and provided by the Trust.” This leaves us wondering how long they’ll be able to keep THAT up, and why they would want to.

The last piece of the evening was by far the greatest. Boal, Whelan and Millepied dance Mesmerics by English-moved-to-NYC choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. This is an outstanding work set to string quartet pieces by Philip Glass. The movement is flowing and original, yet has the look and feel of classical ballet. The melodic repetitions of Glass’s music are soothing and beautiful and Wheeldon matches the music very well. The dancers show grace, restraint and technical brilliance here. In his liner notes to the program, Philip Szporer calls Wheeldon “ballet’s new hope” and “a powerhouse of talent”. Not coincidentally, he’s been resident choreographer for NYCB lately. Here were three mature dancers at the height of their virtuosity and ability dancing an excellent contemporary piece. My only regret was that it ended too soon.