RICHMOND BALLET STUDIO THREE

Richmond Ballet Presents the 15^th New Works Festival

A Dance Review

By: The Richmond Ballet

At: Studio Theatre at Richmond Ballet, 407 East Canal Street, RVA 23219

Performances: March 21 – 26, 2023

Ticket Prices: $26 – $51  ($71 – $106 for Choreographer’s Club on Opening Night, March 21)

Info: (804) 344-0906 x224, etix.com, or richmondballet.com

THE PROGRAM

FLIGHT

Choreography by Nancy Paradis

Music by Peter Kater

Costume Design by Emily Morgan

Lighting Design by Nathan W. Scheuer

World Premiere: March 21, 2023, Richmond Ballet Studio, Richmond, VA

LOST KEYS

Choreography by Claudia Schreier

Music by Christopher Cerrone

Costume Design by Emily Morgan

Lighting Design by Nathan W. Scheuer

Courtney Collier Zacchaeus Page

World Premiere: March 21, 2023, Richmond Ballet Studio Richmond, VA

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

Choreography by Norbert De La Cruz III

Music by Lara Somogyi, Riopy, and Ashram

Costume Design by Emily Morgan

Lighting Design by Nathan W. Scheuer

World Premiere: March 21, 2023, Richmond Ballet Studio, Richmond, VA

FADING CREATURES

Choreography by Yury Yanowsky

Music by Senking

Costume Design by Emily Morgan

Lighting Design by Nathan W. Scheuer

World Premiere: March 21, 2023, Richmond Ballet Studio, Richmond, VA

The Richmond Ballet started the New Works Festival 15 years ago, in 2008.  The company’s Associate Artistic Director, Ma Cong, introduced Ershter Vals, his first work for Richmond Ballet during the 2009 New Works Festival.

This year, four choreographers, new to the Richmond Ballet, were each given 25 hours of creative time with the company. At the end of  25 hours, they give birth to a new work, a 10-15 minute  sketch or work-in-progress. This  year, the honor went to Norbert  De La Cruz III, Nancy Paradis (who  was an original member of the Richmond Ballet), Claude Schreier, and Yury Yanowsky.

Paradis’s process includes writing, listening to music at different times of the day – and night – and creating mind maps. Her structure translates into beautifully layered movement. FLIGHT manages to place five couples into three movements  (“Wings,” “Wounded,” and “Flight”) in under 12 minutes – 12 luxurious, unhurried minutes.  The  men’s arms spread across the stage like wings. The blues and grays of the costumes are reminiscent of different stages and levels of the sky, while the subtle pink and purple of the back wall suggests the sunrise or sunset. The middle section could be interpreted as introducing aggression or conflict, making one wonder the nature  and origin of the wounds. But then comes the final “Flight” section with hints of jazz – hitch kicks, sassy walks, swinging hips all make you want more.

Claudie Schreier’s LOST  KEYS is set to a score by Christopher Cerrone, “Hoyt-Schermerhorn,” named for a Brooklyn subway station where I spent many hours of my youth waiting for the train. Dressed in unadorned body suits – nude or tan for the woman and putty for the man – the dancers performed a mesmerizing duet of contemporary movement  against a background of piano and electronic jingles and jangles.  LOST KEYS breaks with tradition and the usual expectations of ballet. The woman, instead of rising lightly into a  lift, giving the appearance of weightlessness, instead adopts a dead weight and stares her partner down from above. The man swings his partner by her arms like a little child, and sometimes holds her in a broken pose. Schreier seeks to create architecture on stage and to pursue emotion through architecture. I find this intriguing, and it raises many questions. Are the “lost keys” the keys to someone’s heart? The piano keys? Are they symbolic of letting go and starting over? Are they metaphors for love, health, and wealth or a shifting of power and authority?

Philippine born, Los Angeles raised, and Juilliard educated Norbert De La Cruz III considers BIRD’S EYE VIEW  a choreographic response to where he is in life right now. The opening view is of the dancers stacked and arranged  in the  shape of a tree, with dancers perched among the branches. The 9 dancers are layered in some way throughout the dance as when there are two in front with a line moving across the back like a Greek chorus crossing upstage. The dancers are attired in shades of rust, brown, and gold. Each two-piece outfit is in a different style, some with bell sleeves, others sleeveless. The movement is shaped with an almost mathematical precision, emitting strong sensations of algebraic formulae and geometric configurations. The interweaving of bodies, arms, legs set against the meditative flow of the music supports a journey, the passage of time. The movement soars and spirals, a juxtaposition of pattern and form, structure versus free flow – or what De La Cruz refers to as “volume” and “texture.” At the end the dancers are faced away from the audience, uplifted, ready. The work is absolutely beautiful.

The final new work, Yury Yanowsky’s FADING CREATURES, was inspired by Salvador Dali’s melting clocks. It is a work of time and space. The music is a collection of mechanical pulsations, while the dancers’ movements  are off center, filled with slides – not slick or graceful dancer’s slides, but slide-across-the-floor-in-your-socks slides. Yanowsky likes to paint, and sees his dancers as a canvas. He uses them to paint stunning pictures in time and space.

What a successful New Works Festival. Each work was different in content and style. Each was stunning in its own way. Each challenged the dancers and the audience. Bravo! Let’s hope we see more of these choreographers in the future.

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Julinda D. Lewis is a dancer, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Eastern Henrico County.

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Tickets start at $25. Visit etix.com or call the Richmond Ballet Box Office at 804.344.0906 x224.

Photos by Sarah Ferguson.

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