Celebrating 125th
anniversary of Igor Stravinsky
By
Erika Wilson
Posted June 3, 2007
Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer
Jonathan
Porretta in Molissa Fenley’s “State
of Darkness”
Pacific Northwest Ballet corps de ballet dancer
Kiyon Gaines
and company dancers in George Balanchine’s
“Symphony in Three Movements”
All photos:
© Angela Sterling
June 17,
2007, is the 125th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s birth—and
the Pacific Northwest Ballet is marking the occasion with a
dynamic 11-day festival to honor the composer’s contribution to
the world of dance. “Stravinsky 125” features four ballets with
choreography set to various Stravinsky pieces, from the playful
Circus Polka to the darkly intense Rite of Spring.
Igor
Stravinsky was born near St. Petersburg in 1882, studied music
under Rimsky-Korsakov, and moved to Paris in 1911. His
collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev and the famous Ballets
Russes produced the Firebird and Petrushka, two
exotic ballets based on magical Russian folktales. But French
audiences were not yet ready for The Rite of Spring,
whose stark and primal score, combined with daring modern
choreography, led to riots on opening night in May of 1913.
Stravinsky nonetheless continued to compose for the ballet. He
moved to the United States in 1940, and his decades-long
partnership with the legendary choreographer George Balanchine
produced some of the most definitive pieces in the
twentieth-century dance repertoire. Two of the four pieces
featured in Stravinsky 125—Rubies and Symphony in
Three Parts—are Stravinsky-Balanchine works, while Circus
Polka was choreographed by Jerome Robbins, and State of
Darkness by Molissa Fenley.
The opening
night of Stravinsky 125, on May 31 in Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
in Seattle, began with the hushed and eager anticipation of a
full house collectively holding its breath. The orchestra, under
the direction of Stewart Kershaw, began the evening with the
“Greeting Prelude,” an arrangement of “Happy Birthday” composed
by Stravinsky himself and played this evening in his honor.
After this brief welcome to the audience, the scarlet curtain
lifted on Circus Polka, originally composed by Stravinsky
in 1942 for the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus as a
ballet for elephants. Thirty years later, Jerome Robbins
choreographed a new version in which young dancers take the
place of the baby animals. In this Seattle premiere, students of
the Pacific Northwest Ballet School, wearing tutus in cotton
candy shades of pink, green, and blue, whirled about the stage
in time with the carnivalesque music. (There is even a
ringmaster in a top hat and tails who theatrically flicks a
whip, encouraging each young dancer to reach her place in time.)
At the end of the ballet, the dancers create a formation that
spells I.S. in homage to Stravinsky.
Rubies,
choreographed by George Balanchine to Stravinsky’s Capriccio
for piano and orchestra, is the glamorous second act of
Balanchine’s three-part Jewels. A fusion of traditional
and modern styles, Rubies combines sumptuous costumes of
red satin, velvet and gold with jazzy steps that give the piece
a Broadway feel. Soloists Kaori Nakamura and Olivier Wevers,
supported by Ariana Lallone and a mixed group of twelve male and
female dancers, exhibited a graceful exuberance that meshed
perfectly with the playful syncopation of the woodwinds and
piano. The ensemble-duet-ensemble structure of the piece enabled
the lead dancers to take the stage alone in the middle of the
ballet, in a beautiful passage that ended in a lilting embrace.
In the final portion of the ballet, the company shows off a
vivacious, sassy energy, dancing in a classical style that has
been rhythmically transformed by the Jazz Age.
The evening
took a dramatic turn with State of Darkness, a solo tour
de force choreographed by Molissa Fenley to the music of The
Rite of Spring. Fenley premiered the award-winning
piece herself in 1988, and was in the audience for the PNB
performance, a Seattle premiere danced with thrilling intensity
by Jonathan Porretta. State of Darkness begins with a
single spotlight illuminating the bare stage; the soloist,
bare-chested and wearing simple black leggings, appears in a
beam of light surrounded by bluish darkness. The Rite of
Spring, conceived by Stravinsky as a musical representation
of pagan sacrificial rituals, begins quietly but builds quickly
to an almost frightening intensity. The brass and tympani are by
turns grandiose and threatening, and Porretta’s body mirrored
the wildness of the music, skimming the stage with fluid, avian
grace. Flying, praying, listening and watching, Porretta’s body
alternated between strength and submission, one moment seeming
to direct the music, the next bending helplessly under its
weight. The lighting, designed by David Moodey, bathed the bare
stage in the deep blue and coppery yellow of water and sunlight,
so that at times Porretta seemed to be dancing through a sea of
gold. In the dance’s final moments, he emerged from the darkened
wings of the stage and stepped gently and gratefully into a
single circle of white light. The audience burst into an
immediate standing ovation, which continued as Fenley appeared
on stage to wrap Porretta in a joyful embrace. State of
Darkness was a somewhat unusual departure for the
classically-focused PNB, but if the enthusiastic response to the
premiere is any indication, modern dance may find a place within
its repertoire as well.
The final
piece of the night was another Balanchine work, Symphony in
Three Movements. Costumed in plain leotards of pink, black,
and white, the dancers took to the stage in a large ensemble,
with male and female dancers in couples and small groups. As in
Rubies, the dancing was jazzy and athletic, with an
almost kaleidoscopic interplay between symmetrical and random
forms. In contrast to the ominous mood of the Rite of Spring,
this music was lighter and well-suited to the upbeat
choreography. The simplicity of the costumes contributed to the
mood of informality, and the women wore their hair in long
ponytails rather than in the traditional tight chignon, giving
this powerful ballet a playful feel.
For nearly one hundred years, Stravinsky’s music has been a rich
source of creative inspiration for choreographers, from George
Balanchine and Jerome Robbins to Molissa Fenley and beyond. In
its mix of musical styles and choreographers, the PNB’s
Stravinsky 125 highlights the composer’s multifaceted
contributions to the world of dance, and serves as an excellent
introduction to his work as a composer for the ballet.
Stravinsky 125 runs through June 11 at McCaw Hall in Seattle.
For further details and tickets, visit the Pacific Northwest
Ballet website at www.pnb.org
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