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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > March > 27 > Entry
Review: Ballet Austin’s ‘Studio Theater Project’
Ballet Austin had no lonely souls Thursday night.
Couples—some in agony, some in heat—dominated the company’s Studio Theatre Project. The program was its own duo of company premieres with artistic director Mills’ new “Songs of Innuendo” and guest choreographer Nicolo Fonte’s “Left Unsaid.”
Fonte’s piece featured six dancers merging in and out pairs. Odd numbers create conflict or despair, the latter conjured whenever dancers drape themselves over the tense limbs of other dancers. Swinging bodies juxtapose nicely with “Left Unsaid’s” movement palette. Where classical ballet’s pleasure is often predicated upon the satisfaction of legs closing into tight positions, Fonte swears by large, open movements. Who needs fifth position when second position feels so good?
Fonte also twists perspectives on another common ballet convention: ensemble finales danced in unison. Because each of “Left Unsaid’s’” couples develop their emotional relationship in earlier duets, the unison choreography resonated differently for each pair. One set of choreography equaled three layers of emotional texture.
“Songs of Innuendo” went light on suggestion and heavy on sex—the fun, colorful, springy kind. Jamie Lynn Witts and Kirby Wallis were particularly adept at meeting the playful, loose tone of Mills’ work, inspired by soulful classics. Choreographically, the piece was at its best when embracing its title, choosing kinetic metaphor over literal depiction. A charming example: when one dancer bounced off another’s horizontal torso, using her partner’s body like a trampoline. Less charming (and not so much an innuendo): a quartet rolling on their backs and sticking their legs straight in the air, as James Brown belted “Get on up” as part of “Sex Machine.”
“The Studio Theater Project” continues 8 p.m. tday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; 6:30 p.m. April 1-2; 9 p.m. April 2; 8 p.m. April 3-4,; 3 p.m. April 5. Austin Ventures Studio Theatre, 501 W. Third St. $25-30; www.balletaustin.org.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance dance critic.
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