DANCE REVIEW
Ballet company puts spin on innovation

By Ana Paula Höfling

By including "Vertical Dream" — a piece by Nicolo Fonte from the Compañía Nacional de Danza from Madrid — in the program presented yesterday at the Leeward Community College Theater, the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet proves to be a young company in search of relevant, contemporary works to perform.

Although most pieces used ballet training in a contemporary way, some were more successful than others. "Transtangos," by Jimmy Gamonet de Los Heros, the piece chosen to open the show, was yet another work choreographed to the beautiful but overused music by contemporary tango master Astor Piazzolla.

Although there were a few rare moments when the spirit of the tango was successfully translated into ballet vocabulary, this piece still fell back on old tricks like multiple pirouettes and high grand battements.

Fortunately, the repertory improved in the pieces that followed.

Pendelton's "Noir Blanc," a piece created for the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in 2002, shows the broad range of this company. Using no traditional ballet steps, the choreographer plays with the illusion created by the dancer's costumes — half white and half black, dividing the body vertically — lit by black light only. Hidden by darkness, the black side of the dancers' bodies is able to support their white visible side in ways that appear impossible.

Standing in profile, their bodies lean forward and backward, first to 45 degrees, and then to 90 degrees, levitating parallel to the floor. Even after the awe element is gone and we have deciphered the magician's trick, the choreography remains interesting: white bodies are carried and spun across the stage by invisible partners, white sleeves and tights are added on to give the dancers four limbs, only to be removed again.

Fonte's "Vertical Dream" was a refreshing example of how ballet technique can be adapted and made pertinent to our times.

The piece begins with four men standing in front of four green fluorescent light bulbs arranged vertically. They each take turns leaving the group, only to come back to the vertical green light. Using subtle gestures — an index finger in front of closed lips, a hand covering the eyes, a hand that closes sharply into a fist — and his own original movement, Fonte aptly uses these dancers' impeccable ballet training.

It is refreshing to see that innovation in ballet did not stop with George Balanchine and that a small ballet company is taking risks by including such innovative works in its repertory.