Lar Lubovitch @ The Joyce – Program B

Above: Kate Skarpetowska and Brian McGinnis in Lar Lubovitch’s CRISIS VARIATIONS; photo by Kokyat

Sunday matinee October 20th, 2013 – Lar Lubovitch Dance Company‘s 45th anniversary was celebrated this afternoon at The Joyce as the Company marked the finale of their two-week season. Two familiar works – Transparent Things and Crisis Variations – were followed by a trio of new pieces: a stunning all-male ensemble work called As Sleep Befell, a new duet choreographed by Company dancer Kate Skarpetowska entitled Listen, and an over-the-top cowboy caper Crazy 8s. If the dancers were feeling any end-of-season fatigue, it didn’t show. They danced their hearts out.

Lar Lubovitch was inspired by the Picasso painting ‘Family of Saltimbanques‘ (above) for his 2012 ballet Transparent Things, set to the Debussy string quartet in G-minor. With the score performed live onstage by the Bryant Park Quartet, the union of music and dance was celebrated by the charming characterizations of the six dancers, each costumed exactly like a figure in the painting. 

This ballet weaves a very particular spell; the melding of art, music and movement gives it a Ballets Russes feeling – Diaghilev would approve, I am sure. The musicians played so well, and the dancers excelled. Attila Joey Csiki gave a wonderfully expressive performance as the Harlequin figure, his movement so fluent and graceful. As the quartet’s third movement draws to a close, the dancers invade the musicians’ space and wriggle their way between the chairs; as the light fades, Attila gently lays his head against the cello. A lovely murmur passed thru the house at that moment.

But the quartet has another movement still to come, and although it seemed to me that a perfect ending might have been forsaken, the actual end of the ballet is equally well-judged and drew more sighs of admiration from the crowd. The dancers – Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Laura Rutledge, Brian McGinnis, Clifton Brown and Reed Luplau (a dreamy Blue Boy) – were all endearing as individuals and, in addition to Attila’s perfect rendering of Harlequin, made the ballet a poetic experience.

Lar’s CRISIS VARIATIONS is set to a nightmarish score by Yevgeny Sharlat which features the unusual juxtaposition of harpsichord and saxophone; glimmers of melody shoot thru a dark, dense cloud of sound. This turbulent ballet is essentially an extended pas de deux for two remarkable dancers: Kate Skarpetowska and Brian McGinnis. Their partnering is risky, passionate but unromantic, and they perform it with unfettered physicality and angst. The ensemble – Nicole Corea, Laura Rutledge, Jonathan Alsberry, Reed Luplau and Anthony Bocconi – lay down, writhe. pile up, and periodically seem to try to escape from this ongoing dream. The ballet ends on a quizzical note as Kate suddenly vanishes beneath a mound of bodies.

Both of these first two works seem to have taken on new depths and fascinations since their premieres, showing that the more we devote ourselves to watching dance the more we will see.

Above: from AS SLEEP BEFELL, photo by Steven Schreiber

After the second intermission, new works were brought forth: the first of these, Lar’s AS SLEEP BEFELL, was a staggeringly beautiful experience. Once again the unity of music, dance and setting combined to please, and to seduce. The musicians of Le Train Bleu are ranged in a semi-circle at the rear of the stage: all dressed in casual summer whites, they are barefooted. They strike up Paola Prestini‘s multi-hued score, conducted by Ransom Wilson. A tall, white-gowned priestess -vocalist Helga Davis – begins her chant which takes her from distrubing growls in chest voice to uncanny, sustained high tones; a throaty quality imbues her singing with a raw earthiness.

Ranged on the floor are six male dancers – Clifton Brown, Jonathan Alsberry, Reed Luplau, Anthony Bocconi, Oliver Greene-Cramer and Tobin del Cuore. They are bare-chested and wearing long diaphanous white skirts. They rise in a tribal ritual of dance that is primitive, sensuous, and hypnotic to behold. Expressive port de bras, fluid torsos, and long, muscular legs emerging from the white gowns create an alluring vision of male beauty. To a seductive rhythm, they link arms and sway in unison: a provocative passage.

AS SLEEP BEFELL might be viewed as a male counterpart to the sisterhood Jerome Robbins created in his masterpiece ANTIQUE EPIGRAPHS. Both ballets evoke communal rites and timeless visions of ancient realms and forgotten gods. 

Above: Nicole Corea and Reed Luplau in LISTEN, photo by Steven Schreiber

Kate Skarpetowska also turns to the music of Paola Prestini for her new pas de deux LISTEN. This duet will eventually be half of a longer work but even as it stands now, it’s another excellent entry into Ms. Skarpetowska’s catalog of work. In a shaft of bright light, Nicole Corea and Reed Luplau seem to be having a conversation set against Ms. Prestini’s elaborate clockwork score. The movement is restless and quirky as the energy passes back and forth between the two dancers. The interjection of a soulful cello theme brings a new element to the ballet; then Nicole suddenly vanishes, leaving Reed to dance an animated solo. 

Nicole and Reed make a perfect pairing, and I’ll look forward to seeing the resolution of this duet. This was my fourth experience with Kate Skarpetowska’s choreographic work; in her musicality, her sense of visual poetry, and her imaginative use of both the physical and emotional characteristics of her dancers, she is already taking a distinctive place in the choreographic community.

Above: from CRAZY 8s, photo by Phyllis McCabe

The afternoon ended with a terrific little ballet called CRAZY 8s. After a half-century of creativity, a choerographer is entitled to a bit of fun, and Lar Lubovitch took off on a totally unexpected tangent with this piece which spoofs hoe-downs, square dancing, the Grand Ole Opry, the rodeo, and the whole cowboy culture. The score is a fractured mash-up of Wild West rhythms, square dance calls, and a country-Western heartbreak song. The dancers, clad in garish bright yellow tights and ten-gallon hats, threw high-falutin’ artsy hogwash to the prairie winds and set to it with tongues-in-cheeks and a glint in their eyes. A special howdy-do to Jonathan Alsberry for his crazy/sexy-boy solo. This deft little romp sent the crowd home in high spirits.