Wednesday March 28, 2012 – For the second in their Exhibitions Series at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Ballet Next presented a delightful programme of new and classic works performed by world-class dancers to live music. Above: Ballet Next’s founding artists Michele Wiles and Charles Askegard, photo by Kokyat. Click on the image to enlarge.
Cellist Elad Kabilio and the Ballet Next music ensemble struck up the celebratory processional from the final act of Tchaikovsky’s SLEEPING BEAUTY as the house lights dimmed. Ana Sophia Scheller and Joaquin de Luz then appeared as Aurora and her Prince to dance the celebrated wedding pas de deux. These two remarkable dancers gave an elegant interpretation of this duet. Ana Sophia is a beautiful and aristocratic young Princess, dancing with her signature polished technique and vastly pleasing mastery of classic style. Joaquin looks like the perfect teenaged Prince; his dancing vivid, his feet in 5th position right out of a textbook. It was so purely enjoyable to watch these beloved dancers at close range and bask in their musicality and artistry. Bravi! Bravissimi!!
New choreography is a key element of Ballet Next‘s mission and tonight we were shown a new pas de deux choreographed by Charles Askegard. Charles mentioned that this was not his first choreographic endeavor, and he also spoke of the challenges of dancing your own choreography. Using excerpts from Stravinsky’s enchanting Baiser de la Fee, the opening duet passage has a frisky playfulness but also moments of romance. Michele Wiles and Charles each have a solo with jazzy inflections woven in, and the coda has a twist of irony. Excellent choice of music (very well-played) and – of course – great dancing.
We had previously seen the duet ENTWINED that Margo Sappington created as a calling card for Ballet Next. Now the choreographer is enlarging on this work, adding a solo for Michele Wiles and a marvelous pas de trois. Ms. Sappington spoke of her desire to fashion one more movement for this piece – a duet for two women. Pianist Ben Laude invested the Satie works with moody, dusky colours. In the opening pas de trois, Charles Askegard employs his renowned partnering skills as he manipulates the heavenly bodies of Ana Sophia Scheller and Georgina Pazcoguin with silken assurance. The new solo for Michele Wiles explores her more vulnerable, dreamy side. And then there’s the sensuous duet danced by Georgina Pazcoguin and Charles Askegard which gives us the feeling of eavesdropping on something very tender and very private.
The evening ended with the music ensemble, now harpsichord- rather than piano-based, playing Vivaldi’s rollicking La Follia as two majestic ballerinas, Michele Wiles and Drew Jacoby, danced in unison and ‘spoke’ to one another in a complex gestural dialect. In this Mauro Bigonzetti dancework, solo passages for each of the two women show off their unique feminine powers before they reunite in a fast-paced finale, settling at last into the same enigmatic pose that opened the piece. Brilliant dancing from Mlles. Wiles and Jacoby, and spirited playing from the musicians left the audience exhilarated.
The next Ballet Next Exhibition will be April 25th at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. And it has just been announced that the Company will be at The Joyce for a week in October.
Oberon's Glade 