New Jersey Ballet – Purcell Suite

        We’re always looking for signs of hope — under every rock, in every nook and cranny, between the lines, within the lyrics, in the stars, or just in our imaginations. Fancy finding it on a bluntly cold night in New Jersey, off the beaten track, down a ways from the Lokl Cafe. But that’s what happened. Last Saturday, we trekked out to New Jersey Ballet’s opening performance at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown where it is the official resident ballet company under the direction of Maria Kowroski. That morning the old bones had rattled a warning, “You don’t want to miss this.” The performance was to include the premiere of Harrison Ball’s first choreographic commission – the development of which we had been following with keen interest for several months.

 

        Set to excerpts from Henry Purcell’s Baroque masterpiece Dido and Aeneas, Ball’s Purcell Suite for twelve women delivered a sophisticated dance painting influenced by classical frieze and Nijinsky poses. Back in the 1980s, Mark Morris was inspired by the same Purcell opera to create a dance with a heavy emphasis on a bended narrative. Ball’s emphasis was on design, on collective movement, and on the relationship of the occasional soloist’s movement to that of the corps de ballet. Wearing Zac Posen’s sleek black gowns, the women traveled in flock with outstretched arms, upward facing palms flexed open, and elbows hyper-extended creating an image at once Baroque and avant-garde. Ball skillfully blended exits and entrances of groups of dancers with elision quality. Soloists arose from the corps and then receded back into the corps with startling creativity and organization. The nine-part dance concluded with an unforgettable tableau of individual women temporarily left standing as their group descended around them to Dido’s Lament “When I am Laid in Earth” sung by Leontyne Price. This was a superb performance by Emily Barrows, Yuiko Honda, Lilli Etheredge, Se Hyun Jin, Ilse Kapteyn, Raleigh Ledford, Risa Moschizuki, Denise Parungao, Abigail Robison, Eunice Suba, Catherine Whiting, and Caroline Baggs.

 

        The evening included Peter Martins’ Hallelujah Junction and George Balanchine’s Who Cares? Haglund was unable to stay for Who Cares but heard immediately afterward that the company triumphed in it with sizzling technique, glamour, and charm. The dancers' opening performance of Hallelujah Junction predicted just that. We’ve missed seeing this ballet at New York City Ballet. Hallelujah Junction and Fearful Symmetries are the most admired of the Martins ballets created to John Adams’ compositions. They race and pulse with burning energy. Guest artists Lauren Lovette and Carlos Gonzalez executed the pas de deux with seamless authority. Company member Akira Iida’s confident virtuoso solos propelled the ballet with relentless force. 

 

        The choreographer, who was in attendance, had every reason to be jubilant: his ballet looked great, the ballerina who he invested decades in has clearly demonstrated directorial skill on her first try and has put together a handsome troupe of performers, the ballerina he developed and coaxed into choreography looked stunning, and his grateful protege who he firmly steered to success as a performer has now shown enormous promise as a dance maker. This was Martins' night as much as anyone’s.

 

        Hats off to the New Jersey Ballet dancers and their director, Maria Kowroski. Hats off and an H.H. Pump Bump Award to Harrison Ball for his wonderful new ballet, Purcell Suite, which we hope will see the light of stage again soon.

 

 

 

Comments

[Allie Kenney]

Thanks for posting this (and for the earlier heads up on the performance). I just could not get over there for that one evening. I hope there will be other opportunities to see them -- either in NJ or, if those works are okay on smaller stages, maybe here at a theater like the Joyce or Hunter.