Round 2, Session 3, June 23 - to intermission

This final round of contemporary ballet offerings was choreographically the strongest and culturally the most intriguing. What was writ large on the visual horizon is simply this: dancers trained in the West, venturing into Asian music or Asian fusion music, need to be equally informed in the movement styles they purport to incorporate in their vocabulary. Such styles are just as rigorous, intricate and subtle as anything Western balletic vocabulary requires of dancers.

Tonight we had 7 Juniors, 3 dancing in pas de deux and 14 Seniors, half of whom appeared in pas de deux, three with non-competing partners.

I don’t exactly know what Gate of Ashyr means, but Joseph Phillips, U.S.A., opened Session Three with an absolutely fascinating exposition of South Indian dance style choreographed by Mark Diamond. Collating disparate information, the director of the recent Paul Taylor film documentary was a Diamond and shot footage in New Delhi during the last Taylor tour of India. The Raga for Tabla credit sounded less from the North Indian style, which uses tabla, than the rhythms emanating from drumming for Kathakali. Augmented by the sound of bells dancing the squared off pattern of Kerala’s all male dance form, a few gestures and asanas from Bharata Natyam completed this intriguing solo. Phillips was dressed in a dhoti-like garment and his body glinted from what looked to be bronze body makeup, perhaps a reference to the Golden Idol in La Bayadere.

Ashley Canterna and Danny Tidwell, U.S.A., used Sheila Chandra’s haunting repetition of Om Shanti Om as interpreted by Dana Tai-Soon Burgess. The two young Kirov students were dressed in an approximation of white Indian homespun, rendered theatrical by some glinting silver ornaments at the waist and in Canterna’s turban. Burgess knows nothing about Indian neck movement dynamics and equally little about Indian gestural vocabulary, outside of what she may have seen on Buddhist or Hindu statues and did not bother researching. Ouch, but it is both culturally offensive and ill informed, lacking the movement shape everyone is so concerned with in classical ballet.

Jiao Yang, China, danced Wang Peng’s comment on Time, music by Wang Yuan He. Yang’s costume, black trousers, white shirt and tie made an immediate impression because the left half had been chopped off at the rib cage, the visual sarcasm immediately noticeable. Adding the cliché of watch checking and a controlled movement down the thigh, the comment on compulsion was easily apparent, and accented by his slender body which seemed like a living exclamation point. It was well danced and punctuated in an understated style.

Junior contestant Michelle Carpenter, U.S.A. took a huge leap of faith in dancing Ben Stevenson’s End of Time pas de deux with non-competing partner Nicholas Leschke. The music was composed by Sergey Vassilivech Rachmaninoff, and, if my memory isn’t playing tricks this pas de deux helped cinch the Gold Medal for one-time Houston Ballet principal Martha Butler before she moved on to American Ballet Theatre. The unitards were mottled tones of grey, and while I think the nuances of passion may have eluded Carpenter’s comprehension it was a vehicle in which she danced well and looked almost as sensational as Butler.

Mariko Kida, Japan, performed a solo to the weighty title of Proof of Existence and to the esoteric Repetitive music of Philip Glass’ Secret Agent to which choreographer Kanji Ishihara added special sounds. The choreography required Kida in dull purple tights and a sleeveless flowing red chiffon mid-calf length dress to dance demi-pointe. There was a mixture of reaching movements to convey the perplexing quality of life and need for assurance, some of them executed on the knees. And there also were jetes and some circling of the stage. I was uncertain whether or what the Proof entailed.

Zhang Jing, China, danced her solo in a white ao dai Zhao Hui-Meng titled his choreography Diary to Jan Garbarek’s music Darvaran. What struck me as the music began to repeat the various tones of a wailing female voice was that Jing’s solo had a definite sub-text which might elude American audiences who might be unfamiliar with white as the color of death in traditional Chinese culture. Dressed in an ao dai, my guess was that Jing was dancing the suffering of the Vietnamese War. With that assumption much of the intense and frantic nature of Her movements made more sense. The solo closes to the sound of monsoon rain, a relief echoed by the skies over the Thalia Mara Auditorium.

Risa Matsumura, Japan, partnered by Jo Funaki, danced to squeaky strings, in a mercifully brief solo titled Life, choreographed by Hiroaki Imamura to Masahiro Ishijima’s Ode for Violin and Orchestra. Both were dressed in grey with floating strands of chiffon at the waist, a thick black curve on the chest of their wrist length tunics with the legs adorned with stroked reminding me either of a haiku or the swiftness of Zen calligraphy.

Ashley Dangos, U.S.A., easily the tallest female competitor, danced Con Passione to Fritz Kreisler’s Praeladium and Allegro in the Style of Paganini. Choreographer Mary Margaret Holt made the most of her height, dressing her in russet and a full skirt with black ribbon marking its tiers of gathers. Why the back of the costume reveal skin in its circular shape I didn’t know. Dangos circled the stage with ease and both Danced on demi as well as full pointe. Holt’s assignment gave Dangos dignity and made a favorable impression, which I did not feel in Round One.

Soon after Andrea Schermoly, U.S.A., started her self-choreographed piece Magalenha to the music by Carlinhos Brown, the auditorium went utterly still during the length of her solo. Having seen it in rehearsal and coached by Tatiana Legat, I would concur with the response. Schermoly’s tall, slender young body moved into a remarkable approximation of African dance movement, doubtless influenced by sixteen years of life in South Africa. It scarcely could be called classical but it was a virtuosi display of flexibility and, above all, a tribute to her exposure in Africa. I would enjoy seeing it again.

Vitaly Kravchenko, Belarus, danced to the Act II Swan Lake pas de deux Igor Dobrovolskiy’s solo titled Narcissus. Kravchenko used a white jersey skirt most effectively in the beginning, holding it over his head, peaking out from it, enveloped by it, approximating the quality of an opening flower. After he dropped it, Using his hands as a double or alternate mirror, characterization continued, along with tour jetes and clear, classical movement, but to lessening effect and overly long.

Megumi Oki, Japan, appeared in competitor Jon Drake’s choreography to the title of Keys using Franz Liszt’s Paganini Etude No. 3, La Campanella. Oki, whose size belongs to the no bigger than a minute variety, was dressed in black, with white frills at the wrist, a perfect approximation of the young student at a piano recital. And, indeed, she sat in a chair, making appropriate hand gestures as preparation. What followed was a classical solo, largely away from the chair, hewing closely to the melodic and dynamics of the music, Oki bringing the chair to the center at the finale and collapsing on it.

Oki’s solo brought us to Intermission. The next report will probably provide the results of Round Two, for they are to be announced at ten June 24, and the post-Intermission numbers will be combined with comments regarding the jurors’ decisions.

This piece is part of Ballet.co's overall Jackson Competition coverage. The competition runs from the 15th to the 30th June 2002 and we plan daily reports to keep you in touch:
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