Ah, Youth
"No Matter What", "Mystery in the Wind", "Little Stories", "Touch", "Utopia", "Inner Voice"
Avi Scher & Dancers
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, NY
April 3, 2010
25-year old Avi Scher made his New York debut as a company director with the help of a number of extraordinary dancers. His aim, he explained in his opening welcome, is to present top-level dancers in intimate venues at affordable prices. He has put together a luxurious pick-up company, with the likes of Marcelo Gomes, Veronika Part, Ashley Bouder (a last minute substitute for Sara Mearns), and a bevy of other fine dancers. For several years, he has been a name that was spoken, after his charming 2002 piece "Jouons" for the ABT Studio Company. "Jouons" was steeped in Jerome Robbins (not that there is anything wrong with that), and so far his choreography tends towards the trendy Forsythe/Elo style, with a bit of Robbins added in. The evening opened with "No Matter What", an exercise in alienation (the dancers generally looked sullen) set to some percussive, electronic sounds by Aphex Twin and Adam Lewis. The dancing was of the pretzel and taffy variety, with quick changes of direction and visual ticks, mainly of the fish-arms style of Elo. This echoed the jerky music, but meant that there was little flow to the steps, though the dancers (Kelsey Coventry, Jennifer Goodman, Nancy Richer, Robert Colby Damon, and Ralph Ippolito) were riveting; Damon especially was both grounded and fluid. The heart of the work was a more lyrical pas de deux for Victoria North, and Ja'Malik. North, a tall and gracious beauty, whose middle name seems to be "grace", avoided the stone-faced demeanor of the other dancers and reacted to her partner, giving the pas de deux a welcome warmth.
"Mystery in the Wind", to music by Rachel Portman, was the most traditional piece of the evening, and, a sign of my age I suppose, the one I enjoyed the most. It had atmosphere, lovely costumes (by David quinn), and a hint of a story--as well as Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes, two of the most charismatic and gracious dancers on stage today. Part seemed to be an Eastern princess, surrounded by three serving maids, waiting for something to happen. While waiting, the three ladies whose movements suggested invisible veils (Nancy Richer, Abi Stafford and Elizabeth Claire Walker) got solos, building in intensity, ending in a pas de trois that looked a bit like Petipa's Odalisques on steroids. Part had a luxurious solo, with delicate flirty steps, while Gomes got to do his snakey solo shirtless.
"Little Stories" was a series of three vignettes, to songs by the popular singer Jason Mraz. The opening scene "Feeling Lucky", with Jennifer Goodman and Robert Colby Damon, was sunny and bright, like a ride in an old-fashioned convertible on a summer day. But like most choreographers, Scher added too much on, and the following pieces, "Stories Untold", and "Our Love's Defense" diluted the radiance of the opening piece.
"Touch", which followed, too, was weakened by an unnecessary addition to the opening pas de deux, an often intriguing pairing of Veronika Part and Arron Scott as a nymph and a faun who don't actually touch. The music, though, was problematic, more percussive, unrhythmic sounds. Even Scott, one of ABT's most musical dancers, looked a bit jerky in the stop and start, twitch and turn choreography. Ralph Ippolito, Savannah Lowery, and Eric Tamm followed in an unrelated pas de trois, with more than enough touching.
"Utopia", to Rachmaninov piano music played live, was, yes, another chiffon piano ballet, and wore its Robbins' origins proudly. It was to have been danced by Sara Mearns and Marcelo Gomes, a match seemingly made in ballet heaven, but an injury meant that Ashley Bouder stepped in at the last minute. As the NYCB audience knows, these are two wonderful but very different dancers, but Bouder seemed to lap up the challenge, and her powerful, free-spirited opening solo was exhilarating. NYCB principal Janie Taylor designed the costumes, and Bouder's purple chiffon was lovely and flattering. Gomes had a more lyrical solo, with some folk-inflections (a la "Dances at a Gathering") and was a stalwart partner.
The evening ended with a series of songs written and performed live by former NYCB dancer Genevieve Labean. She has a clear, pure voice, and an adolescent, in the best since of the word, sincerity. The dances, and the songs, were sweet, innocent, and touching. There was an immediacy to the spirit that avoided nostalgia, though it brought back memories of long, dorm-room confidences. And, like those conversations, there is a certain lack of depth and maturity, but a great deal of promise.
Copyright 2010 by Mary Cargill
