Ashley and Friends
"Unsaid", "In Passing", "Rouge et Noir"
The Ashley Bouder Project
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 8, 2015
The Ashley Bouder Project is a collaboration between the ballerina, several dancers from the New York City Ballet, musicians and choreographers. The company also stresses production values and the lighting and designs were imaginative and colorful--a refreshing change from the seemingly ubiquitous grey and black of most modern ballet. The opening work, "Unsaid" (choreographed by the Miami City Ballet dancer Adriana Pierce) though did stick with grey and black, but the slightly formal chiffon coats (designed by Reid and Harriet) were eye-catching and the smokey opening, as the clouds caught the light (designed by Jimmy Lawlor) was impressive. The dancing too, was forceful and committed as Bouder and NYCB corps member Preston Chamblee were elegant and passionate. Unfortunately the choreography was of the "I hate you so much I'm going to stand in my own spotlight and glare--well maybe I love you, let's go off together" school and while strongly danced, didn't add up to much.
"In Passing" was a bracing contrast, a semi-surreal film choreographed and directed by Andrea Schermoly about four dancers (Bouder, Indiana Woodward, Amar Ramasar and Antonio Carmena) watching themselves prepare, rehearse and perform shards of choreography. The camera skipped around between the theater, a bedroom, a rehearsal hall and an Alice-like cavern ending up with Bouder walking off into a desert sunset. It was light-hearted, colorful, and intriguing.
Joshua Beamish's 2014 "Rouge et Noir" was colorful, but it was neither light-hearted nor intriguing. It was set to Shostakovich's Piano Trio # 2, and ignored all of the sparkling folk-influenced rhythms and mysterious undertones. These were however, picked up by the set (by Michael Howard) which was a colorful Matisse-like collage and the costumes (by B Michael) which echoed the shapes of the backdrop and caught the combination of the music's infectious swing and wry modernism.
The opening pas de deux, for Bouder and Ramasar, was promising, full of sharp, deliberate moves, chic with an underlying heat. Bouder looked sophisticated, mysterious and dynamic, and Ramasar used his intense physicality very well. It had an interesting sculptural feel which echoed the backdrop. Unfortunately Beamish wasn't able to maintain the bracingly modern feel for the following three movements and the work became a long series of disjointed, static moves of the "my hand is an elephant's trunk and my spine a snake" variety. Beamish basically ignored the music, especially the final allegretto with its Jewish folk-flavored rhythms. The few dance phrases he included stopped inexplicably and the piece had a turgidly static feel. He seemed to have nothing to add to the profound, exciting and rich music and he proved it at great length, wasting some wonderful dancers.
copyright © 2015 by Mary Cargill
