Gomes X Two
"The Sarasota Ballet: Classical and New Voices"
Works & Process
Peter B. Lewis Theater
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York, New York
November 19, 2017, matinee
Works & Process, the imaginative discussion program sponsored by the Guggenheim Museum, offered a double dose of ABT's revered principal Marcelo Gomes, showing him both as a dancer and as a choreographer in a program featuring dancers from the Sarasota Ballet, led by its director Iain Webb and hosted by Wendy Perron. Webb gave a brief introduction to Sir Frederick Ashton's charming and luminous "The Two Pigeons" which Gomes had danced last year with the Sarasota Ballet, talking about working with Ashton, his special musicality (so intuitive and lyrical, Webb said, as intricate as, though very different from, Balanchine's) and his way of using the upper body, inspired by Pavlova. Gomes then danced the final pas de deux with his Sarasota partner Victoria Hulland, a dancer whose delicate and pristine lyricism perfectly complements Gomes' warmth and generosity.
The dancers were in costume with a minimal set (the elegant iron chair, but no live pigeons). I did see the Sarasota performances and nothing, of course, can match the fully staged work, but the intimate Guggenheim stage let the audience really savor the dancers' ability to disappear into their characters.
After this serene triumph of gentle lyricism (always tear inducing, even without the pigeon flying in as the music soars), Webb talked about his tribulations with those pigeons, one of which almost, he said, ended up as pigeon pie, and he said that when the ballet was new the powerful impresario Sol Hurok refused to bring it to New York, since New Yorkers, according to Hurok, know what pigeons do.
Gomes talked briefly about the role, thanking Webb for his coaching, especially for his emphasis on the meanings behind the steps, and added that he especially appreciated the purity and simplicity of the final pas de deux, with its quiet moments as the lovers walk together, gazing at each other. He then talked about his new work, which he is creating for the Sarasota Ballet. (It will premiere on December 1st.) It is called "Dear Life", set to Beethoven's 7th Symphony, which will be played live (Sarasota Ballet has an admirable commitment to live music). He described his inspiration -- a man who is about to die writes a letter to his "Dear Life", thanking it for his memories. Gomes rehearsed two sections with the cast, the third, a sprightly pas de trois with Samantha Benoit, Ivan Duarte, and Logan Learned, and a more intense pas de deux from the second movement with Victoria Hulland and Ricardo Rhodes.
Gomes concentrated on both the technical and the emotional details, asking for more contrasting movements in the pas de trois and talking about the inspiration he got from the dancers themselves. He talked about the technical challenges of the final pas de deux, including an unusual overhead lift at the end, saying that as a dancer he was profoundly moved by colleagues who push themselves beyond physical exhaustion. In an especially revealing section, he talked through a passage in the pas de deux, giving each movement an emotional motivation which was distilled through the dancers' moves -- a true work in process.
Copyright © 2017 by Mary Cargill
