Masters step onto the stage with Festival Ballet
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
Thursday, April 19, 2007
By Bryan Rourke
Alexander Akulov will perform in “Coma” by Viktor Plotnikov, as Festival Ballet wraps up its season this weekend with American Masters. The show, at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, will also feature works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
Festival Ballet Providence wraps up its season this weekend
with American Masters.
The show, at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, features three works: one by George Balanchine and one by Jerome Robbins, both undisputed master choreographers; and one by Viktor Plotnikov, a guest choreographer for Festival whose “Loof and Let Dime” dance last year was, in fact, simply masterful.
The program is a mix of ballet, jazz and modern.
“It’s like serving a meal,” says Mihailo Djuric, Festival’s artistic director. “If you present a program, you have to think how it’s balanced.”
For the second time in two years, Festival brings back Balanchine. Audiences enjoyed last season’s “Allegro Brillante,” Djuric says, so this year audiences will see another Balanchine work: “Rubies.” It’s one of three pieces (along with “Emeralds” and “Diamonds”) in his “Jewels” dance.
” Djuric says. “But it requires “I was thinking of doing the entire ‘Jewels,’ a much larger ensemble. Rubies can be presented separately.”
“Rubies” is a lively piece set to the music of Stravinsky, and featuring costumes that are ruby red.
“It is very quick and jazzy,” Djuric says. “It’s very energetic. The entire company is involved. It’s beautiful and I think it will excite audiences.”
Djuric said he believes that last year was the first time a Balanchine piece was performed in Rhode Island. And this year, he said, may be for a Robbins piece: “2 & 3 Part Inventions.”
“Robbins is one of the great masters of American ballet. As a choreographer, he’s one of the most important for the development of dance in America.”
“2 and 3 Part Inventions” was created for teenage students at the School of American Ballet, using a live pianist and complex movements.
“It’s very tricky with the musicality for the dancers. A lot of it is syncopated and the dancers go against each other. And it has a completely different flavor and a certain sense of humor. There is no storyline. It’s how the choreographer treats the music and the dancers.”
Knowing that Festival would perform “Rubies” and “2 and 3 Part Inventions,” Djuric approached Plotnikov and asked if he would create a new work to complement the program.
“I said I was looking for something different in energy that will stand on its own completely,” Djuric says.
Consider a dance about comas; Plotnikov did.
Plotnikov’s piece will use the music of Arvo Part, which Djuric calls “absolutely beautiful and exciting,” and present Plotnikov’s impressions from the movie Coma.
“It’s an abstract, contemporary and modern piece,” Djuric says. “It’s dealing with this life and the other life, and things in between. I don’t think there’s a clear story. There are just certain characters portraying people, and an angel. It’s very different and technically demanding, with lots of effects. We’re all excited and eager to see it and see how it looks.”
American Masters is tomorrow and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Providence. For tickets, $17 to $62, call (401) 272-4862 or (800) 919-6272, or visit www.tickets.com.
