‘DREAMstate’ Review: Boston Ballet Explores the Liminal | Arts | The Harvard Crimson

What does it imply to dream? What sorts of areas can open up after we enable ourselves to journey deep inside our psyche? These have been the questions that got here to thoughts when watching a efficiency of Boston Ballet’s newest oeuvre, “DREAMstate.” The present, which ran on the Residents Financial institution Opera Home from March 17 via the 27, featured a triple invoice of three gorgeous modern ballets: George Balanchine’s 1976 ballet “Chaconne,” Stephen Galloway’s world premiere DEVIL’S/eye, and Jiří Kylián’s 1996 “Bella Figura.” Every of the ballets have been revolutionary in their very own method, powerfully setting and subverting expectations whereas exploring themes of personhood, liminality, and the boundaries of consciousness.

Using the extra typical stylings of “Chaconne” as the start line for the night time’s exploration of the self and its limits, “DREAMstate” establishes the style of ballet as each one thing to lean into and one thing that may be expanded and reworked. Instructed via the unbelievable artistry and athleticism of its dancers, resplendent of their white costumes towards a easy background, “Chaconne” is gorgeous — that a lot can’t be disputed. However regardless of the revolutionary motion inherent to “The Father of American Ballet”’s choreography, the ballet can nonetheless be learn as falling throughout the modern-day confines of the style. That’s to not say the ballet isn’t compelling — it’s, and the Boston Ballet firm was stellar in its translation of the piece to the Citizen’s Opera Home stage — however the night time’s performances solely turned extra fascinating from there.

Whereas “Chaconne” cast a brand new understanding of classical ballet, “DEVIL’s/eye” and “Bella Figura” each lean into one thing altogether totally different. Every pushes the connection between dance, music, and aesthetics within the seek for new limits.

With “DEVIL’s/eye,” choreographer, dancer, and costume designer Stephen Galloway creates an unforgettable ode to like, youth, and joyful exuberance. Set to a number of music by The Rolling Stones — for whom Galloway labored as a choreographer and artistic guide — the world premiere ballet is superpowered from begin to end. It’s as outstanding for its show-stopping aesthetics (the dancers, clad in sparkly and skin-baring ‘80s gym-inspired getups, danced in entrance of large amp-like lighting fixtures) as it’s for Galloway’s dedication to breaking the mould of classical ballet. Galloway’s dancers — led partially by Boston Ballet principal dancer and Harvard Dance Heart’s personal John Lam — embodied younger lovers and freedom-seeking renegades alike, their actions unconstrained as they introduced the timeless rock songs to life. It was pure and unbridled rock and roll. An achingly haunting pas de deux to “Wild Horses” with Lam and soloist Chisako Oga was a standout amid a universally sturdy ballet.

In closing out the present, Kylián’s “Bella Figura,” took “DREAMstate”’s ruminations on consciousness and the human expertise to its pure conclusion. With its exploration of the physique as a web site of magnificence, ache, and genesis, “Bella Figura” managed to flee from the bodily and audiospacial limits of the opera home: A hearth burned on both facet of the stage, curtains turned usable props, and semi-naked dancers floated in mid air whereas others continued dancing via durations of prolonged silence in order that one may hear the dancers’ personal footsteps on the marley ground. Every rigorously calibrated motion fell heavy on an already rapt viewers as dancers navigated the assorted scenes of rebirth that drive the ballet, their costumes crimson like blood and designed with the bodily contours of the physique in thoughts. The end result was a charming and shifting exploration of what it means to be alive and in fixed dialog with the self and different individuals. The choreography was simplest when, in true Kylián style, dancers have been interacting with each other, compelled into motion by the contact of their companion at a given second.

Critically, the exploration of human consciousness and the physique (and its capability for motion) within the three ballets is simply strengthened of their juxtaposition to one another. Every seeks out to discover a distinct aspect of human identification, and “DREAMstate” capitalizes on the ensuing distinction. In forcing audiences to take care of the liminal areas, these between the embodied pleasure of “DEVIL’S/eye” and the sober hauntings of “Bella Figura,” “DREAMstate” makes a robust case for the anomaly of human consciousness, and the capability for such a consciousness to be captured via artwork.

—Arts Chair Sofia Andrade might be reached at sofia.andrade@thecrimson.com. Comply with her on Twitter at @BySofiaAndrade.