Given what we’ve all been by way of just lately with coronaviruses and violence, it’s not shocking that loss of life and farewells had been on the minds of choreographers on the Washington Ballet. For a while, “NEXTsteps” has been the title of the corporate’s annual collection of recent works. But for this system that opened Wednesday at Sidney Harman Corridor and continues by way of Sunday, the thought of 1’s literal subsequent steps can also be the urgent concern.
Washington
Review | New Washington Ballet dances try to solve puzzles of life and death
Three of the 4 dances on this system ask: What’s subsequent, when life crashes round you? What the satan occurs now?
This isn’t to say that the general environment was heavy. “The place Do We Go Now,” a well-paced musing on life after loss of life by South African choreographer Mthuthuzeli November, led us by way of a vivid, fractured flashback of romances, anxieties and unresolved questions. But these principally solitary experiences had been framed by an ensemble, a sympathetic group observing within the background, making it a shared journey. November, a member of the London-based Ballet Black, merged the bent torsos and stamping toes of African dance with languid ballet rhythms, bringing the energy of ancestors to thoughts. With a free, assured hand, he mined the expressive potentialities of each dance types and made profitable new harmonies.
November additionally created the music, most notable for wealthy drumming passages, and designed the pleasantly drifty costumes in earth tones.
When you needed to price probably the most profitable factor of this program throughout the board, it was the costumes. These included a bombshell yellow robe for Sona Kharatian in “Moonlight,” a shifting, rapturous finale to the longtime Washington Ballet member’s profession and that of her wonderful dance associate, Tamás Krizsa, who created the piece (and conceived the costumes). Krizsa, as gentlemanly in his choreography as in his dancing, positioned all of the emphasis on Kharatian, spotlighting her sensuality and easy legato. Kharatian has at all times possessed an air of Golden Age glamour, and her informal sophistication right here underscored the optimism of the tribute.
Jillian Lewis’s up to date, attractive Victorian silhouettes matched the quirky, lighthearted tone of Jessica Lang’s “Beethoven Serenade” (the one piece that didn’t cope with endings ultimately). This work had the posh of effective stay musicians performing Beethoven’s Serenade for String Trio in D, Op. 8: Ko Sugiyama on violin, Allyson Goodman on viola and Charlie Powers on cello. The 15 transient, brisk actions drew generously on the dancers’ personalities, which was great to see — notably Wednesday’s winsome threesome within the eighth motion of Daniel Roberge, Katherine Barkman and Ayano Kimura. (This system options alternate casting all through the run.)
Impressed by the grief of her widowed grandmother, Texas-based choreographer Brett Ishida tackled a deeply poignant, poetic theme in “Residence-coming.” A refrain of girls in dramatic, ink-dark robes by native designer Judith Hansen evoked the inescapable, surreal nature of mourning, and the turbulent unconscious of a associate left unexpectedly alone. At one level, the dancers shed their skirts to reveal an underlayer of lace encasing their our bodies like a fragile net. There was an air of wildness and thriller all through; was it reminiscence alone that conjured the group of males who burst into their darkened house?
The ladies, tasked with extended pointework, had been heroic of their trendy apparel, which caught the slight glimmers of sunshine, hid and revealed the physique, and contributed to this work’s visible energy. But the music, principally excerpts of film soundtracks for “Moonlight” and “The King,” by Nicholas Britell, dominated and felt overly weighty, at odds with the dreamy, elusive sense that Ishida’s choreography evoked. In any other case, the accomplishment was exceptional. This was a visceral, textural portrayal of a profound puzzle: find out how to reconcile bodily absence with the lingering sensations of presence.
The Washington Ballet performs “NEXTsteps,” with forged adjustments, by way of June 26 at Sidney Harman Corridor. washingtonballet.org.