Tragedy and Comedy

by Janet Anderson

Clever artistic director Roy Kaiser put together a seamless program for Pennsylvania Ballet. Wanting everyone to see his troupe's astonishing range, he acquired Christopher Wheeldon's neo-classical Continuum, as well as rights to Jerome Robbins' comic masterpiece The Concert.

Wisely, however, he started things off with Balanchine's pretty-in-pink Raymonda Variations. Balanchine used Glazounov's 19th-century ballet music but choreographed steps at angles and speeds that would have astonished the Russian composer. Tight corps precision and great soloists supported James Ady and Arantxa Ochoa in the central pas de deux. Ady soared, executing crisp beats of the feet, gorgeous turns and leaps, never losing his centering or placement. He made it absolutely clear why he'd just been promoted midseason to principal dancer. Ochoa, with her Balanchine look and beautiful quicksilver technique, gleamed, too.

Continuum gave us a look at Wheeldon choreography with no swans and no Tchaikovsky. Wheeldon chose a challenging atonal and rhythmically eccentric score by Hungarian Gyorgy Ligeti to create a dance inspired by post-9/11 emotions. As the curtain rose a few feet, it left a narrow path of light. Here silhouetted dancers, four couples, crouched and slid into position. As the light ascended, their movements lifted upward. The eight were a sharp ensemble; no one could have guessed that three stepped in at the last minute due to first cast injuries. Brian Debes shifted an inert Julie Diana like a fragile porcelain doll from place to place, making her subsequent flowing solo seem a transformation. Riolama Lorenzo, celebrating her own midseason promotion to principal dancer, and James Ihde were like two pieces of the same whole in sinuous, interwined movements. The curtain descended slowly, trapping the dancers in a shallow ribbon of brightness across the stage. Then darkness extinguished them.

The Concert, Jerome Robbins' ballet comedy, sends up concertgoing pretensions. Onstage pianist Martha Koeneman took her place, making various amusing adjustments to her bench and piano. As she warmed up for her Chopin recital, her onstage audience noisily arrives, pushing chairs around and arguing over seat placement. From the music enthusiast (Riolama Lorenzo) to the annoying gum-chewers, these are familiar audience experiences. Christine Cox was droll as the prim-mouthed wife swatting her husband David Krensing, who is too busy ogling the pretty enthusiast to care. Krensing turned in a hilarious comedy performance while Lorenzo spun beautifully out of his grasp. Meanwhile, Tara Keating was a hoot as the one girl in the ballet corps always in the wrong place or on the wrong foot. Even the wrong foot was perfect in this program.

Pennsylvania Ballet April 27, Merriam Theater