BWW Reviews: Juilliard Dances Repertory

The Juilliard School presented an interesting program on the afternoon of April 7, 2013, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. Before I even start my review, I want to extend my congratulations to Lawrence Rhodes, the Juilliard Artistic Director, for his commitment and dedication in producing, what is in my mind, some of the best graduate dancers I have ever seen-and I've seen many of them over the years. These dancers are what we need in our artistic venues, whether as performers, or, as I hope, future administrators, teachers and choreographers. Time will tell. My only problem: will there be enough places for the dancers when they graduate? I hope so. When you scrutinize highly gifted college artists, you want them to exit, blazing and seething with their talent, ready to change the artistic world around them. By their ardor and enthusiasm, they only help to reinforce our country's need for greater commitment to the arts, which is sorely lacking and much needed. Mr. Rhodes, keep up the splendid work. I'm always watching your dancers.

Leading off the program was Four Brubeck Pieces, choreography by Murray Louis and music by Dave Brubeck. I have always found Louis to be an engaging, if erratic, choreographer. He wants to show off his intelligence, but his choreography is not up to this challenge. It can be engaging, but it can also be slight and negligible. Having seen Four Brubeck Pieces a number of times, my own reaction is that it's clever, but not much more. I always come away from a performance feeling as if the dancers had lavished more skill on the piece than it actually deserved. The music by Brubeck is bouncy and rhythmic, but this is not enough. The novelty of a jazz piece wears off soon. I want to know what it is about this piece that makes it interesting for an audience. Even with live backup from members of the Juilliard Jazz Division, I still have my own doubts. But since I am not the programmer, I'll just say that all the dancers displayed prodigious skills in this work-which was quite a lot.

Paul Taylor's Sunset is one of his most beautiful pieces. I have seen it at least 50 times since its premiere in 1984, and I am always surprised at the new things I find in it. Set to Edward Elgar's Serenade for Strings and Elegy for Strings, the dance, outwardly, is about a group of army men leaving their sweethearts (if I can use such a word in 2013) behind as they ship off. But where are they going? Off to war, off to training. The genius of the dance is that we really never know, but we do feel the pangs of love that may be lost or forgotten.

From the beginning of the dance we see men dressed in chinos, brown shoes and red berets. They dance languidly, but soon build up speed. Two men dance an achingly beautiful pas de deux. Will they ever see one another again? A young woman enters and the mood changes. She might be in love with one of the soldiers, which is best illustrated in the sequence where she is lifted on one soldier's shoulders and then begins a descent onto the backs of five others. Here, there is no question of how choreography propels, what seems like a simple dance, into something bordering on genius. The dots are connected. It doesn't mean anything in the literal sense, but it suggests the unanswerable by a simple gesture. This is brilliance--short, sweet and to the point. And heartbreaking too.

The Juilliard orchestra played the Elgar music beautifully, and the dancers seemed ennobled, as though taking a special pride in their profession. Kudos to the ensemble: Julia Headley, Raymond Pinto, Christopher Kaiser, Michele Carter, Evan Schwarz, Alexander Jones, Nicholas Ramiro, Jordan Lefton, Jenna Pollack and Solana Temple.

William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, reproduced borders on the crazy and tempestuous. I suppose it was a good idea to present a contrasting piece to the program, but I admit that I have always found it difficult to accept Forsythe's vision. He seems like a choreographer with a million ideas in his head, yet he can't quite pinpoint the one he wants to use-so he uses all of them. Here the dancers push out tables and then proceed to jump, spring, bounce, pounce across them. Lots of noise, but not much substance. Choreographically, it is empty. Compare it to the Taylor piece, which is unfair, but art is unfair. Taylor's work is challenging for the reason that its simplicity is a just a mask. Tensions and passions seethe beneath the calm exterior. In the Forsythe, all is noise. The dancers were magnificent. They mastered every step, jump, push that was given to them. But the dance offered little imagination to work with. Dancers need works that spotlight not only their technical skills, but, may I say it, their minds and souls as well. This one definitely was not it.

If I had to sum up the day I would say that it was impressive day for the dancers, if a less than stellar day for choreography.Still, I have to reiterate that, based on talent alone, these dancers are ready for their close-ups. I truly hope that they get them.

Photo: Rosalie O'Connor

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