BWW Reviews: NEW CHAMBER BALLET, A Tenth Anniversary Worth Celebrating

On Saturday September 21st, the New Chamber Ballet, directed by Miro Magloire, celebrated its 10th anniversary with a five-piece program at the City Center Studios. The New Chamber Ballet features a small, but talented, company that showcases new choreography set to live music. Magloire always presents his work in a studio setting; this allows for a very intimate relationship between the performers and audience. Magloire, who began his career as a composer in Germany, moved to New York to study dance; he started his company in 2004 and has created over 60 ballets for the company. This evening's program featured four of Magloire's works as well as a piece by Constantine Baecher, the company's resident choreographer. Before each piece, Magloire gave a verbal description of the piece, including information about the music and composer. As an accomplished and knowledgeable musician himself, Magloire is able to provide helpful insight regarding the time period and quality of music to which the dance is choreographed.

The first piece, "Fast Forward," featured three dancers, Sarah Atkins, Holly Curran and Traci Finch and set to Rondo for Violin and Piano, by Ludwig van Beethoven. The piece was performed by violinist Doori Na and pianist, Melody Fader; it must be noted that the dancers and the musicians seemed to have a very nice rapport and understanding of each other's craft. As hinted to in the title, this piece involved quick pointe work and was reminiscent of a Balanchine-like use of the extremities. What was notable about this piece was Magloire's use of spatial patterns. By incorporating a series of quick movement along a diagonal and grand jetés (leaps) that circled upstage, there was a three-dimensional feeling to the piece; a quality that can be absent in work that is set in a bare studio with a lack of lighting and set design. From this first piece, it was clear how technically proficient the dancers were; these women continued to impress me as the evening continued.

In both, "Tilting/Leaning" set to Notations by Pierre Boulez, and "Raw" set to Klangwolfe by Mauricio Kagel, I was very much impressed with the incredible strength and control of the dancers. In "Tilting/Leaning," Atkins and Finch were joined by Amber Neff in a piece that focused on the transfer of body weight and an innovative use of partnering. In most ballet companies there are usually male dancers to do the "heavy lifting" so to speak. Traditionally, the role of the male dancer has been to support and lift the female dancer. These pieces demonstrated that women can partner each other and, furthermore, that these partnerships may be more interesting and creative uses of the human body than conventional pas de deux work. For example, in the beginning of the piece the dancers leaned into each other and made contact only at the forehead while they were balancing with their bodies inclined toward one another. A memorable display of virtuosity occurred when Atkins executed a penché on pointe while being lightly supported by another dancer who was seated on the floor.

"Raw" continued and expanded on the use of this contact and partnering work. For such slight dancers, Finch and Neff were able to carry and support each other with apparent ease. The dancers created shapes with their bodies in which they seemed to meld into each other and create seamless, intertwined positions with each other. The dancers were on pointe and wearing nude colored unitards with red and blue splattering, perhaps alluding to muscles and veins, respectively. Magloire creatively made use of the somewhat limited venue by having the dancers bounce and reverberate against the walls and arching backwards across the piano.

"In the Cold," set to Erik Satie's Pieces Froides, was the only solo of the evening and performed by Curran. This was the only one of Magloire's work that featured movement on flat, as opposed to pointe work. While it was nice to see the range of Magloire's choreographic abilities, I was more inspired by his choreographic abilities for duos and trios of women on pointe.

Before the final piece, "Happy Dance of the Wild Skeletons", choreographed by Constantine Baecher, Magloire instructed the audience to reposition ourselves along the perimeter of the dance space; this piece was intended to be seen from multiple angles. The dancers, Finch and Neff, donned playful, colorful costumes and performed in socks. Baecher has a much different style than Magloire; the movement had a very loose quality and was full of abandon. I particularly enjoyed being able to sit on the side of the performance space and observe the dancers from a close but unconventional angle. At one point the dancers stood side by side and tilted completely forward until they had no choice but to fall into a run. This movement was repeated a few times, and each time I slightly held my breath and hoped the women would not lean so far forward that they would fall face first into the ground! This piece, while requiring the use of a solid technique, had a childlike quality and was quite fun to watch. At one point, after the dancers had surreptitiously taken out the hair ties holding their braids, they bounced up and down continuously until their hair came completely loose.

New York City may be home to some of the largest and renowned dance companies in the world, but, as demonstrated by this evening's work, there is much value and artistry in small, lesser -known groups as well. Here's to another ten years!

Photo Credit: Tom Caravaglia

To post a comment, you must register and login.