BWW Reviews: MKE Ballet Stages Thrilling GENESIS: INTERNATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

An elegant genesis for dance happened throughout the past February weekend, and particularly on one Friday night. Here in the heart of Milwaukee's theatre district, finely dressed small girls or teenagers accompanied by their parents together with grown girls attached to their equally interested partners arrived at the historic Milwaukee theater in anticipation of Milwaukee Ballet and Artistic Director Michael Pink's unique Genesis: International Choreographic Competition.

A thrilling program reviving competition where three emerging choreographers travel from around the globe to showcase their original dances for Milwaukee. The premiere American choreographic competition features the talented MKE Ballet dancers. For the program, cach choreographer randomly selects their troupe by drawing eight names from a hat. Then the arduous work begins over an almost impossible short period of time to perfect these presentations.

In 2015, the Sixth Edition Genesis featured American Garrett Smith's "Mortal Form," Australian born Matthew James Tusa's "Reconnection" and Italian Ricardo De Nigris's "Can I Say Something...??" After experiencing numerous of these unique programs during the past six years, the trio of up and coming choreographers carefully integrate classical ballet, light, movement and sound into increasingly sophisticated dances. With technology's progress over this time, the electronically generated music and stage lighting designed by Jennifer Schriever, contribute significantly to the overall production quality, where the movements of the dance, the purist choreography, must connect to the audeience on its own merits without additional set designs.

On Friday night, Smith's "Mortal Form" opened the competition where gestural choreography contrasted with the ballerinas' classical tutus accompanied by music from Haydn and Mozart. The tutus fluttered to the dancers' movements and complemented the men's fluid and transparent open jackets. Costumes designed by Mary Piering and Milwaukee Ballet's Costume Shop attained more significance in these minimally staged productions. The five-part piece featured lighting to great effect, as did innovative ballet lifts, where the white and black tutus played against the opposite colored trousers on the men, which added fromal technique to the playful choreography.

"Reconnection" choreographed by Tusa approaches a story narrative, where a thread of a solemn story line develops between his four movements. Tusa explains in the program notes that this dance "moves through the complexity of our [humanity] psychological connection in the world" so in the first opening moments, Rachel Malehorn writhes in the center of a dancer's circle to sounds resembling a thumping heartbeat. Using music from several contemporary composers interspersed with an overture by Rossini, the piece intermingled humor into the evocative dance, which relied on intricate lighting, also integral to Tusa's visual presentation.

To end the innovative evening, De Negris's "Can I Say Something..??" showcased Massimo Margaria's music. Costumes--especially bow ties, bowler hats and braces with pleated trousers--revisit the "Master of Silence" Marcel Marceau's mime and René Magritte's painting series "Man with A Bowler Hat." Magritte's surreal elements in this dance also give way to some humor in these charming dances where lights, transitioning from bright, then night dark, or focused spotlight, enhances the dance's ambiance. For the finale, the music stops and spoken words punctuate the silence, which emphasizes De Nigris's own words that state, "Silence can command attention, the body movements become the words, the choreography is the language of the conversation."

Throughout the four days, the choreographic conversation focused the attention of three distinguished judges , each an Artistic Director at a highly regarded ballet company: Robert Curran, Louisville Ballet, Kevin Irving, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Stephen Mills, Ballet Austin. Each of these men concentrated and voted, afterwards naming Garrett Smith's "Mortal Form," the Genesis International Choreographic Winner. Ricardo De Nigris garnered the Audience Favorite Award, while Matthew James Tusa earned second place in both votes.

The additional winners were the Milwaukee audiences, and the history, the oeuvre, of classical ballet. In part because of these competitions, ballet and dance will enthrall audiences for future generations Art to inspire the men and women of every age, a pleasure to see in these theater seats, to applaude the gifted choreogrpahers. Their creativity requires immense confidence and courage, and the competition supports those characteristics so ballet will flourish. How fortunate Milwaukee, Pink and the Ballet Company strives to be the genesis that sparks a continued classical ballet renaissance.

The Milwaukee Ballet continues the 2014-2915 season with performances of Giselle, March 26-29 and Cinderella, May 14-17, at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. The photograph pictures Garrett Smith's "Mortal Form." For additional information on the Milwalukee Ballet, or the upcoming performances please call 414.902.2103 or visit www.milwaukeeballet.org.

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