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Kicking off its 38th season, Nevada Ballet Theatre proves innovation is timeless
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Nevada Ballet Theatre demonstrated this weekend how it's continuing to push the boundaries of classical dance with "Timeless Innovation," which opened the company's 38th season. Featuring a collection of works spanning decades and styles, "Timeless Innovation" was well-attended, well-received and offered just the right balance of classical and contemporary to satisfy most, if not all, ballet-lovers' tastes.
The three-piece program, performed Oct. 17 and 18 at UNLV's Artemus Ham Concert Hall, started with "Rubies," a piece from "Jewels," a George Balanchine-choreographed classic that first premiered in 1967. Featuring playful, dynamic music by Igor Stravinsky, "Rubies" offered a revival of classical style, a light, frolicking work performed in festive, ruby-adorned costumes courtesy of the Texas Ballet Theatre. While the ensemble segments were adequate, the duet of Alexandra Christian and Jeremy Bannon-Neches stood out in this fanciful performance.
Second in the program was "Coco," choreographed by NBT Artistic Director James Canfield, which originally premiered in 1999. As the title suggests, "Coco" is a tribute to the life and enduring influence of fashion maven Coco Chanel. A mixture of fantastic costumes, inventive lighting and period music (most of which by Edith Piaf) set the tone and era (1940s) for this semi-biographical piece, featuring jazz-inspired choreography, fun with dress forms and a romantic duet pairing Rebecca Brimhall and Grigori Arakelyan. After a life inspiring style, courting men and defining an era, Brimhall-as-Coco fell to the floor in the final scene, the set changing mood to reveal dancers in cutting-edge, modern fashions as contemporary music filled the room, ambiguously evoking the legacy left behind even decades after Chanel's death.
"Jungle," the final work, was a Canfield original that debuted in 1995, this one as starkly different from "Coco" as the former was from "Rubies." Set to ambient electronic music from celebrated duo Future Sound of London, "Jungle" offered manic, flowing, modern choreography and minimalist lighting, letting the artists' bodies -- adorned in colorful leotards resembling body paint -- tell their own stories. The fusion of classical and contemporary styles moved so quickly, ofttimes dancers' movements appeared as no more than rainbow blurs. And when a giant, lit backdrop appeared toward the middle of the piece, the artists became one with the artwork, itself like graffiti Picasso would have painted after an African adventure. In "Jungle," NBT's dancers best demonstrated their proficiency as ensemble artists, moving in dizzying synchronization to the very end.
Nevada Ballet Theatre's next production is the holiday classic "The Nutcracker," running Dec. 18 to 20 and 24 at Paris Las Vegas. Visit nevadaballet.com for more details.
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