The company presents seven new 7-minute pieces, plus a fragment of a repertory work, in the friendly confines of the England Studio Theatre. The studio, part of the company's complex on Wisconsin Avenue, has been transformed into a passable performance space, the existing three rows of benches augmented with three additional rows of chairs.

What the evening lacks in good sight lines, it makes up for in intimacy. The dancers are mere feet away from the audience, so every squeaky pointe shoe is heard, every insuck of breath is audible.

Trey McIntyre opens with evening with an enjoyable group grope set to David Bowie's "Memory of a Free Festival." All combinations of polymorphous partnering are explored, boys partnering boys, girls partnering girls, even Erin Mahoney partnering Jason Hartley.

Elizabeth Gaither is expressive in Stephen Mills' "Desire," an aching, haunting exploration of a woman reluctantly extricating herself from a relationship. Arvo Part's score, "Spiegel im Spiegel," for piano and violin, is perfectly matched by the dance, the high point of the evening.

Sona Kharatian shows off her beautiful long arms in Donald Byrd's "L'Après Midi/La Nuit," and Michele Jimenez and Runqiao Du dance an exuberant balcony scene from Septime Webre's Romeo and Juliet.

After the break, Sergei Rachmaninoff provides the music for Lila York's "Sostenuto." In one passage, Jimenez is partnered by a daisy chain of six men. We see more of Hartley's naked chest in his own solo, "Underneath," set on a John Lennon song.

Allison Walsh masters the tricky "Seego" by Albert Evans, with a score from Matthew Fuerst's clarinet quartet. It's the most avant-garde, deconstructionist piece, with a snazzy jump borrowed from Paul Taylor.

The closing piece, "tink tank," by Vladimir Angelov, is the only one that works in opposition to its music, a J. S. Bach piano concerto. It's also the most light-hearted. A boy and a girl are beset by a four men undergoing some sort of Dionysian transformation—whatever it is, they make furry woodland creature ears with their hands, then tear their shirts off and dance with them. She joins the revels, and then at last wins him over as well.

We can count the evening a success, even though most audience members saw only 75% of any given piece. Artistic Director Septime Webre is a savvy marketer: he's doing a great job of trying new things to expose his audience to the company, the ballets, the dancers, and the choreographers in new ways, and thereby to involve them more closely with the community of the Washington Ballet.

posted: 11:06:22 PM  

Michael Toscano was kind to me again.

posted: 5:51:40 PM