From 1910, in his seminal art theory book, On the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian painter who was one of the greatest early abstract artists, envisioned the concentric trinity of the visual arts, music and dance as separate in that each “has its own strength which cannot be substituted for another,” but also “combined in their innermost tendencies.” He continued, “From this inner tendency will arise, in the future, the truly monumental art, which today we can already foresee. Anyone, who absorbs the innermost hidden treasures of art, is an enviable partner in building the spiritual pyramid, which is meant to reach into heaven.”
In its current production Pictures at an Exhibition, Ballet West has transformed the stage at Capitol Theatre in downtown Salt Lake City into a magnificent spiritual pyramid, with a transcendental triple-bill that is absolutely breathtaking from start to finish. It is a masterpiece of a universal conversation with art, music and ballet that combines the finest of each art form’s “innermost tendencies.”
Photo; Beau Pearson.
George Balanchine’s Serenade, the opener, set the mark for the insightfully curated production theme that Adam Sklute, Ballet West artistic director, envisioned. As noted in The Utah Review‘s preview, the company’s latest performance celebrates the 90th anniversary of this piece, based on Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. It was the first work the famous choreographer set in the U.S. Balanchine also was a formative influence for the other two choreographers featured on the Pictures triple-bill.
Balanchine’s choreographic interpretation of the music that Tchaikovsky considered among his finest works he composed (in 1880) matches it in heart and its “inner compulsion,” a point exquisitely executed by 21 dancers with featured artists Emily Adams, Katlyn Addison, Victoria Vassos, Adrian Fry and Dominic Ballard (on opening night). The music, especially in the first two movements is Mozartean — light, happy and luscious. The second movement’s waltz is more balletic than any of the Viennese waltzes by the Strausses. Serenade is classical regalness but also lighthearted for the most part.
Balanchine’s delightful wabi-sabi touches fit perfectly, which he incorporated into the work from its provenance. The slip-ups are deliberate and effective: a dancer falls and gets back up immediately, the hair comes undone for one of the dancers and another comes in late. Balanchine also flipped the last movements of the Tchaikovsky score: the Volga ‘hauling song’ along with a reprise of the opening movement’s famous chorale instead is followed by the Elegia, the original third movement. This produced some of the finest moments in Serenade, as the dancers perfectly characterize the florid, tender melodic writing, which is often shadowed by a darker tone that occasionally takes on angst in character. The Ballet West Orchestra strings, conducted by Jared Oaks, played precisely to the arcs and contoured phrasings evident in Balanchine’s choreography. Also, happy to report how much the acoustics and sound engineering have improved in the hall since last season.
Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, the first of the evening’s two Utah premieres, was even more playful, beautifully layered in light and characters with a musical score that was played with utmost subtleties and translucence. In Golden Hour, which was premiered by the San Francisco Ballet in 2008, three main couples, supported by four other pairs, create seven scenes bathed in the warm, tender light of the golden hour. It is the magic window of sunlight within an hour either before sunset or just after sunrise.
The seven choreographic paintings (inspired in part by painter Gustav Klimt’s use of ornate gold leaf to create mosaics of light, shadows and forms) are astonishing in how they capture the short-lived beauty of earthly pleasures. The three main couples — Lexi McCloud and David Huffmire, Victoria Vassos and Dominic Ballard and Amy Potter and Jordan Veit (on opening night) — are leading characters who improvise a story, supported by four other couples. Together, they weave the motifs of pleasure, ecstasy and cosmic sensations with a fine acknowledgment of the unifying throughline across the seven scenes.
The lighting design, created by James Ingalls and recreated here by Mark Stanley, emerges as its own character. Photographers consider the golden hour as the best light of day for outdoor images. The soft, golden backlight glow offers an ethereal halo of rim light to bathe the dancers. With Golden Hour, Wheeldon, an internationally award-winning choreographer, produces an excellent artistic case of the spiritual pyramid, as Kandinsky articulated it in his theoretical treatise.
As an offstage character that flatters the movement on stage and lighting design, the live music features six short pieces by the late Ezio Bosso, Italy’s greatest minimalist composer, and the Andante from Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in B flat major, RV583 (which becomes a jewel of a backdrop for a little poetic masterpiece recreated on stage). Wheeldon had intended to use French psalms for the score when he began to set Golden Hour in 2008 but on the first day of rehearsal, he changed his mind and landed quickly on Bosso’s music. The titles of Bosso’s pieces are imagistic: The sky seen from the moon, Le Notti…, a trio of dances titled On Thunder, On the Tree, Worried, and the closing section of the work, I Was Born A Child (African Skies). It also is a showcase for the Ballet West Orchestra strings, with outstanding solos from Aubrey Woods, concertmaster, and Sunny Johnson, viola.
Completing the triptych in this exceptional Ballet West production is the Utah premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Monumental artistic grandeur is the apt descriptor for how Ratmansky manifests the spiritual vision of the trinity of dance, art and music. Ratmansky’s Pictures is set for 10 dancers to the original piano score for Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and features projections of Kandinsky’s Color Study Squares with Concentric Circles.
This was Ballet West at its finest: courtesy, on opening night, to Amy Potter and Adrian Fry, Katlyn Addison and David Huffmire, Lexi McCloud and Jordan Veit, Lillian Casscells and Tyler Gum, Nicole Fannéy and Jake Preece. In the final week of preparations, Ratmansky came to Salt Lake City to put finishing touches on the work — a point noted in the preview at The Utah Review. “This is an honor he rarely bestows on the many companies that perform his pieces,” Sklute said. Ratmansky is a Russian-Ukrainian choreographer who was the former Bolshoi Ballet director before coming to the States, where he lives, and works with American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet.
No question: Ratmansky’s finishing touches were evident. The dancers evolved into complex characters: one moment, they seem like museum gallery visitors absorbing the projected images of Kandinsky’s art and in another, they delve into characters reminiscent of the paintings of Viktor Hartmann, the artist to whom Mussorgsky dedicated his score.
Ratmansky’s use of Kandinsky is fascinating, precisely for heeding the artist’s argument for the dual effects of colors. It is not just what pleases our eyes but the dancers also communicate the soulful vibration that Kandinsky said is important for manifesting colors’ dual effects. The dancers respond to changing colors and forms in the projected images, with movement that allows us to glimpse the inner essence of the person performing.
Likewise, Vera Oussetskaia-Watanabe’s performance of Mussorgsky’s piano score paralleled the same emotional and philosophical heart of Ratmansky’s choreographic rendering, without needing to embellish it superfluously. The radiance on stage achieved in the final scene imagining the grand carillon of Kyiv and the voices of orthodox choirs could not have been a better cap to the evening. This is truly monumental art.
Three performances remain (Nov. 14 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. and a Nov. 16 matinee at 2 p.m.). For tickets and more information, see the Ballet West website.