Whim W'him "Instantly Bound"

[Helene]

Tonight was the opener for Whim W'him's three-day run at the Cornish Playhouse (formerly Intiman Theater) of it's "instantly Bound" program.

"instantly Bound" is also the opening piece that Olivier Wevers choreographed for BalletX. It makes great use of stillness and ends with a remarkable anguished pas de deux for Tory Peil and Kyle Johnson. The middle piece, "Crossroads" is by Spanish choreographer Juanjo Arques, the first premiere of the evening. Arques uses a simlar movement vocabulary as Wevers, and, like in "Instantly Bound," an electronic score. These two works I need to ponder some more, but I wanted to jot down some first impressions. The dancers are beautifully showcased in both of them, and Wevers wrote in the program that this is the first year that the entire company is under contract.

The last piece, "Les Sylphides," set to the Glazunov orchestration of Chopin pieces, was a dinner party for three couples, a Carabosse-like latecomer, and a table, one of the aluminum tables from "One Flat Thing Reproduced" borrowed from PNB. ( It received even more action than in the Forsythe.) Opening with movements evoking Spy vs. Spy from "Mad Magazine,it is described it as a "lighthearted romp." A romp, absolutely. Light-harded, hmm: I'm not sure it was any more of an endorsement of relationships than the first two pieces, but it showed a full range of humor in a constantly moving, shifting, intertwining modulating maelstrom of movement up, over, under, around, staccato, lanquid, freeze-frame, legato performed with such skill and dead-on timing to amaze.

A must see. There are performances tomorrow (Saturday) at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm. Go.

[Helene]

Both of Wevers works show his mastery of moving intermingling groups of dancers into morphing shapes and images and the dancers' mastery of working so closely together so well. There's so much risk of a missed pattern or spacing going on in the work.