Ballet Argentino

[Helene]

Julio Bocca is touring with his troupe, Ballet Argentino, and they are now in Seattle.

The program started with a pas de deux to Barber's Adagio for Strings. I have to admit that I only think of JFK's funeral when it's played, regardless of the choregraphy. Since it wasn't listed in the program, I can only say that Bocca was the man, that both dancers wore medium blue unitards, that there was severe "mood" lighting, that the choreography looked a bit generic, and that they danced it very well.

Next was Le Corsaire pas de deux. There are four dancers other than Bocca who are listed at the top of the troupe. Two of them, Rosana Perez and Hernan Piquin danced in this piece. Piquin looked like a taller Rudy Galindo, and was a bit brooding. Despite this, he had nice, light rhythm in his turns and really nice form and extension in his jumps. He looked rather exotic in the part. Perez' dancing was strange: while she projected really well, and she had lovely feet, her turnout was limited and whenever she turned, supported or solo, she looked more like a top, with her legs tilted outward and her pelvis making a wide circle. The turns weren't off the axis like Farrell's; she somehow managed to look centered over her toes, but it looked so odd. The lighting was harsh, as if all the electricity saved in the first piece was used to light the second.

Last in the first half of the program was Maurico Wainrot's Desde Lejos, with music by Wim Mertens. Apart from the opening of the piece for all of the dancers, both the music sounded and the choreography looked derivative, the music in the style of Phillip Glass and Steven Reich, and the dance in Nacho Duato's Arenal and Jardi Tancat vein, with occasional bursts of Jiri Killian. Not that it mattered, because the company looked fantastic in the piece and danced it with brio and conviction. Cecilia Figaredo was Julio Bocca's partner in the pas de deux (second and second-to-last movements), and even when he was given an occasional virtuoso burst, she still managed to hold my attention, and to me, matched his charisma. She didn't have just energy, she had spirit.

The second half was Ana Maria Stekelman's The Man in the Red Tie, and, for the first time in a long time, I am really stumped. I thought it was a hoot, and I mean that in the best sense, but I'm not sure if it's a good piece. I think it's great that the title role, danced by Bocca, is the straight man, and apart from the Eifmann-like prologue, where the evil Marchand makes the Man in the Red Tie paint himself to death , he is actually the tertiary character, after Marchand and The Woman, brilliantly performed by Jean Francois Casanovas and danced by Cecilia Figaredo. The male ensemble, clad in Blue Ties, is of equal importance. I think it got better immediately after Stekelman dropped the Eifmanisms and established her own voice, which happened in Act I, in the Art Gallery scene, although the unusual and mesmerizing hand and arm movements she gave to Marchand were evident from the beginning.

Because of the Marchand character, there was a lot of mime, and, happily the troupe didn't fall into the trap of acting instead of miming. There were several dream scenes, including one that culminated in a sex scene from the woman's dream point of view, and unlike Eifmann, she did not turn it into a nightmare. Definitely not a first date ballet. On the other hand, Julio Bocca at nearly 40 is in the age-appropriate dream object category The projections of paintings by Antonio Segui and the lighting by Roberto Traferri were terrific and partners in the production.

I don't know if Bocca partnered Figaredo in the opening ballet, but his partnering looked like a dream in every ballet in which he danced. Meany Hall isn't a large theater, and the seating is fairly close to the stage, and everything he did looked smooth as silk. He should be proud of this Company. He has a group of really good men who seem to be looking up to him and dancing to his high standards, and there's one shorter, dark-haired man who is superb. (Unfortunately, that's about as specific as saying the blond boy in the corps of the Royal Danish Ballet, but the only way I could distinguish him is that in the finale of Desde Lejos, he and his partner danced in the back row behind Bocca and Figaredo.) Not that the women aren't wonderful, but seeing two Companies in a week with great men -- Ballet Argentino and San Francisco Ballet -- made a vivid impression on me. I'm so used to women dominating.

[Old Fashioned]

Thanks for the report! I'm so upset I missed this when they came to Houston...but there's nothing I could do when they were scheduled to perform on a school night. :rolleyes: