Ballet Hispanico

[Helene]

In a thread about James Canfield, Oregon Ballet Theatre's ex-Artistic Director, Alexandra said, "My point, as always, is if you're going to call it a ballet company, then please perform ballets."

Tonight I went to see a performance by a company called Ballet Hispanico. I was at a loss where to put my impressions. The "Modern (and Other) Dance Performances" forum describes, "modern dance, show dancing, folk dance, or other classic dance forms." I don't think what I saw fits in any of those categories. I saw plenty of ballet technique and a few ballet moves; in fact, there was turnout in some of those attitudes and easy extensions to downright envy. I saw a woman on pointe in the last Act. (Her character was called "The Viper." About as subtle as the Trocs.) What I didn't see was ballet.

The structure of the piece, Nightclub, places each act in a Latin dance setting: 1920's dance club/brothel in a Buenos Aires barrio, Spanish Harlem dance club in the 1950's, and a NYC nightclub in 2003. In each act, there is a person personifying the outsider: a wealthier woman slumming in the barrio, a recent arrival from Puerto Rico, and a nerdy businessman in a suit who could have been out of the Revenge of the Nerds movie. (Someone please tell the choreographer that Bill Gates made being a nerd respectable.) A narrator tied the themes together, as well as giving a very upbeat, Broadway-like wrap-up, that turned into a very Broadway-like set of dancing curtain calls.

There were two parts with any emotional weight: in the first part, The Outsider is degraded by one of the men -- the one who, from the Balcony, resembled Julio Bocca -- and, of course, she loves it and begs for more. To keep the description PG-13, I'll just say that the scene involved two of Toni Bentley's latest interests. The second was at the end of the second part, when the outsider's home town woman from Puerto Rico arrives in NYC with her suitcase, only to find him dancing off with another woman. She stands downstage right, and, deflated, drops her suitcase. It reminded me of the end of the extended opening mime scene in Forbidden Christmas.

The rest struck me as a cross between the more mundane parts of Movin' Out and the Susan Stroman finale in Center Stage. While the dancers were very well trained, none of the women had a particularly Latin feel to their movement -- they looked like Broadway dancers to me in that respect, and in my opinion, the Norwegian dancer with non-stop legs who was featured as The Outsider, The Sophisticate, and The Viper danced about as Northern as she looked -- and only three or four of the men had separation and articulation in their hips and lower backs. Except for the music, I'm not sure it was really any more "Hispanico" than it was ballet. This was one of the few performances in the UW World Dance series that has left me downright disappointed.

[Amy Reusch]

I think there's a problem with thinking "ballet" means the same thing around the world in different languages. I've seen references to Martha Graham's ballets. I don't think the term "ballet" in "Ballet Hispanico" or "Ballet Folklorico" should be taken to mean the same thing as in "The Royal Danish Ballet". Even so, I don't think either of these companies would refer to themselves as "a ballet company"...

If you look at the definitions of "ballet" at www.dictionary.com : Dictionary.com's search results for "ballet", none of them even mentions pointe shoes or tutus.

Similarly, I've had trouble trying to figure out what foreigners mean when they refer to "classical dance".... does it mean classical in the sense of say classical Thai court dancers? Does it mean "classical" in it's subject matter and treatment of the art form... is Martha Graham's work "classical" in it's approach to technique... or does it mean specifically "ballet" and not neo-classical ballet or even romantic ballet but only say Petipa?

None of this has anything to do with whether you enjoyed Ballet Hispanico's performance; not having seen the performance in question I'm not in a position to defend or detract from it... but... I don't think it's right to fault them for not performing ballet.

Still, I often agree with Alexandra in spirit when it comes to ballet companies hiring modern choreographers instead of nurturing ballet choreographers... it just seems such a superficial repertory decision.

[sandik]

Well, I had a lengthy comment written, and managed to lose it, but will try again.

As a term, "ballet" is applied in many different ways, only some of them about the kind of work you seem to be advocating for here. Sometimes it's used for its historical value, sometimes as a kind of shorthand for theatrical dance in general. As Amy points out, Graham called her works ballets, and though I can think of many dances less like a ballet than Graham's work, it's always seemed like a linguistic stretch to me.

Several of the folkloric or "national ballet" companies formed in the 50's and 60's incorporate "ballet" in their names, mostly to indicate that the works they perform are theatricalized versions of their authentic predecessors. (Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, Les Ballet Africains National Dance of Guinea). In part, I think they took "ballet" as a part of their name to make themselves more acceptable to a Western or Euro-American audience.

As far as Ballet Hispanico is concerned, I think the "ballet" refers to a commonality in training for the dancers, and a kind of theatricalized version of the social and ritual dances that much of their rep is taken from. I looked at their website and much of the work they perform is in the same kind of fusion style as NightClub. They've had a wide variety of choreographers work with them, but even more "ballet" oriented dancemakers (like Daniel Duell and William Whitener) seem to be drawing on Latin materials in their commissions.

http://www.ballethispanico.org/company/prior_repertory.html

It seems a little cheesy to quote myself, but this is what I wound up saying about the show in a calendar spotlight in the Seattle Weekly.

"The "ballet" in Ballet Hispanico's performance of NightClub isn't about classicism, but about control, with passion held on a tight leash. A dance-theater work in three acts, NightClub features the company's signature combination of ballet, modern, and Latin forms, moving from the brothels of 1920s Argentina to contemporary dance halls, passing through 1950s Spanish Harlem and its social clubs."

[sandik]

Tangentially, there's an item in today's "Links" section about the characterization of the newly selected heir to the throne of Cambodia as a "ballet" dancer. He has performed some of the court dances of his country (though it's not clear to me if he's ever danced with the national company, which has been called the "Royal Ballet of Cambodia" in some of its press), but I don't think he makes any kind of claim to have performed the danse d'ecole.

[Mel Johnson]

He learned classical western ballet in his schooling in Prague. He worked in Paris for a couple of places like the Centre Marius Petipa, and choreographed at least one work which mixed both Khmer and western idioms.

[sandik]

Good to know -- many thanks for the clarification.