For fans of more adventurous, contemporary dance, the high point of the Colorado Ballet season comes at the end with its annual mixed program, billed as “The Repertory Series.”
This year’s edition, which is much more exciting than its bland title might suggest, takes the company beyond its usual stock of story ballets, stretching the dancers (and audiences) with its varied movement vocabulary and choreographic styles.
Apart from a few, largely inconsequential bobbles during the opening performance Saturday evening, the company is in good form overall, and this program gives several lesser-known, up-and-coming company members opportunities in the spotlight.
The lineup of nicely complementary works progresses in chronological order, beginning with an established contemporary classic, continuing with a 6-year-old work gaining in popularity and culminating with a world premiere.
The elegantly constructed opener, “Leaves Are Fading” (1975), with its quiet, understated sensibility, is suffused with the gentle romance of autumn, as the heat of summer dwindles and the leaves begin to fade.
While perhaps not among Antony Tudor’s masterpieces, it is an enduring work that illustrates why he stands as one of the great ballet choreographers of the 20th century. This presentation is part of a year-long, international celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Although it has its bravura moments, the emphasis is on simplicity and connectedness, especially in the central duet. It is beautifully and seemingly effortlessly realized by the company’s reigning principals, Igor Vassine and Maria Mosina, who is back in peak form just months after a maternity leave.
This extended pas de deux is marked by several small yet wonderfully expressive moments, including one where the couple simply walks side by side, his arm lightly on her back, and the end, when she delicately touches his cheek before exiting.
Lar Lubovitch was a student of Tudor, and romantic echoes of “Leaves Are Fading” can be seen in “. . . smile with my heart” (2002), a snappy 20-minute work for three couples. It is set to the “Fantasie on Themes by Richard Rodgers,” Marvin Laird’s arrangement of six Rodgers songs, performed live onstage by a six-member ensemble.
While dominantly balletic, Lubovitch’s choreography also incorporates elements of modern dance and hints of soft shoe. There is often a kind of rhythmic, push-pull feeling, with the dancers undulating forward and then thrusting backward.
An especially striking combination comes in the opening section in which the dancers smoothly flow from an “S” curve into a circle, ending in a line, perpendicular to the front of the stage, with the couples bobbing in patterned alternation.
All three couples are uniformly strong in their distinctive sections. Principal Sharon Wehner impresses, as usual, with her flawless technical acuity, as she smartly executes a series of lifts with flexed-foot splits and rolls over the back of her partner, soloist Jesse Marks.
Emily Bromberg, a promising member of the corps, makes the most of her pairing with principal Alexei Tyukov in a wittily clingy duet, complete with her hanging off the front of him at one point.
The program concludes with what is probably the biggest crowd-pleaser, the world premiere of Dwight Rhoden’s “Straight Line to Never,” a high-voltage, highly physical work set to a score that jarringly combines baroque harpsichord music with the futuristic sounds of John Cage.
With a huge suspended circle and odd, clipped red tutus for the men and the women, the flashy 30-minute work for 10 dancers suggests a kind of imaginary world. But as inventive as the individual movements are, the work becomes repetitive and never really jells into anything substantive.
Deserving special mention is soloist Janelle Cooke, who is prominently featured in all three works. She rises to this unusual challenge with aplomb, ably handling the many stylistic shifts and technical hurdles along the way.
“The Repertory Series” shows again that good things do come in threes.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“The Repertory Series”
Ballet. Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. The Colorado Ballet presents a mixed program of three works: Antony Tudor’s “Leaves are Fading” (1975), Lar Lubovitch’s “. . . smile with my heart” (2002) and the premiere of Dwight Rhoden’s “Straight Line to Never.” 7:30 p.m. today, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. 2 hours, 10 minutes. $19-$145. 303-837-8888 or .
