ASPEN — Since arriving in 2006 as the executive head of the Aspen Music Festival, Alan Fletcher has made collaboration of all kinds a priority.
To that end, the festival invited the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, a crosstown arts peer with an international reputation, to perform last summer for the first time under its auspices.
The experiment proved enormously successful both artistically and at the box office.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that the two organizations joined forces again this summer for a slightly more ambitious program Wednesday evening. The result was an equal if not bigger hit, with loud cheers erupting from the sold-out audience.
Unlike the handful of musicians who provided backup last year, Wednesday’s two selections were accompanied at the rear of the Benedict Music Tent stage by the Aspen Concert Orchestra, ably led by conductor Ryan McAdams.
The evening began with “Wolfgang,” a crowd-pleaser created for the ballet in 2005 by David Parsons, who was in attendance.
Parsons pulls off the difficult trick of creating choreography that is breezy and informal (a feeling reinforced by the dancers’ bluejeans and casual shirts and tops) while simultaneously infusing the work with a sense of precision and classicism.
The two fast sections are the most balletic, but he throws in pivots, thrusts and acrobatic moves that provide a contemporary flair. Good cheer and bits of mischief run throughout, with witty moments such as when one of the women poses princesslike on the slightly bent back of a man and then archly brings her hand to her chin to magnify the effect.
The evening concluded with Jorma Elo’s “1st Flash,” with its highly kinetic movement suffused with flicks, jerks, twists and unexpected contortions. It is set to the last two movements of Sibelius’ famed Violin Concerto, but the orchestra performed the entire work, with soloist Andrew Wan, a festival student, bringing remarkable depth and maturity to his playing.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
