BWW Reviews: NEW CHAMBER BALLET - Evocative Music Meets Distinct Choreography

Intimate, simple elegance. This is Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet in a phrase. A native from Munich, Germany, Magloire is a painter of movement tied in with a rich amalgam of musical flavoring, stemming from his early background and training as a composer. Wanting to avoid the distance created between dancer and audience caused with a theatrical stage, Miro presents all his work in City Center Studios, a bare bones space where the movement is afforded an honest look. Miro loves the intimacy of the studio. He loves the human to human tension it creates. For the 2013 season, Magloire presents a spattering of various flavors and colors by means of four distinct pieces.

The program started with a piece entitled, "Allow You To Look At Me," choreographed by guest artist, Constantine Baecher, former dancer of the Danish Royal Ballet, along with the other two dancers, ElizaBeth Brown and Holly Curran. This piece exposes the dancers themselves, and how as individuals they are able to relate and share their experiences with an audience. Careful, placed, even agitated this piece plays with motivation and manipulation of movement and examines how this affects the relationship between the dancers. Jonathan Parks-Ramage's narration threads throughout, giving voice to the dancers thoughts.

"Bitter End," choreographed by Magloire, allows the audience to eavesdrop onto the inner anguish and turmoil of a woman who is tormented with secret longings and obsessions. Danced by Sarah Atkins, the audience watches as she is slowly pulled apart by addictions. Her beautiful, flowing movement tries to conceal the inner torment that is represented through British composer Rebecca Saunder's score for piano and violin performed by Caroline Chin and Melody Fader. Hopelessness prevails in this beautiful performance by Atkins.

The third piece is a duet danced by Katie Gibson and performed on violin by Caroline Chin. Chin begins this piece, sweeping the audience away to a wild and exotic world, high in the air where only winged creatures and wisps of clouds dare soar. Gibson enters the stage and the scene is complete. The rest of "Moments" is a marriage between Salvatore Sciarrino's whistling, whispering score and Gibson's birdlike, twisting, reaching flourishes.

The final piece, "Lace," is a revival danced by all three dancers. This piece showcases Miro's fascination with clear, intentional movement and plays with stillness versus agitation, statuesque poses, and imagery of a single tree twisting and quaking in the wind. Italian composer, Luciano Berio, paints the backdrop to Magloire's choreography while the dancers command the stage with poise and dominance.

New Chamber Ballet continues to be a consistent home to musically sophisticated shows, dynamic performers, and an ever changing repertoire. A beautiful blend of evocative music melding with clean choreography; this is why we seek Magloire. Catch the companies next performance March 19th in Brooklyn.

Photo Credit: Kristin Lodoen Linder

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