BWW Reviews: Ballet Hispanico Opens at the Joyce Theater

On Tuesday, April 14th, 2015, Ballet Hispanico opened its season. Under the artistic direction of Eduardo Vilaro, who became the company's second artistic director in 2009 since the company was founded and directed in 1970 by Tina Ramirez, the repertoire and feel has changed. Today's Ballet Hispanico tends toward the contemporary.

The curtain opened with the New York premiere of the 2014 Showgirl, choreographed by Rosie Herrera, her first work for this company. Seven women wearing pastel pink, shapeless shifts were in a line, moving from one pose to another, speaking occasionally. Via staccato thoughts and movements, the dancers spoke to women's roles and mannerisms, with an emphasis on those of Latinas. They sometimes repeated mediocre English phrases in Spanish. When the scene eventually changed, men in white, with white feather fans, actually looked like show boys. The music came in here: Earth wind and Fire, Ennio Morricone, 10cc, and Nina Rota. The men moved in patterns that made their large fans into unified patterns. When they moved their fans, they revealed a diva in a gold dress. She posed, looking bored, uninterested in her diva role. This work illuminated the box in which many women live. Showgirl is actually more dance theater than strict dance choreography.

A world premiere, Conquer, choreographed by Miguel Mancillas to music of Ricardo Leon, with costumes by Diana Ruettiger and lighting design by Bob Franklin, continued the theme of exploration of human character. Nine dancers were on stage, each dancing alone and sometimes in pairs. The music was somber, deep, and intense. The program notes explained: "This is a raw and athletic work that explores, through notions of power and possession, the ways in which we seek to conquer spaces and people." What we saw were public relationships, confrontations, and conversations, sometimes brusque and/or sexual, often unresolved, which asked the audience to try to understand what was actually transpiring between the dancers. We were left with questions after the piece: "Was that rape or a man having his way with a woman who went off in a huff, at the end of the interchange? Why was one man insisting a woman go back to the man she'd just left? Why were others standing around, watching, doing nothing?" There were nearly as many questions as encounters. Perhaps this was the intention of Mancillas.

The atmosphere lifted with the rhythms and more upbeat music of the third piece, El Beso, choreographed by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano.Ramirez Sansano's first work for Ballet Hispanico is a spirited look at the nuances of a kiss, set to Spanish Zarzuela music and featuring original costumes by Venezuelan fashion designer, Angel Sanchez. The music and the movement were very entertaining, fluid, and musical as they explored relationships (the theme for this program), between couples, both heterosexual and homosexual, as well as group behavior. The actual kiss involved two men Particularly engaging in all three ballets was Min-Tzu Li, a native of Taiwan.

Ballet Hispanico will continue its run at the Joyce Theater with four programs, through April 26, 2015.

Photo credit: Andrea Mohin

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