BWW Reviews: Lyon Opera Ballet Performs at the Joyce

The Lyon Opera Ballet, the acclaimed classically trained, contemporary dance company from France, opened at the Joyce Theater on Wednesday, April 29, 2015. The house was full and seemed full of anticipation.

Benjamin Millepied's Sarabande, which means constantly remaining "attentive to the music" and dancing as though being inspired by it (as stated in the program notes), combining bravura technique with a casual approach, opened the program. The curtain rose on a flautist, Stefan Regan Hoskuldsson, downstage right, beautifully playing extracts from the Partita for Solo Flute of Johann Sebastian Bach. Standing mid-stage was one of the four male dancers who performed this work, dancing as if improvising in spurts, and then repeatedly retreating into his mind. After the first two sections, Hoskuldsson was replaced by violinist Tim Fain, who played extracts from Bach's Sonatas No.1 and No.2, as well as the Partita No.1 for solo Violin, with aplomb. The dancers wore street attire, accomplishing a casual effect, but they did not display the technical mastery of bravura dancers. I tend to prefer seeing dancers who look as if they are enjoying what they are doing.

Sunshine, a work created by Emanuel Gat to Georg Friedrich Handel's Water Music, Suite no.2 in D major, HWV 349 (Overture and Bourree), was made for the Lyon Opera Ballet and premiered in September 2014. The dancers were dressed in different colored street clothes, moving in pairs of twos, threes, and more. For a time, this was interesting, especially while following the music. A peculiar trait of this work was the interspersing of silences or French spoken sections. The dancers sometimes danced in the silences, while at other times they froze during musical sections. Occasionally, the musicality of the movement seemed to be absent. This was somewhat explained in the notes, by Gat, "Apart from a few rare exceptions, my pieces are never created on music, but beside it". On every level, the seemingly long piece did not exhibit variety or change.

A treat was in store with the last work, Septext, choreography, set, costumes, and lighting by William Forsythe, to Johann Sebastian Bach's chaconne from the Partita no.2 for Solo Violin in D Minor, which premiered in 1985 by the Aterballetto in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and has been in the repertoire of this company since March 15, 1987. Three dynamic men, Raul Serrano Nunez, Marco Merenda, and Roylan Ramos in black, and Dorothee Delable in red, were exciting to watch, dancing on a black floor with black curtain and a square, white screen, center stage. All elements contributed to the high energy, at times, effervescent feel of this performance. The explosive choreography, the high level of the dancers, the set and costumes, joined together within marvelous music

A successful ballet!

The Opera Ballet of Lyon will be at the Joyce Theater through May 3, 2015.

Photo credit: Michel Cavalca

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