Ballet Hispanico's BHdos Company performed on Sunday, September 1, 2013 at 2p.m. Part of Harlem Meer Performance Festival the company performed to an enthusiastic full audience in Central Park.
They performed two ballets with a perfectly natural daylight sky as the backdrop. The two ballets were Danubio, and Nube Blanco. In Danubio, we can see how choreography by Nicholas Villeneuve shows us were earth/land meets the river. We see how we travel with European countries to follow the river going under for submersion and we begin to land back on earth. In the second ballet called Nube Blanco whose choreography is by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, features flamenco dance with the added contemporary background to give the dance forms a strong line the works well both on the female and the male body.
Danubio features three couple who present themselves with a mission. They stand tall and they take on different shapes, almost like animal figures. They start to prance then they swivel turn by themselves and with partners. Within the three couples, each couple starts to travel around the stage with waves as their motion. Since the geography both the earth and the river connects with most European country, using the river in the choreography I thought the dancers showed it beautifully. Each body connected one to the next without being alarming; I wanted to see where it was going to take me next. The dancers would stop and then they would repeat this again. They piece is an art piece and you have to catch the moment as it goes. The dancers have to be strong technically to keep up the stamina and to show the grace of the dance.
The visual aspect of this piece, the males wore grey blue chiffon like short and the females also wore grey blue chiffon midriff top and shorts. Together the men and women danced beautiful duets. They showed conflicts then calmness of going underwater then resurfacing all in a quicker glance. The music that they choose to started with the piano, violin and strings, chain sounds start to play when dancer hook on to one another more, and then finally the music culminates with lively strings. This is a well thought out piece in dancers, choreographer, music, storyline, grace.
Nube Bianco brings flamenco to Harlem. In this ballet we see how the choreographer Annbelle Lopez Ochoa shares the culture of flamenco dance with contemporary dance. We see the start of the ballet where the male dancer comes out as somewhat in the image of a bull then his female partner comes running out to him. He lifts hers up with his strength, and following this interaction he puts her down and then the other dancers come running onto the stage.
Dancers stamp their feet and clap their hands by making different rhythms. To me the dancers clap in a pattern of three. The dancers use their bodies in spirals. They jump a lot. Sometimes the dancers have to even catch each other in mid-jump in different ways that you have to go see to see the different dynamics. The crinoline skirt as a costume is an added source for the party feeling and makes the jumping look like the females are bouncing. The Contrast to this ballet is it became a little more hands on; the dancers would push each other and then make up. They still had a level of respect for each other. They call out short phrases such as 'guapo.' This dance is like seeing the dancers let themselves loose into their character. The females do show gorgeous wrist holds in the way they twist their arms and their flamenco hands. The male dancers do slides to some flamenco melodies; they also have their own arm movements that share their masculinity.
In between the two pieces the audience was directed to show off what they have to offer on the dance floor. The audience came up with a bunch of their own steps. They also followed along in the directors steps. It was great to see that everyone can boogie. The audience danced for about twenty minutes. The Ballet Hispanic first company performs in New York, all 50 states and around the world. Getting everyone involved by dancing or watching dance; be it the student, teacher, dancer, parents, audience, will only help to expand their nice size audience. They will be performing this fall 2013 season.
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