Review: ICONIC WORKS at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Chamber Dance Project – Iconic Works
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Washington, D.C.
June 27, 2026

For her final production as Artistic Director of Washington, D.C.-based Chamber Dance Project (CDP), Diane Coburn Bruning chose to pair a few of her signature contemporary ballets with others from CDP’s rich repertory, along with a world premiere ballet by up-and-coming choreographer William Moore. 

The seasonal company’s stylistically diverse Iconic Works program was performed by professional dancers from Atlanta Ballet, BalletMet, Ballet Memphis, National Ballet of Canada, Washington Ballet, and several freelance dance artists, along with CDP’s string quartet, led by violinist Sally McLain, and guest musicians, Tony Award®-winning Americana band The Red Clay Ramblers.

It began with the premiere of former Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre dancer Moore’s “Murmur,” set to music by Mario Galeano Toro, Garth Knox, and Philip Glass, played live by CDP’s String Quartet.

The 15-minute, three-part ballet for five dancers was very loosely based on bird movements and the phenomenon of murmuration.

Part one of the ballet began with dancers Giles Deiello and Marius Morawski partnering Sophie Miklosovic in crisp, clean contemporary ballet movement that bent and thrusted. They gave way to dancer Cecilly Khuner, who performed a brief but captivating solo before joining Miklosovic in an expressive duet highlighted by precise arm and turning movements. A vibrant and uplifting duet section for Deiello and Morawski followed. Overall, Moore’s non-narrative choreography meshed well with the dancers’ performance of it and the music it was set to.  

The ballet’s second part featured dancer Lope Lim in a solo that seemed to unfold as a stream of consciousness. Lim appeared to translate whatever thoughts popped into his head into movement instantaneously, including swinging his arms about as if lashing out at something unseen. Throughout the solo, he moved with a delicious abandon. 

“Murmur’s” final section brought back the dancers from part one in two male-female couples, this time performing to the third movement of Philip Glass’ “String Quartet No. 5”. Unlike earlier in the ballet, Moore’s choreography at times looked a bit forced and clunky, perhaps because he tried a bit too hard to make it distinctive. It was a hiccup in an otherwise solid dance work.

After a delightful performance by CDP’s String Quartet in Russell Peck’s “Don’t Tread on Me or My String Quartet” from 1986, the program continued with Colburn Bruning’s 1994 masterwork, “Berceuse.” 

Set to Benjamin Godard’s heartfelt music of the same name, “Berceuse” was pure ballet magic. In its roughly six-and-a-half minutes, Colburn Bruning captured the essence of humanity. Tenderness, caring, melancholy, and beauty all combined to affirm the emotional power of ballet. The pas de deux was performed by young talents Lim and Jessy Fitzpatrick. The pair, while not having the gravitas of veteran dancers I have seen perform it previously, acquitted themselves nicely, and the ballet touched hearts as it always has. 

Next came Colburn Bruning’s “Chant” (2018). Possibly the most musically challenging of her ballets for general audiences, as it featured an atypical Gregorian chant and an early polyphonic score sung live by the Washington Men’s Camerata, “Chant” was nonetheless a superb ballet. 

Co-choreographed with Andile Ndlovu, “Chant” was a dark and moody ballet that opened with four women in hooded dresses bobbing up and down, their arms curved to their sides, looking like pre-flight birds. While the music struck a sacred tone and some choreographic imagery resembled ancient biblical paintings, parts of the opening section’s imagery appeared paganistic and sexualized. 

A trio of shirtless men in long skirts, dancing barefoot, replaced the women, forming a circle, grasping and lifting one another. The section had a Polynesian folk-dance vibe. Fitzpatrick and Lim then followed with an athletic pas de deux filled with partnered lifts, and the memorable ballet concluded with the entire cast moving through delicate, reverential choreography that felt like a prayer.

Rounding out Iconic Works, as was done for CDP’s 2024 production, Ramblin’, were two ballets set to music by The Red Clay Ramblers, performed live by the band, separated by two folksy music-only selections featuring the Ramblers and CDP’s String Quartet.

First up was Christian Denice’s marvelous and atmospheric “Book of Stones.” A sweeping contemporary dance work for three male-female couples who leaped, swayed, and slid across the stage in soaring and diving movements, like seagulls aloft a tide of air currents. Moving among them was featured vocalist Skyler Herrick, whose ethereal Nordic Kulning singing was like the ocean’s siren call luring them closer. With its mix of skillfully constructed choreography, deft dancing and sensorial music, “Book of Stones” was serenely gratifying.   

Another of Coburn Bruning’s signature ballets, “Ramblin’ Suite” (2001), capped the program on a high note with a lively, boot-slapping hootenanny of a dance work that had the audience tapping their toes and bouncing in their seats.

Flavored with traditional old-time mountain and bluegrass music with dance movement to match, “Ramblin’ Suite” was energetic and joyful. CDP’s dancers performed splendidly to tunes including the American Minstrel “The Old Jawbone,” “Beefalo Special,” the traditional Irish reel “Pinch of Snuff,” and “Woman Down in Memphis,” about a lovesick man with tuberculosis seeking vengeance on the woman he feels ruined his life.

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