No dancers in sneakers, no story built around cult idols, and no heavy metal to punish the nervous system. In other words, no pandering to presumed low-ball taste preferences, and notably, no box office revenues were harmed upon the opening of “Van Manen: Dutch Grand Master” to a near-full house. Instead, the audience met ballet under its own flag, secure in the “good bones” harboring the creative genius of a 92-year-old Dutch choreographer who, free of any need to signal anything about his consciousness, demonstrates that contrast, shape, irony, humor, refinement and bespoke showmanship, can cohabit in the same work under the hand of an insightful artist.
In “Grosse Fuge” Max Cauthorn, Aaron Robison, Wei Wang and Fernando Carratalá Coloma arrive barechested in black skirts that serve rather than detract from the masculine lode. Jennifer Stahl, Nikisha Fogo, Wona Park, and Dores André wear pastel grey leotards. The women gang together at the start of the piece like a shiver of damsels-in-distress until they break out to interpolate jumps, dos y dos, and more succulent pairings with the men, whose energy and dispatch they match like a secret society of rocket-fueled Euro-cosmonauts. They will later anchor themselves to the belts securing the men’s black briefs, revealed when the skirts come off. The composer is Beethoven, and what grabs your briefs is Van Manen’s wedding-planner side caper. Each choreographic shape or gambit carries a vow to remain faithful to the composer’s orchestral structuring. The result is elevating—for the dancers, the music, the audience, and the art form.
In “Variations for Two Couples,” an adagio mashup leads to a counter-intuitive jet-stream of lifts tendered by Joseph Walsh/ Frances Chung, and Aaron Robison/Sasha Mukhamedov. Each of the couples claims its expanse as they separate into chill and sizzle interpretations. These showcase Walsh’s divine pirouette and Chung’s elasticity in sensual responses to his profiled advances. Robison and Mukhamedov play with pivots and aerodynamic lifts that contrast with the brass and string score buzzing to worry them through their muscle-mobile statuary.
“Solo” brings on a trio of escapades by contestants Cavan Conley, Victor Prigent, and Alexis Francisco Valdes, a fast-forward virtuosity send-up, punctuated by shrugging comments at each pause in the Bach score.
Having earlier this year seen the evening’s rouge-et-noir-costumed 5 Tangos closer at Stanford University’s “Under the Stars” outdoor program, it is clear that the dancers have had sufficient time and coaching to feel more at home with the anomalies that a balletic interpretation of Astor Piazzola’s tango score poses, so that the work reads more style-aware in this evening’s performance. Esteban Hernández brought the house down when he sealed ownership of his solo variation after his duet with Dores Andre. It will be remembered as a career tour de force. I saw Hernández dance for the first time in Querétaro, Mexico, when he was 10 years old. Tonight’s solo served as vindication of a stage-whispered prediction that I shared with the celebrated Cuban pedagogue Fernando Alonso, who was seated next to me that evening. Fernando expressed his full endorsement with a smile and a squeeze of my hand. ¡Bravísimo Esteban!
