Tag: Bespoke

For the commitment-phobic amongst us, there’s nothing better than a mixed repertory program. It’s much needed variety in comfortable, bite-size pieces. Over at the Wortham Theater Center, Houston Ballet is teasing us once again with a mix of classical (neoclassical) and modern works in their latest mixed rep, Bespoke, which aptly opens with the Houston premiere of Stanton Welch’s Bespoke, originally created for the San Francisco Ballet in 2018.

Bespoke is a tender contemplation, a thoughtfully abstract peek into what it is to love something with an expiration date attached to it. In this case, that something is dance itself. Set across two Johann Sebastian Bach violin concertos, masterfully brought to vivid life by violinist Denise Tarrant, it is five movements of fond, lovingly crafted movement for 12 dancers.

In silence and solo, Eric Best opens the piece with charm, both easing the audience in and holding court. It’s easy to imagine Best preening before a mirror in a dance studio, just a dancer and technique on display to no one and everyone. Soon, however, dancers run in from the wings, filling and traveling across a set that feels unfathomably deep. Time is a clear motif introduced early, with port de bras stiffly leaning into and lending themselves to the implied tick of a clock’s hand inexorably moving forward.

The piece feels stripped down – figuratively and literally, considering Holly Hynes underwear-y, pajama-like costumes, which brighten the proceedings with simple pops of color. It’s a bit like a curtain pulled back, letting the audience in on something quite intimate and particularly well-articulated during the second movement’s pas de deux.

Ominous red, courtesy of James F. Ingalls exacting lighting designs, opens the section, which features a serious, straight-faced Chase O’Connell partnering with Danbi Kim. It’s heartrending, poignant and at times fraught, with gorgeous lifts, careful extensions and weighty holds. Scrawled in my notes is a “this feels like a break up,” but more accurately it’s like watching something come to an unwanted end. Time, of course, is never far away either, with Kim briefly resembling a metronome.

Though Bespoke has a wistful undercurrent, Bach’s lively music allows plenty of welcome room for spates of pairs, trios and groups, showing off an impressive amount of control in spacing and formations, not to mention clever footwork and flair (like Simone Acri’s stunning series of turns). Though the piece, overall, feels light, that feeling’s deceptive, particularly when we come to an ending that is unexpectedly powerful.

Going into the first intermission, Bespoke filled the Wortham with good vibes and satisfied patrons, which the next work – the Houston premiere of Jiří Kylián’s Overgrown Path – couldn’t quite capitalize on.

Originally created back in 1980 for the Nederlands Dans Theater and set to the music of Leoš Janáček, Overgrown Path is…

Well, there’s not much to say about Overgrown Path other than it misses the mark, causing an unfortunate dip in the program. It’s drawn from a Janáček piano cycle that is most definitely about life and death, grief and loss, time passing. And yet, between the piece’s repetitiveness and restlessness, it didn’t leave much of a mark emotionally. And, not to sound like too much of a homer about this, but this city is blessed with a company that not only dances ridiculously well, but acts just as well so…I suspect talent isn’t the problem.

The sense of fighting something that can’t be fought comes through in an affecting way, but it’s fleeting. Turns out that affecting quality is difficult to sustain throughout the 32-minute piece – though the dancers tried valiantly. If there’s one blindingly bright spot in this piece, it’s the pairing of Harper Watters and Bridget Allinson-Kuhns, who turn in a pas de deux that will get you sitting up straighter and leaning forward in your seat to take it all in.

Luckily, it’s still a merciful 30 minutes, and after another intermission, we get to the true star of the show.

If you were lucky – and I can’t emphasize the word lucky enough – you got to see the Houston premiere of Harbour’s Filigree and Shadow back in 2018, when the Wortham was a post-Hurricane Harvey no-go and the company took up temporary residence in George R. Brown Convention Center’s Resilience Theater.

Filigree and Shadow is a wild, 21-minute ride. Harbour dropped a metaphorical lead foot on the gas, thrusting 14 dancers and the audience into a breathless frenzy against the dense, unforgiving electronic soundscape provided by 48nord, the moniker of Munich-based duo Siegfried Rössert and Ulrich Müller. Harbour is relentless. Every sharp move, every crisp gesture – up, down, left, right – appears programmed but primal, filling Kelvin Ho’s imposing, cold-blooded set with intense, rhythmic, pulsating life and otherworldly elegance.

Nowhere is that life more apparent than in the captivating, sensual partnering of Connor Walsh and Mónica Gómez. It’s impossible to take your eyes off the pair, and it’s not just because of lighting designer Benjamin Cisterne’s uber-dramatic choices, perfect as they are, too.

Either in spite of, or maybe even because of, the stark, science fiction-like setting of Filigree and Shadow, the aggressive and ritualistic moves given to the dancers feel all the more recognizable to our, if I may, lizard brains. It’s also worth noting that not every work that opens on an awe-inducing tableau delivers on that promise, but Filigree and Shadow does with ease.

The truth of the matter is, Filigree and Shadow being on the program is reason enough to make your way over to the Wortham. It’s a must-see on its own. Combine it with Bespoke and forget it – you should already have ticket in hand. Despite the, well, let’s call it a hiccup in the middle of the show, all the pieces selected for this mixed repertory program are worth seeing. And anyway, doesn’t that saying go, two out of three ain’t bad?

Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. on March 9, 15 and 16, and 2 p.m. on March 10 and 17 at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $25-$45.