Nashville Ballet
Nashville Ballet’s eclectic “Fall Series” opened the company’s season on October 6 at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. The repertoire, designed to satisfy both traditionalists and the intelligentsia, fell short of absolute success on two counts: sloppy corps work and an excessive length of nearly three hours.
George Balanchine’s Serenade underscored the risk of using inexperienced dancers in a piece that requires a unified style. The new trainees and apprentices’ inability to function cohesively robbed this ballet of the form and polish that, when danced well, turn its ensembles into stunning geometry.
Sharp performances by the principals compensated for the ragged corps, however. Outstanding were Christopher Mohnani and Rachel Ellis. Without doubt Nashville Ballet’s most refined classicists, they engaged the audience with effortless lifts, secure spins, stable balances and excellent elevation.
The show’s wild card and runaway audience favorite was Salvatore Aiello’s all-male Journey. Expertly staged by ballet master Timothy Rinehart Yeager, this dance epitomized the company’s growth under Artistic Director Paul Vasterling. Not too many years ago, the best compliment that could be given to most of Nashville Ballet’s male dancers was they pointed their toes on the off chance one of their jumps might become airborne. No more.
Nashville Ballet’s men are now dynamic. Journey, peppered with a bit of ballet, jazz and acrobatics, showcased their ability to execute difficult leaps and complex turns, spirals and falls with flair and confidence. Jon Upleger’s command of the modern idiom and Chris Stuart’s snappy turns pushed them to the forefront in this piece.
Lizzie, the program’s finale, exemplified Vasterling’s recent foray into blending dance with drama to probe the human condition. In this fictional retelling of a true-life story, dream sequences explored Lizzie Borden’s possible motives for hacking her father and stepmother to death with an axe, creating a chilling ballet about love, loss, incest, rage and resolution.
The beauty of Lizzie’s intense choreography seemed an incongruous foil for the dark subject matter. While the topic was distasteful, the dance was not. Some of the most effective elements included clumping the dancers like a Greek chorus to lip-sync the taped exposition, washing the stage with red light to symbolize the murder and using the maid as the murderous spinster’s conscience.
Lizzie belonged to Jennifer McNamara. The strength and depth of her dancing carried her through several seamless transitions from the hopeful, happy Lizzie to the tormented, despondent murderer. Upleger and Christine Buttorff offered powerful portrayals of Lizzie’s father and stepmother.
Although the choreography and dancing were compelling, Lizzie lost most of the audience 15 minutes into the dance. Eliminating one of the other dances might have produced a program of more tolerable length.
Shirley Blackburn is director of dance for Metro Parks’s Cultural Arts Division in Nashville.
