Metropolitan Classical Ballet New & Reviews

Dance review: Metropolitan Classical Ballet offers local works in Bass Hall performance

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

By Margaret Putnam
Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH – Metropolitan Classical Ballet strode into new territory with confidence and style at Bass Performance Hall on Monday night. Instead of its usual heady mix of the exotic and the famous, the company went out on a limb with works by local talent and a repertory almost entirely devoid of flash.

It did hedge its bets, however, on the musical side, with Lowell Liebermann accompanying his own composition for the evening's premiere, Paul Mejia's Album for the Young; mezzo-soprano Virginia Dupuy accompanying Tanju Tuzer's Songs of Mahler; and pianist Alexei Melentiev accompanying Anatoly Emelianov's Cross Winds.

And to be accurate, the talent was local only in the sense that Peruvian-born Mr. Mejia is now co-artistic director of the company, the Turkish-born Mr. Tuzer heads Richardson-based Tuzer Ballet, and Russian native Mr. Emelianov is a principal dancer with Metropolitan Classical Ballet.

Confidence abounded in Album for the Young. There were hints of Balanchine's Serenade with its filmy long dress, flowing hair and bursts of rapture, and its suggestion of an idealized world of pure dance. But the music – restrained, spare and occasionally intense – served as a counterpoint for free and joyous dancing.

The stage was framed by Mr. Liebermann on piano on one side, and 11 children of different ages lined up along the front, bodies barely visible in Tony Tucci's soft, dark light. There they sat perfectly still, entranced as the ballet unfolded in front of them, or falling asleep as if the dance were spilling into their dreams.

That dreamy element appeared with the first step, as Katie Puder flung her long blond hair back, paused as though to listen to distant music and waved for others to join her. Four women appeared, moving with the same stretched-out legs and arched backs.

Dancers came and went, alone, in pairs and in groups. Andrey Prikhodko whipped out fast turns and snappy salutes, while in a seamless pas de deux Oleksandr Kryvonis swirled Svetlana Kuzyanina overhead and carried her off. Ms. Puder darted in and out until, near the end, she threw herself to the floor to join sleeping children. Awake again, she beckoned the children to rise, and they joined the adults for one last dance. The adults flew away, leaving the children alone onstage as though to announce that the next generation of talent is poised and ready to learn.

Songs of Mahler featured similar flowing dresses and a neoclassic style but otherwise was more somber. Olga Pavlova cast a spell throughout, blessed with expressive arms and elegant legs and movement of such clarity that every step looked effortless.

In Cross Winds, Ms. Pavlova shone again, this time as the figure in white who entices three men and eventually even lures the mesmerized pianist off his stool.

Mr. Emelianov has a gift for comedy, investing the vagaries of love with overinflated leaps, tugs at a skirt and a subtle bump with the rear end.