BY DANA OLAND
doland@idahostatesman.com
© 2012 Idaho Statesman
What could be better on a Valentine’s Day weekend than the Trey McIntyre Project exploring love and relationships without a hint of cynicism or irony.
From an opening video in which the company reveals that performing on stage is like falling in love, to a final resounding standing ovation, Saturday night’s sold-out concert “At Last” was simply magic.
Each of the three ballets explore aspects of love: familial to fierce, unadorned to unrequited, expected and surprising.
The opening “Leatherwing Bat” takes a nostalgic look at childhood joy, fear, certainties and longing. The music, culled from Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Peter, Paul and Mommy” children’s album, was a staple of McIntyre’s own childhood. It evokes a sweet melancholy.
This is one of McIntyre’s “family ballets,” inspired by experiences and impressions from his own childhood. The ballet also shows what sets McIntyre’s work apart: deeply personal narratives that are still universal.
In this sweet ballet, the company plays together well, almost like a family themselves. The connection between father and son, beautifully portrayed by John Michael Schert and Brett Perry, is explored the deepest.
McIntyre’s movement is still exact and complex. But here it is infused with a fluid ease and peppered with common gestures. The combination lets the piece flow as the son, Perry, comes of age. Schert is magnificent in his two solos that make the most of his remarkable length and strength. Schert does double-duty as “Puff the Magic Dragon,” in the piece’s poignant final movement.
The surprise of the evening was “Bad Winter,” a new work McIntyre finished off just in the past few weeks. The piece is based on a short trio of songs, Arthur Tracy’s 1937 recording of “Pennies From Heaven,” and Cinematic Orchestra’s “That Home” and “To Build a Home.
In Chanel DaSilva’s wrenching opening solo to “Pennies” she wore simple dance clothes and a white tux coat with tails.
The rest of the piece featured the magnetic pair of Lauren Edson and Travis Walker in a taut, dissection of movement and music. With no real narrative, the dance intensified the emotional connection between these two.
The closing “Blue Until June,” featuring the music of R&B and jazz singer Etta James, was a visual celebration of James’ music and the human need to connect.
McIntyre juxtaposed the real messiness of adult relationships with fanciful romantic notions evoked by the music. And the dancers beautifully tapped into that emotion.
To visually underscore the theme, the dancers emerge from under a black tarp that also wrapped around Edson as if it were a dress and the dancers’ bodies were covered with mud. As Edson makes her first full move, the “dress” cracks like an earthquake revealing the figures below.
This piece highlighted McIntyre’s choreographic ability to push ballet into other realms of movement, and the dancers into pure physical expressions of emotion.
Edson again blew the audience away with two solos. Walker and Yarinet Restrepo were lovely in their duet — each has a break down. Schert and Walker also performed one of the most tender of the duets, as two men longing for one another in secret.
A near showstopper was Benjamin Behrends’ solo to “One For My Baby.” He danced with a cool bluesy-ness that was disarmingly charming. He also was wonderfully romantic in the final duet with the beautiful Annali Rose to James’ emblematic “At Last.”
This was a great way for Behrends, who moved up from tenderfoot, to make his debut as a full company member.
Dana Oland: 377-6442
Boise’s own dance company offers three dance ballads to fall in love with
