Los Angeles Ballet Takes Next Steps

Last June, when I interviewed Melissa Barak, the former dancer, choreographer, founder of Barak Ballet, who is now the artistic director of Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) she spoke of her belief that LAB could distinguish itself and catalyze the audience for dance in Los Angeles with new works, in much the same way the Los Angeles Philharmonic has done for classical music. Memoryhouse, her first full-evening ballet which she premiered then (and which I wrote about here), made a strong case for the draw of new work.

Last weekend, LAB launched their 2024 season, the first full season programmed by Barak, and in keeping with her earlier vision, the program had plenty of new work to be excited about.

The program, Next Steps, featured three dances: Belles-Lettres choreographed by Justin Peck, currently the acting Resident Choreographer of New York City Ballet (NYCB), with music by Cesar Franck, a company premiere; Frank Bridge Variations, choreographed by Hans van Manen and music by Benjamin Britten, which was a US premiere; and a new work, Cylindrical Forces, choreographed by Barak with music by Kris Bowers, a world premiere.

Belles-Lettres featured four couples, Sarah Ashley Chicola, Cassidy Cocke, Santiago Paniagua, Simon Costello, Lilly Leech, Aviva Gelfer-Mundl, Jacob Soltero, Jonas Tutaj and a lone male dancer, Marcos Ramirez.

In some ways, Belles-Lettres reminded me conceptually of La Ronde, the Marcel Ophuls film about couples coming together, and then apart, and finding new partners. Justin Peck, a former dancer, has also created work for Broadway, film, and his work has been performed by several ballet companies around the world. This is the first Justin Peck work given to LAB.

I will admit it was my least favorite of the evening. Perhaps because it was first, the dancers and the music never seemed to jell. NYCB is famous for its Balanchine-driven style, which demands very fast movement done with precision – and I felt that this Peck ballet was not well suited to the LAB dancers. Balanchine at NYCB had very limited ideas of what a dancer’s body or their training should be. The diversity of LAB’s company is one of its strengths, and this particular dance didn’t play to them (or rather it seemed to work against those strengths), despite strong performances by Marcos Ramirez and Aviva Gelfer-Mundl.

Now, a disclaimer: I attended the Friday performance. It is very possible that Saturday night’s performance which featured NYCB trained dancer Juliane Kinasiewiscz was more – well, shall we say, on pointe. Or Sunday’s matinee.

Nonetheless, the evening went from good to better to best. I found Frank Bridge Variations, the Hans Van Manen piece just right for the company. This piece was also about the complexities of relationships, but the Britten music set just the right tempo for the company, and the choreography with its angular and heightened movements, made for well-defined crisp, declarative motions. When I went to the ballet as a child with my mother, she would always comment on how the European dancers were more expressive with their arms than the Americans who focused on their legs – here the elbows and arm movements stood out, making for a memorable performance.

Lily Fife was very charismatic in the lead role. Santiago Paniagua was compelling and the company as a whole including Brigitte Edwards, Jake Ray, Marco Biella, Paige Wilkey, Natalia Burns, Julianne Kinasiewicz, Bryce Broedell, Andrew Conrad, Jonas Tutaj, and Evan Swenson were excellent.

One of the more striking aspects of Barak’s Memoryhouse was her use of scrims and projections to enhance the dance. In Frank Bridge Variations, the performance was enhanced by the lighting by Bert Dalhuijsen, which at times made me think of giant Rothko paintings, as well as the costumes and scenery by Keso Dekker which caught and held the eye.

The last piece by Melissa Barak, Cylindrical Forces was a crowd pleaser. The music was by Kris Bowers, the 34-year-old pianist and composer of such film scores as Green Book and King Richard, The Color Purple and the Bridgerton series, and he just won an Oscar for co-directing the documentary short, The Last Repair Shop. His music for Cylindrical Forces was like a metronome that kept the energy high and propelled the dancers. Bowers’ music soared and was so uplifting, so cinematic that one moment I wondered if I was listening to John Williams instead.

What made the performance such fun was that it was clear that the dancers were having a wonderful time performing the piece. The featured dancers included Sarah-Ashley Chicola, guest artist Sara Renda (Etoile of the ballet company of the Opera of Bordeaux), Jonas Tutaj, Santiago Paniagua, Cassidy Cocke, Cleo Taneja, Natalia Burns, Poppy Coleman, Anna Jacobs, Hannah Keene, Simon Costello, Cesar Ramirez. It was very much a group endeavor and no question that Barak, as a former dancer herself, knew how to give each performer the chance to shine.

Cylindrical Forces ended the evening on a high, and the resulting standing ovation showed the audience’s affection for the evening’s program and dancers.

Los Angeles Ballet will return in May to perform Firebird, and Balanchine’s Serenade, with performances in Pasadena, Redondo Beach, and in Los Angeles at UCLA’s Royce Hall. And for those inclined to greater support of LAB, there is a special evening gala on April 18, 2024 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel honoring Kris Bowers and LAB Board Chair and attorney Jennifer Bellah Maguire. For more information see here.