There were a handful of empty seats at the "Dances at the Board of Trade" performance Friday night at the Elizabeth Adams Studio. They represented a few ballet patrons who missed out on the first of two unique opportunities to see the dancers of the Minnesota Ballet up close and personal, where you could hear the toe shoes and ballet slippers turn on the dance floor.
With a large turnover in the company roster, artistic director Robert Gardner wanted an opportunity for patrons to meet the new dancers in a more intimate setting than the stage of the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. The company's studio was transformed into a Black Box Theater, reminiscent of an old European dance salon. The two-story arched windows of the one-time grain exchange framed twilight descending on the Central Hillside, the inner border decorated with tea lights that foreshadowed the lights of the city at night.
The first act focused more on contemporary and modern dance, with the tutus and neoclassical ballet appearing after intermission. All of the works are choreographed by Gardner or one of the ballet's returning dancers, and the emphasis was on introducing the five new company dancers and two apprentices. The only piece not featuring a newcomer was the Suzanne Kritzberg- choreographed "I Hope That They Know," which offered a lovely original piano piece by former ballet student Tori Wright, danced by Anna Acker and Nikolaus Wourms.
The evening began with Casie Wheeler and Wourms dancing to Igor Stravinsky's version of a rag, followed by Kritzberg and Ernesto Lea Place showing how to do a tango without touching, before both couples danced a polka. Avram Gold and Caitlin Quinn were introduced in "Our Hearts Speak," set to an original arrangement of "Greensleeves," where Benjamin Biswell's choreography plays out the relationship between the couple in a spiral of
constant movement.
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"San Gimignano" draws its inspiration from a flock of doves Gardner saw swooping among the hills of the Tuscan countryside, with Wheeler, Carrie Wanamaker and Catherine Wootten transforming from dancing birds to the Three Graces and back again. "Un Bal" also offered a trio of new ballerinas with Wanamaker, Quinn and Megan Wolfson. "Mon, Frère, Mon Ami" treated patrons to a trio of male dancers, with Gold earning a burst of applause from the audience for his spins during the third section.
The quintessential moment of the evening came during the "Ballet for Bach" finale, with choreographer Wourms standing by the water cooler watching the dancers execute his design. In the second section, the slowly emerging mirrored pairs form lines that lead to Kritzberg and Place. The pair comes downstage and, as he leads her in an exquisitely slow turn, you can see the tension in his forearm to keep her on point and in her leg to maintain that pristine straight line, crystallizing for everyone present a new notion of the power of ballet. Surely there will not be an empty seat tonight.
The Minnesota Ballet's official season begins Oct. 23-24 with "Sleeping Beauty."
