Culture Club

There was something for everyone at the weekend’s repertory performance by the Milwaukee Ballet. As it usually does for its more intimate Pabst Theater shows, the program pushed the ballet envelope to varying degrees.

Luc Vanier’s "Sur_Rendered," in fact, pushed the envelope a lot, with fascinating results. A pioneer in the interface between dance and technology, Vanier arrayed his dancers in motion capture technology and set them moving through an interactive environment. Evan Maruszewski’s projections (on the floor and on translucent screens down- and upstage of the dancers) enveloped the stage in gorgeous, meditative images: deep red flowers shimmered and pulsed, blossoms and blades of grass floated skyward as dancers moved across the stage, apparently creating and releasing them with every step.

At the center of the piece, a figure with an elongated, curved “shoe” demonstrates another of Vanier’s interests – how even the simplest “technology” can alter the dancer and the dance. The “shoe” allows dancer Jacqueline Moscicke to crouch down and rock back and forth, and to turn en pointe unassisted. And dramatically, she seems to be a sort of ugly duckling – a dancer who is different than the others, a difference that is both an asset and a curse. Concluding with a hyper-romantic version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” "Sur_Rendered" is a wistful and lush meditation on difference.

Salvatore Aiello’s "Clowns and Others" is a charming series of comic sketches with a heavy dose of inspiration from George Balanchine. Set to a set of Prokofiev piano solos (“Visions Fugitives”), its chock-full of great character movement and witty scenarios that could be cloying (we are dealing with clowns, after all) if not for the dazzling physicality of the dance. The Milwaukee Ballet dancers had an absolute ball with it. It was terrific to see them enthusiastically embrace the spirit and style after only half-heartedly dancing the opening number.

Timothy O’Donnell’s "Bolero – Let There Be Light" might be subtitled “Having Fun in Hell.” O’Donnell, the winner of last year’s Genesis Choreographic Competition, has a terrific flair for the physically dramatic. I could have done without the anti-religious rhetoric at the beginning of the piece – which included a Buddhist leader, a religious conspiracy theorist and George Carlin – but the dance that followed was electrifying. O’Donnell has a particular facility with hand and arm gestures, developing variations on the sign of benediction. But he also knows how to create structures that let dancers turn loose and stretch their physicality. He’s definitely a talent to watch.


JOIN THE CLUB! Keep up with all the goings on in Milwaukee arts. Follow Culture Club on Twitter or become a friend of CultureClub Milwaukee on Facebook. Or subscribe: Pipe me right to your Blog Reader with RSS or get email notices from Milwaukee Magazine.

And don't forget to tune in to "Arts On Deck," every Friday morning on WUWM-FM's "Lake Effect."