Whim W’him
On The Boards/January 15-17, 2010
Yes, Virginia, that really was ballet at On the Boards January 15-17th.
Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer and choreographer Olivier Wevers’ new company Whim W’him made its debut Friday, January 15th, with a bill of three dances, including the world premier of 3Seasons. Wevers has been creating dance on a freelance basis for the past several years. The choreographer decided to form his own troupe in 2008, at the urging of some of his fellow PNB dancers. When OTB Artistic Director Lane Czaplinski gave Whim W’him a slot as part of the Northwest New Works series, it was a gamble of sorts. On The Boards’ audiences are accustomed to hard edged contemporary dance, not toe shoes and tutus. What they got this weekend was ballet for a new generation, and while the crowd reaction was mostly enthusiastic, not everyone liked, or understood, what they saw.
Wevers’ dances are steeped in the classical ballet vocabulary. His performers jete and pirouette, they dance on pointe. But where ballet is about symmetry and balance, Wevers is all about pushing the ballet canon off kilter. The evening opened with X stasis, originally created for the Pacific Northwest Ballet Choreographer’s Showcase in March, 2006. X stasis is performed by seven dancers, five of them PNB company members. Lucien Postelwaite and Chalnessa Eames, in white tights and leotards, open the piece. To the music of Thomas Ades, theirs is a duet of sharp angles and long lines. It’s a relationship as cool and crisp as Eame’s tightly slicked-back hair.
Through the course of the dance, the lighting and costumes shift from clean white to a more passionate red. Postlewaite and Jonathan Porretta joust their way through a complex duet, as much a power struggle as it is a dance of love. Eames trades her white tights for a red tutu, and her hair, freed from its ballerina bun, whips around her face as she flirts with a large dressmaker’s dummy. X stasis ends with Karel Cruz and Kaori Nakamura’s duet. Kruz, long and spider like, towers protectively over Nakamura, but she is fearless as she leaps backwards into the air. Again and again, he catches her and she swims across the stage in his arms.
The evening’s second dance, Fragments, was choreographed in 2007 for Spectrum Dance Theater’s Studio Series. Originally made as a duet for two women, at On The Boards Fragments was performed by Kelly Ann Barton and Vincent Lopez. Both dancers wear tight-bodiced gowns with long flowing skirts. While there is abundant humor in Fragments, the dance is not a parody per se. That’s particularly clear in Lopez’ solo. After removing his yellow skirt, the bare-chested dancer strikes pose after pose. In the golden side light, he resembles an El Greco martyr. While both Barton and Lopez are powerful performers, Lopez in particular radiates a magnetic personality. He is campy in a skirt; devastatingly poignant without it.
The highlight of the evening was the premier of Wevers’ new dance, 3Seasons. Wevers’ meditation on our consumerist society, 3Seasons is set to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with a twist. Composer Byron Au Yong has written new music inspired by the Vivaldi. Before each performance, one section of Four Seasons is replaced by Au Yong’s music.
3Seasons was the most ambitious dance on the bill, both choreographically and conceptually. I haven’t seen all of Wevers’ work, but much of what I have seen are dances that are episodic rather than coherent wholes. As in X stasis, in the past Wevers has employed many dancers, but not as an ensemble. For the first time in 3Seasons Wevers’ nine dancers (Ty Alexander Cheng, Chalnessa Eames, Jim Kent, Hannah Lagerway, Kylie Lewallen, Vincent Lopez, Kaori Nakamura, Jonathan Porretta and Lucien Postelwaite) have the opportunity to dance together. And those ensemble sections are among the most lyrical, and memorable. In one, six dancers weave a chain, nudging one another with gentle knees, looping arms like a Matisse painting. They are happy, almost carefree in their child’s play. Toward the end of 3Seasons, the chain of dancers reappears. But, daubed in streaks of bloody reddish brown, they are fierce rather than playful. The result of that ferocity is the literal trashing of a dancer.
3Seasons shows Wevers’ promise as a choreographer, and his ability to assemble a group of exceptional dancers to embody his vision. It was a treat to see the PNB and Spectrum dancers, Seattle’s finest, in such an intimate setting. Not everyone in the audience agreed with my assessment. At a post show conversation on Sunday, one man said 3Seasons offered nothing new for him. An OTB blog posting sniffs that Whim W’him was the worst company ever presented at the venue. Some people wondered if pointe shoes were better left at McCaw Hall. But OTB Artistic Director Lane Czaplinski defends his decision to produce Olivier Wevers on his mainstage. Czaplinski says Wevers is an artist taking a risk, and OTB’s mission is to support such risk taking.
For Olivier Wevers, simply venturing outside the ballet world that has defined his entire life is a risk. He’s reluctant to label the choreograpy he creates as “ballet” or “modern”. He’d prefer that audiences see it simply as dance. But in past interviews, he’s stressed that the future of ballet depends on infusions of new work and new vision. Whether Wevers matures as a choreographer of the caliber of such artists as William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian and Christopher Wheeldon, is up to risk taking producers like On The Boards who give him a chance.
