Nevada Ballet ends season on firm footing

Theater and dance company leaders often believe the last show of the season should be familiar or fun -- or maybe both -- with the goal of pleasing patrons so much that they unquestionably subscribe for the upcoming season.

Saturday and Sunday, Nevada Ballet Theatre's artistic director, James Canfield, instead chose to present three world-premiere dances with nary a tutu nor a pretty setting in sight. These were contemporary and occasionally futuristic, with nihilism, emotional shallowness and erotic passion substituting for sweet.

Choreographer Thaddeus Davis began the evening with the graphic "An Incandescent Start," modern dance mixing with hip-hop and a bit of everyday living. Choreographer Gail Gilbert's "Song of the Nightingale" offered the only snippet of a story of the evening, as a self-centered Asian emperor discovered, perhaps, that reality can trump fantasy.

Canfield presented his own "Cyclical Night" after a second intermission, with the sex and sizzle of an Argentine tango parlor where the women wear toe shoes.

Sound levels at the beginning of the second and third dances were momentarily jarring, but soon eased. Dancers were on stride and seemed involved with their work.

But one man who asked an usher, "Where are the stories?" didn't get much of an answer.

"An Incandescent Start" was a dance of about 30 minutes performed by six women and five men in darkness and fog penetrated only by spotlights. Clad in dark and earth tones, they danced to "Metamorphosis," a solo cello recording by Memphis native Joan Jeanrenaud.

Dancers established emotions in coming together and walking apart, with the purposeful stride as important as an arabesque or other moves, all in complex, fascinating combinations. One dancer demonstrated spastic moves, then was wizened with a hobble, then perhaps was trying to squeeze from a strait jacket. Comment from an audience member at intermission: "I loved the crazy person."

"Song of the Nightingale," performed to Igor Stravinsky's 1917 symphonic poem of the same name, had "the story" on this program. A Chinese emperor becomes fascinated with the song of a nightingale and orders her to be captured and placed in a cage for him. Then his attention turns to a mechanical bird and he forgets the real one -- until it breaks and he must re-evaluate his priorities.

This version featured winsome work by nightingale Alexandra Christian and an appropriately tender but controlling emperor Griffin Whiting. Spirit of Death Jeremy Bannon-Neches was appropriately malevolent and strong during the unusual pas de deux with Whiting.

Canfield's take on tango closed the evening, in a foggy setting . The first tableau -- women with legs splayed as they sat straddling chairs, men in a line behind them, with audio of loud, almost menacing chat -- emphasized this was not just another night at the ballet. The dance confirmed that: frantic moves, passion, rejection, languor and romance, or not.

Parents who want their children to grow up to join a ballet may not have this type of action in mind, but witnessing tango on toe shoes is a special experience.