Leigh Donlan reviewed the 9th July, 2024, performance at New York City’s Joyce Theater
Amy Seiwert’s Renaissance made an empowering and inspiring centerpiece for Smuin Ballet’s return to the Joyce last week after a 12-year absence. The San Francisco company marked its 30th anniversary with three New York premieres that celebrated its highly athletic style that requires versatility and quickness from the physically compact, powerfully built dancers.
Renaissance uses a capella recordings of songs from a variety of Eastern European tribes performed by Oakland-based Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble. The theme of weaving is integral to this piece inspired by community and collective action – specifically the 2019 “Women’s Wall,” a protest by millions of women in the southern Indian state of Kerala, who joined hands and formed a 385-mile “wall,” bringing awareness of gender inequality after a ban prevented women of childbearing age from entering a Hindu temple. Three floor-length woven textiles hang stage right (Brian Jones) behind dancers who align and stack their bodies, building foundations and structures that allow individual women to climb and reach summits. A woman trudges forward while some dancers attempt to hold her feet down. Later, others support her by lifting her feet as she continues trudging.
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s first creation for Smuin, Tupelo Tornado (2024), imaginatively evokes the forces that shaped Elvis Presley’s career — employing rhythmic house and street dance set to a soundtrack consisting of songs mostly by Elvis, interviews, videos, and sound bites (sound design by Jake Rodriguez.) The Elvis figure (Brandon Alexander) with his head caged in a faux television frame transforms from a Hollywood heartthrob to a Vegas parody of himself, using an Elvis bobblehead doll as a mic. At times wearing Elvis masks or crowns, the ensemble acts like replicas of ‘the King’ – clones manufactured for mass consumption – with one group lying on their backs, performing synchronized high-kicks like a Vegas chorus line. Overall the piece deftly depicts the consequences of fame that ultimately destroyed Elvis’ life. It’s difficult to do justice to this larger-than-life figure, however, and some of the humorous attempts to portray Presley’s struggles felt tone deaf.
Val Caniparoli’s Tutto Eccetto il Lavandino (2014) or “everything but the kitchen sink,” set to Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in D Major, uses a jumble of dance genres including vogueing and Irish jigs to create episodes that comment on romantic relationships. Illustrating the highs and lows of human emotion with intricate lifts, many inverted and off the hip, three pas de deux slowed down the mostly vigorous pace, notably an intense pas from Alexander and Tess Lane, their eyes filled with smoldering subtext. Being able to see such subtle detail is an advantage of the intimate space of the Joyce. Beyond the entertaining group antics, however, the piece didn’t give us much to think about.
The company will be ushering in Amy Seiwert as Artistic Director this fall, succeeding Celia Fushille who was thrust into the role 17 years ago after Michael Smuin’s sudden death. Seiwert was the company’s Choreographer in Residence for a decade, and now Renaissance signals a reassuring continuity in the standard of new rep under her leadership. How to pay homage to Michael Smuin’s legacy while also placing bets on new talent is the perennial challenge.
