On a deep February night, the streets of Edmonds lay dreary, but within the doors of the Edmonds Center for the Arts, that midwinter dullness had dissipated. In its place, sung the liveliness of two premieres for Olympic Ballet Theatre: Christopher Stowell’s Mendelssohn Dances and Nadja Saidakova’s Elegia, both of which managed to bring an uplifting spirit to each person lucky enough to be in the intimate audience.
Christopher Stowell’s Mendelssohn Dances opened the evening with airy felicity. Formed from excepts of his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was created in 2007 for Oregon Ballet Theatre, Stowell added two pas de deuxs for this premiere at Olympic Ballet Theatre. Like many people in the Seattle area, I’ve been spoiled by the magic of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (brought to Pacific Northwest Ballet by none other than Stowell’s parents in 1985) yet somehow, all memories associated with the music drifted away when this glimmering work flitted before my eyes. Balanchine is known for his ability to make music become visible, but Stowell also possesses such a gift, and seeing two keen eared choreographers respond to the same piece of music is fascinating. Stowell’s use of percussion created by the dancers is particularly intriguing, with the fairies using their hands and shoes to accentuate Mendelssohn’s wondrous melodies. His focus on direction also commands the nature of the work, and shows his ability to keep dancers, as well as the audience, on their toes.
When you work with the music and imagery of such a well-known ballet, the narrative can fall away while still letting the story be seen in each small gesture and impression of character. What Stowell has done is evoke the magic of Midsummer, yet stripped it to its musical essence and what remains is an uplighting delight: a moonlit scene which, within its speckled shadows, lets the rest of the world fall away. The two pas de deuxs, performed to Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, pulled us away from the world of Midsummer, yet an indelible mood remained. Here, Ria Adachi and Alberto Gaspar were a breathtaking sight, flowing like silk with otherworldly weightlessness. Mendelssohn Dances might be non-narrative, but these two were certainly telling a story, one which I could have watched unravel all night long.
Nadja Saidakova’s Elegia flooded upon the stage with a blue swirl of transcendent beauty. Melancholic, yet refreshingly lovely, this work felt like soul nourishment from its first note. The original score by Lidia Kalendareva and Alin Cristian Oprea provides fertile ground for the emotional depth of this work. Within that rich world, Saidkova’s large group patterns, breathtaking canons, and reflective mood reminded me why we need art, perhaps especially now. For this small moment in time, the audience sat entranced by the beauty upon the stage, and I found myself marveling once again at the fact that watching a body move through space can have such a deep impact. Saidakova’s use of shadow work, rippling canons, and dream-like fluidity leads the piece to become almost hypnotic in its velvety allure. I just wish that there would have been more than two opportunities to dwell in this world, as the news surely would have spread if given the chance to do so.
Debuts is only the second performance I have seen by Olympic Ballet Theatre, and these two pieces showed such strong cohesion and focus from everyone involved. Olympic Ballet Theatre faces the challenges that would present themselves to any company only a twenty minute drive away from one of the country’s highest-ranked companies, but I think that we could always use more ballet in our lives. Come out to support Olympic Ballet Theatre in April for Spring Rep, and in May for Coppélia!
Thank you Olympic Ballet Theatre for a nourishing night of art!
