Salutations to “Play with Fire”, yet another grand production by the Boston Ballet with three cutting-edge works including Jorma Elo’s Sharp Side of Dark, a revival of Jiri Kylian’s Bella Figura, and Christopher Bruce’s Rooster set to the music of The Rolling Stones as soundtrack. I got to see the performances yesterday and each were of course outstanding in their unique interpretive ways, but the second act in particular – Bella Figure, struck a most galvanizing chord with me, so much so that I needed the rest of the day to digest its visual power. In an attempt to correlate my visual experience, I thought to write a brief review of the program.
Sharper Side of Dark
Ethereal, lyrical movements, harmony, gold, effervescent blue, black, and purple hues with angular lighting, tilting rings, floating strips, and smoky cones of triangles and circles. The choreography combined the robotic with the feral, at once isolating the dancers in stiff limbs to then transport through the hovering circular shaped time capsule into the alien world that lie within our minds. Choreographer Jorma Elo means to separate and dislocate, he challenges the connection between the audience and stage through strange moments of silent dance, and an intermittent use of Bach that left me on edge. But the ensemble forms unity through repeated gestures of liquid curves that ripple and coil, with legs that splice and arc reminiscent of an El Greco painting. The duets between male and female dancers were beautiful with an always cinematic Romeo and Juliet like ending as touches become move involved, grow into love, recognizing grace in the maze of modernism.
El Greco, “Agony in the Garden”
Bella Figura
Man, Woman, pulling/pushing, black, red, flesh, breath, symbiotic linear like movements, curtain, encapsulation, pulsating blood, frames, fire, rose pedals, calligraphy strokes, the world of gods. Bella Figura was short but tremendously sweet. The ballet celebrated the human form with a heightened sense of artistic tension, which starts even before the intermission has ended, juxtaposing the crowd’s casual socializing with the sight of two corpse-like dancers suspended above the stage. The beginning act was flawless as male and female were encapsulated in a frame on opposite ends of the stage, each struggling and moving about under shades of orange and blue. The lighting was ambient, not as geometric, and the play of movable curtains continually redefined the dancers’ space. But there was an instance during the performance when I was overwhelmed with emotion as a duet danced to Alesandro Marcello’s Concerto in D Minor. I felt this profound appreciation for the beauty of what I was experiencing, for the gorgeous choreography that pair the temporal nature of humans against the spiritual realms of the gods – who are partially nude and dressed in red fire skirts that move about like brushstrokes on the stage.
Bella Figura presents the intrinsic values of the human connection, its many personal, private and in-between moments explored through a very conscious set of poses. I was also very proud to see Mongolian dancer Altan Dugaraa (pictured above on left) on stage amid the small core of great dancers.
Rooster
What can I say about Rooster except that it was fun, energetic, and treading on the border of ballet and Broadway. I wasn’t too thrilled about the choreography, with the male dancers dressed in colorful corduroy jackets mimicking a proud roosters walk and girls dressed in 50’s inspired black dresses and high ponytails that danced sensuously. Rooster was all about depicting the male ego set a to a medley of Stones’ hits. And even though the performance had no place amid its preceding repertory of works, it provided a much-needed break.
hilitehead 
elaborate?