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Preview of a review: "Exceptional Synergy" by Tulsa Ballet
Published: 3/26/2011 4:15 PM
Last Modified: 3/26/2011 4:15 PM

Tulsa Ballet opened its triple-bill "Exceptional Synergy" Friday night at the Tulsa PAC.

The company performs two new-to-Oklahoma works -- "Slice to Sharp" by Jorma Elo and "Push Comes to Shove" by Twyla Tharp -- along with "Elite Syncopations," which it performed first in 2009 in Tulsa and New York City.

The full review will run in Monday's Tulsa's World. For those thinking about attending the other performances Saturday and Sunday, here's an excerpt:

Elo, who in a relatively brief time has become one of the world’s most in-demand choreographers, created in “Slice to Sharp” what is essentially a series of etudes — exercises designed to test the various physical limits of dancers: speed, flexibility, fluidity, stamina, strength. The combinations of steps and movements do not seem to follow any sort of logical progression, relying on dancers’ abilities to make this unique visual language achieve some kind of coherence and sense.

It is exhilarating to watch, no doubt about that. The eight dancers — Alexandra Bergman, Ashley Blade-Martin, Soo Youn Cho, Kate Oderkirk, Claudio Cocino, Ma Cong, Alfonso Martin and Jesus Pastor — handle this tricky stuff with aplomb....

Tharp created “Push Comes to Shove” for Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1976, and its blend of jazzy modernism and classical ballet was revolutionary at the time. But the piece was also a kind of statement of purpose — a satiric jab at the notion that “Ballet is a woman” as George Balanchine put it.

So you have a male dancer cavorting in a loose-limbed, swaggering sort of way among a bevy of chiffon-draped, tiara-topped ballerinas, who find themselves — sometimes much to their own surprise — falling under the spell of this derby-wearing interloper who moves in a way none of them have seen before.
The lead role requires a complete command of technique so that the movements seem to spontaneous, almost improvised, and Martin, who danced the role Friday night, performed it extremely well.

That he made the first solo — a fast-paced, high-flying stretch of virtuoso dancing — appear free and effortless was even more impressive knowing that he had already danced major roles in the two previous ballets of the evening....






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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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