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Theater & Dance
Dancers take school fundraiser to amazing heights
By Rebecca Ritzel May 10
Some audiences are like leg guys: All it takes is a female
dancer who can balance on one foot while lifting the other
high above her head and the crowd goes wild.
There were plenty of bodily extensions generating cheers and
applause Saturday at the Lincoln Theatre, where the
Strathmore-based school CityDance held its second Dreamscape
Gala to raise money for student scholarships. As
with last year, the event was a welcome reason to bring some of
the countrys top dancers to Washington, and most
of them performed leggy duets.
Some couples and their corresponding choreographies were
stronger than others, but most were pretty amazing.
From the Joffrey Ballet came 6-foot-6 Fabrice Calmels and
beautiful partner Jeraldine Mendoza, who made a
heralded debut in Christopher Wheeldons Swan Lake last fall.
Wheeldon is also the director/choreographer
behind the spring Broadway hit American in Paris, but it was
wonderful to be reminded of his pas-de-deux roots.
Liturgy was full of geometric angles, contortionist extensions
and clasped hands, like a super-sophisticated
Nutcracker Arabian dance, plus lifts that demonstrated her
strength as well as his.
Most works on the program were contemporary, with the very
notable exception of the grand pas de deux from
Flames of Paris, which dates to 1932. To perform the classic,
the Orlando Ballet sent two young stars: Chiaki
Yasukawa and teenage phenom Arcadian Broad. Even at the Kennedy
Center, you dont often see showy jumps and
turns performed with this much joy and bravado, yet still
technically pristine.
Strange Fruit, by Dwight Rhoden and set to Nina Simone, was a
bit more herky-jerky but still a decent vehicle for
the combustible on-and-off-stage partnership of Charlotte
Ballets Fredrick Pete Walker and Anna Marie Gerberich.
Gerberich also danced the evenings best solo, a bluesy number by
Rhoden that proved ballerinas dont need men to
pose: They can be sexy holding balances all by their leggy
selves.
