What a treat it is to see the renowned Ballet Hispánico in the Bay Area, here for a single evening at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek as part of their weeklong Fiesta Cultural. Recognized as an “American Cultural Treasure,” Ballet Hispánico performs eclectic repertory created by Latino and Latina choreographers. This program includes three 20-minute pieces, varied in texture, and highlighting the range and versatility of this company of Latinx dancers.
With the help of designer Donald Holder’s saturated lighting, choreographer Pedro Ruiz transports us to the steamy clubs of his home country, Cuba, with the aptly named Club Havana (2000). To music by Israel Lopez, Rubén Gonzales, A.K. Salim, Perez Prado and Francisco Repilado, debonair men in shiny dinner jackets twirl their sultry female partners around the smokey dancehall. The jewel-toned full skirts of the ladies’ mid-20th Century cocktail-length dresses create swirling flares of color as the couples dance (Costume Design Emilio Sosa; Costume Construction Diana Ruettiger).
Dazzling us with their bravado, the dancers bring to life the intoxicating rhythms of the conga, rumba, mambo, and cha cha. The opening section, Romanza, highlights the individual flare of each performer. The power dynamics between couples, and even one threesome, draw us in, insinuating subtexts and narratives of romance and jealousy, like those we create when watching strangers interacting across a crowded room. High kicks, deep lay-backs, and silky drops to side lunges, characterize this ballroom scene. Ruiz’s finale features the ten-person ensemble carving jubilant arcs in the sky in an exuberant sequence. Club Havana provides a pleasing escape to ballroom nights of old.
Ballet Hispánico performing Club Havana, choreographed by Pedro Ruiz; Photo by Paula Lobo
Sombrerísimo (2013), choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, is inspired by the surrealist world of Belgian painter René Magritte, famous for his paintings of men in bowler hats. Originally choreographed for an all-male cast, Sombrerísimo has evolved into a work that can also be performed by an all-female or mixed-gender cast. On this evening five men and one woman, Fatima Andere, bring this swaggering enigmatic piece to the stage.
By some accounts Magritte chose the bowler hat for its lack of pretension, its suggestion of the ordinariness of the man, lending him an unindividuated Everyman character. And so it is with Ochao’s cast who each wear a black round-brimmed bowler, matching grey peg-legged pants, and button-down shirts whose various muted colors offer each their only distinguishing attribute (Costume Design Diana Ruettiger). To the cryptic creaks of a door opening, in Joshua Preston’s moody, shadow-casting lights, the sextet circle, trading, displaying, doffing, and tossing their hats.
Mysterious and nonsensical silly walks, pivoting heel to toe, yield to simultaneous vertical jumps with extended arms clutching hat brims as they bounce their hats up before drawing them back onto their heads. Dancers slow dance alone, their arms curve to hold a missing partner as their chests cave inward. Nightmarish whispers urge one to “Do what you want to do,” as open-fingered jazz hands quake next to ears. Hats appear to float as they are held below cupped hands as if worn by a company of ghosts.
A figure lays on its side, face covered in a hat. When rousing fails, humor intercedes and a castmate, full of grunts and sighs, laboriously drags it offstage by its foot.
In a red light, the dancers canter energetically backward, slapping their alternating lifting knees as they go. The air is hazy and their shirts are newly opened, exposing chests. Their leering smiles imply the wheels may be falling off. With bellies to the floor, the ensemble arches and falls, creating a sea of embodied waves. Back on their feet, the tempo builds. Striding confidently toward us, they each now hold two hats, one in each hand, when suddenly this sassy crowd pleaser comes to an end with a cascade of bowlers falling from the sky. The lights blackout, leaving us cheerily confounded.
Ballet Hispánico performing Sombrerísimo, choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa; Photo by Paula Lobo
The program closes with 18+1 (2012) by choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano. It is an intriguing number for ten dancers performed to the music of Cuban band leader and composer Pérez Prado who, in the 1950’s with his big band, popularized the mambo.
The opening sequences of this dance play out with all facing upstage, their backs to us. The musicality of the Sansano’s choreography is remarkable and the dancers deliver it with a fierceness which thrillingly just skirts abandon. Their shoulders rise and fall as their arms rotate like angular pistons to the syncopated rhythms. Pivoting to the side, their flexed feet carry them backward along prescribed lines. A liquidity occupies their joints, leading to stooped bouncy posture accented with a complicated series of arm gestures. The silhouettes of dancers, with backs to us and arms bent stiffly at the elbow, obliquely reference Latin ballroom dance shapes.
While primarily non-gendered, one amusing moment finds two women arching awkwardly away from their male partners, who nuzzle their faces up and the down the women’s bodies.
All wear tight-fitting asymmetrical grey tunic jackets and short full gaucho pants with black ankle socks; think vintage school uniform meets asylum straightjacket, courtesy of designer Ghabriello Fernando. Their heads, hands and shins are the only exposed flesh, so as Amanda del Valle, in silence, removes her coat revealing a silky red sleeveless top, we are enraptured. Her tantalizing solo, to a female vocalist’s rendition of the classic “Mama Teach Me to Dance,” is performed centerstage in a bright pool of light, as castmates circle her in the surrounding darkness.
As her dance concludes, del Valle breaks the fourth wall, sitting casually down at the edge of the stage. The house lights rise, allowing her to see and exchange waves and smiles with the audience, which soon draws the whole company to take a seat, their legs dangling over the stage edge. The unexpectedness of this turn of events and the refreshing lack of pretension, adds to the ongoing fun, as dancers cavort, mirroring one another. Some make their hands into binoculars and then, when scanning the skies, are startled when they discover us watching.
Sansano has created work for Alvin Ailey, Nederlands Dans Theater, Compañía Nacional de Danza, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Luzerner tanz Theater, Ballet BC, Atlanta Ballet, and Ballet Hispánico. This presentation of 18+1 is my first introduction to his work. Its inventiveness is great motivation to seek out more of his choreography.
Dancing with passion and skill that bodes well for their continued success, Ballet Hispánico is the largest Latino cultural organization in the United States. Their dance productions are only one leg of an enterprise which also includes transformative dance training, and deep community engagement.
Review by Jen Norris, published July 18, 2024
______________________________
Production Credits:
Club Havana
World Premiere: 2000 at The Joyce Theater
Choreography by Pedro RuizMusic by Israel Lopez, Rubén Gonzales, A.K. Salim, Perez Prado and Francisco RepiladoCostumes Design by Emilio SosaCostume Construction by Diana RuettigerLighting Design by Donald Holder
Dancers: Fatima Andere, Amir J. Baldwin, Antonio Cangiano, Amanda del Valle, Paolo HernandezFarella, Cori Lewis, Dylan Dias McIntyre, Amanda Ostuni, Omar Rivéra, Isabel Robles
Sombrerísimo
World Premiere: September 20, 2013 at New York City Center
Choreography by Annabelle Lopez OchoaMusic by Banda Ionica featuring Macaco el Mono Loco, Titi Robin, and soundscape by various artistsCostume Design by Diana RuettigerLighting Design by Joshua Preston
Dancers: Fatima Andere, Amir J. Baldwin, Antonio Cangiano, Paolo HernandezFarella, Dylan Dias McIntyre, Omar Rivéra
18+1
World Premire 2012; Ballet Hispánico Premiere: Fall for Dance Festival 2020
Choreography by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano
Music by Pérez Prado
Costume Design by Ghabriello Fernando
Lighting Design by Savannah Bell
Dancers: Fatima Andere, Amir J. Baldwin, Antonio Cangiano, Amanda del Valle, Paolo HernandezFarella, Cori Lewis, Dylan Dias McIntyre, Amanda Ostuni, Omar Rivéra, Isabel Robles
Opening Solo & Mama Teach Me Solo Amanda del Valle
Comments