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Dance Magazine, July, 2002

Houston Sprinkles Pixie Dust
Houston Ballet
Wortham Theater Center
Houston, Texas
March 14-24, 2002
Reviewed by Clive Barnes

The Houston Ballet has, under the long-term artistic direction of Ben Stevenson, led the way for American ballet companies in the creation of new full-evening classical ballets. Indeed it has more than led the way; it has practically created a trend. All of these ballets have had three things in common--a title abounding in name recognition, such as Dracula or Cleopatra, plus a dance-viable subject and, last but not least, choreography by Stevenson himself. Now, with Stevenson on the brink of retiring as artistic director--the Houston board has moved into determined search mode--he entrusted the company's latest full-evening extravaganza, Peter Pan, to Houston Ballet's choreographic associate and former dancer, Trey McIntyre.

Peter Pan--in the original J.M. Barrie manifestation rather than the Disney transmogrification--is a fascinating story, an archetypal childhood fantasy. Yet like the best of childhood fantasies or fairy stories it embodies some symbol of instinctively recognizable adult truth, whether it's the awakening of womanhood in The Sleeping Beauty, the eternal hopes and dreams realized in Cinderella, or the quest for youth, and fear of death, found in Peter Pan.

Consequently, I was happy to accept an invitation by the Houston Ballet to see this new piece, with music, as English as Worcester Cathedral, taken from Elgar, and I fully intended to see both casts. But my plan was unceremoniously put aside by an airline snafu, and it was only after six or seven hours of tiresome waiting at La Guardia that I finally arrived in time to see only the final Saturday evening performance. This was virtually the same as the first cast on March 14, but my apologies nevertheless to the missed matinee group.

McIntyre, who has been associated with the Houston company for all of his professional life, is a widely performed young choreographer of considerable promise; still, a major undertaking such as this Peter Pan could well have proved daunting. But he has tackled it with invention, a sure dramatic instinct, and a very special sensibility. He had to make slight changes in the story--for example, he decided that dogs were not a good choreographic prospect, so the canine nanny Nana is out--and the audience is no longer required to express its famous belief in fairies to save the ailing Tinkerbell. The ending is also slightly changed, but by and large this is Peter Pan as Barrie envisaged, even to the extent--not followed in either the play or the subsequent musicals--of having a male Peter.

At times McIntyre shows his inexperience in too much repetitive dance padding, but his choreographic use of the requisite flying (yes, as is the custom, it's Flying by Foy) is unusually poetic, his characterization of Captain Hook is masterly (as is his cheeky, boisterous Peter Pan), and in some of the duets he shows the command of an emerging master. And the production as a whole is charming--Niel DePonte has done a nice job of arranging the scattered bits of Elgar (who would have guessed that so much of Falstaff would have ended up as Peter Pan?), and the scenery by Thomas Boyd, the costumes by Jeanne Button, and the lighting by Christina Giannelli contrive to make Never-Never Land perfectly viable. And Jerry Lynch has provided a properly uncuddly but grimly riotous crocodile.

The Houston troupe--many of its members from the company's own school, and nearly all of them long-term residents--is a superb ensemble, in acting as well as dancing. Mauricio Canete's sprightly and mercurial Peter was a delight, the graceful and gracious Sara Webb made a nicely wistful Wendy, and all the rest inhabited Barrie's half-world with a winning sense of fantasy. But the performance that grabbed the attention was unquestionably Timothy O'Keefe's grandiose Captain Hook. With a wonderful costume--including a curling tricorne hat and a hooked hand to die for--and magnificent makeup, all black goatee and eyebrows, O'Keefe danced well, handling his one-handed partnering with panache and generally dominating the proceedings.

This Peter Pan, for all its many virtues, is no definitive work and seems unlikely to be destined as any kind of a repertoire standard outside of the Houston Ballet. Yet, with its choreographic confidence and narrative skills, it certainly represents a major step in McIntyre's career.

What Dreams May Come
Ohio Ballet and Dayton Ballet
State Theatre at Playhouse
Square Center
Cleveland, Ohio
April 5-6, 2002
Reviewed by Steve Sucato

To speak, or not to speak? After all, what is Shakespeare's Hamlet without hearing its eloquent verses?

At its core, Hamlet is a most powerful and compelling story, with or Without verse, one that choreographer Stephen Mills distilled into a brilliant modern ballet. Mills's original 2000 production for Ballet Austin was restaged and presented as a joint production in Cleveland by the Ohio and Dayton Ballets. Set to music by minimalist composer Philip Glass, with otherworldly sets and lighting by Mills, Jeffrey Main, and Tony Tucci, Hamlet's stage alternated between monochrome scenes of darkness and light.