Pennsylvania Ballet. - Merriam Theater, Philadelphia, PA - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, Feb, 1996 by Brenda Dixon Gottschild

After a year at the helm, Pennsylvania Ballet executive director Michael Gennaro stepped down to assume "the dream opportunity of a lifetime": managing director of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He was replaced by Lawrence Sterner, who had been general manager of American Ballet Theatre since 1993. With Roy Kaiser as artistic director since February 1995, the company moves into its thirty-second season with new leadership.

The opening program of the fall season was a puzzle. it was difficult to figure out why these particular ballets were presented on the same bill. Here's the lineup: Agon, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, the pas de deux from Margo Sappington's Under the Sun, Le Corsaire or Don Quixote, in alternation, and Petrouchka. Balanchine and Stravinsky were the least common denominators, and they were paired together only in Agon.

In his long career George Balanchine choreographed some masterpieces and some fluff. One of each was represented on this program. The astounding Agon was the curtain raiser. Choreographed in 1957, it is a modernist classic that corresponds to what Merce Cunningham was doing, or was going to do, in modern dance: showing the audience the bare bones of a complex technique and, in a no-frills, no-nonsense way, approaching dance as a kinesthetic task to be fulfilled, rather than an emotional landscape to be enacted.

After a slow start, the ensemble was fully swinging with the mood by the first pas de trois. This company has the capacity to give Agon what it needs in performance. The dancers know how to pull off the minimalist jazz touches with style - one snap of the fingers, two claps of the hands, a shoulder lifted and dropped, the deliberately flexed hands and feet, and the off-center thrusts of the pelvis.

Jeffrey Gribler, always a grounding force and excellent partner, was again noteworthy in his work with Cydney Spohn and Martha Chamberlain in the coda section of the first pas de trois. As performed by Meredith Rainey and Leslie Carothers, the central pas de deux is a fascinating study in contrasts. Carothers is absolutely fluid, technically adroit, and quietly sure. Rainey is a bit stiff and contained, with a nervous energy beneath his surface. He is the youth to her mature woman.

What can one say about The Steadfast Tin Soldier? Well, how about this: pair it with Petrouchka, and give the kiddies an alternative to the mandatory yuletide offering of The Nutcracker. Programming this work to follow Agon was a reminder, lest we forget, of Balanchine's incredible range in interest and showmanship.

Jodie Gates, PB's principal newly arrived from the Joffrey, has a wonderful quicksilver style that was seen to advantage in both Under the Sun and Don Quixote. In the latter pas de deux, William DeGregory danced one of the most lucid performances I have ever seen him give in his many years with the company.

An artistic director's task is more than just organization and administration; he or she must imbue an ensemble with an artistic personality and vision. It is most helpful if the director is also a choreographer and can envision the stage picture from the outside. Kaiser is not a choreographer. The programming and performance reflected a dancer's vision and, perhaps, a teacher's vision: Show the audience what and how much we can do, and offer something for everyone.

But an artistic director, like a good choreographer, must also know what not to do, and must take the risk of choosing a focus and a direction that may not be all-inclusive. The October program was busy and, in a word, insecure. Focus and vision were sacrificed in such a motley bill of fare.

Rainey, Kelly Moriarty, and Dalia Hay are promising dancers. Artistic direction is needed to help them develop their potential and a sense of performance - going through and beyond correct form to attain another level of accomplishment and completion. Carothers and Gribler have this. (Gribler is celebrating his twentieth season with the company and is still going strong.) Pennsylvania Ballet has had more than its shore of ups and downs, budget crises, and leadership turnover in the post decade. It needs strong, enlightened, stable, sure leadership to carry on.