Eugene Ballet Company. - Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene, Oregon - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, June, 1995 by Martha Ullman West

Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene, Oregon February 24-26, 1995

There was much that was brillig and little that was slithy in Eugene Ballet's performance of artistic director Toni Pimble's Alice in Wonderland when it was performed as the centerpiece of a mixed-repertoire show geared for children but also pleasing to adults.

Of course, Lewis Carroll's novel, as illustrated by John Tenniel, is as much political satire as it was an entertainment for the three Liddell sisters. The use of those illustrations for Lynn Bowers's costumes and Diane Trapp's masks made the Duchess look astoundingly like Newt Gingrich in drag, who seems to share the character's philosophy of child-rearing. That was the slithy part.

The brillig part was the combination of inventive choreography by Pimble, lighting and special effects created by Lloyd Sobel, and the excellence of the dancing, not only in Alice but in Pimble's May Dances and the Pas de Trois from Swan Lake.

None of these pieces is new. May Dances is a soft-edged neoclassical piano ballet set to Robert Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze that premiered in 1991. New dancer Jennifer Martin was particularly musical and fleet in this performance, and the men, Frank Affrunti, Eloy Barragan, Juan Carlos Diaz-Velez, and Jairus Owens, danced with new presence and assurance. As did Randall Ross, also new this season, in the Swan Lake Pas de Trois.

It was in the performance of Alice, however, that the company really triumphed, in an evenhanded marriage of dancing and special effects in which neither overwhelmed the other. As Alice, Verna Carter, who danced in the premiere three years ago, was girlish without being coy, and Affrunti and Brett Mills danced the King and Queen of Hearts with classical aplomb.

Pimble's wit comes through in a corps de ballet of flamingos, a caterpillar that changes into another corps of butterflies, and a lobster quadrille that takes place under the sea.

The accompanying score is a medley of very English music by several composers, unfortunately on tape.