In American Contemporary Ballet’s Inferno & Burlesque last Thursday night, audience members were escorted to the 28th floor of a high rise building in downtown LA. With three rows of tiered seating, a darkened atmosphere of foggy lights hitting the space, and the luminescence of the city of Los Angeles backdropping the scene, I knew this night of ballet would be different. Unlike some previous shows from ACB’s trial and error, they escorted persons one by one to the empty high rise floor, rather than gathering us all together and then entering us into the space. This, as a theater-goer, was a vast improvement to the pre-show. I was able to walk where I wanted, grab a drink at the bar, and take in the atmosphere at my own pace.
American Contemporary Ballet – “Inferno” – Photo by Asilda Photography
As the performance began, we were rushed into seven different vignettes of eerie and mysterious tales from the underworld. Flight from the Three Beasts as the very first vignette of The Leopard, The Lion, and The She-Wolf portrayed by Paige Wilkey, Annette Cherkasov, and Madeline Houk, grabbed us from the inside out and set the tone with fiery choreography by Director Lincoln Jones. This was also our first introduction to the brilliant costuming by Ruoxuan Li who would continue to surprise and delight with the ballerinas threads throughout the evening. In Flight from the Three Beasts, Li exposed the audience to a fair amount of skin on the dancers in brown, dark greens, and black deconstructed leotards and tattered skirts. With wild hair down, teased, and slightly curled, one was thrown into an abundance of fierce flexed hands, dragged heels, and unconventional curved shapes from the bodies of the dancers themselves. There was also an uncomfortable sensation to, not only vignette one, but to two through seven. Pianists Brendan White and Daniel Gledhill, stationed at two black grand pianos stage left, seemingly riffed into something classical, something jazzy, and something untamed and yet delicate. With music by composer Charles Wuorinen, the unconventional balletic composition only added to the strange and beautiful. Jones’ choreography seemed to emulate a bit of Fosse and even a bit of Cunningham, as the dancers moved in shapes and patterns instead of the traditional loftiness we’ve seen from previous Jones’ choreography for ACB. And as surprised and delighted as I was to see this darker side of the company, I was also disappointed in the expected usage of pointing offstage and the repetitive, evidently sinister choreography, of taking pointed fingers and placing them into each other’s open mouths. This was particularly noticeable in vignette two titled The Mission of Virgil performed by Maté Szentes, Carmen Callahan, and Hannah Barr.
American Contemporary Ballet – “Inferno” – Photo by Asilda Photography
Vignette six was a beautifully executed and technical piece titled Satan performed by Taylor Berwick. Berwick wore what seemed to be individual plastic finger pieces that extended beyond the edges of her hands and elongated the line, giving the impression of claws or ghoul like appendages. While it’s not easy to work with any prop, let alone balancing with a prop temporarily attached to the hand, one didn’t get a separate character of any real specification from Berwick. The choreography blended into other vignettes one had seen before, and the fingers began to wear the dancer instead of the other way around. While her technique was almost near perfection, I desperately longed for that inner character spark that would pull me down with her and make me forget where I was.
American Contemporary Ballet – “Inferno” – Photo by Asilda Photography
Ultimately, while I enjoy ACB’s take on a non-stage stage, by curating us all into an empty floor high rise, it is also one of the greatest downfalls of the experience. The balletic choreography seems to be set for a main stage performance, rather than an intimate gathering. I am close enough to touch, and hear breath, and feel what each dancer is feeling, yet…I get no sense that I am being included as an audience member. I still feel like I am not a part of the whole. This thin third wall began to slowly breakdown in part two of the evening entitled Burlesque. While this probably was not the best time in our nation’s history to have ballet dancers masquerade as non-professional burlesque dancers by de-robing and taking off their clothes, you certainly could not ignore that you were now a part of every scene.
American Contemporary Ballet – “Burlesque” – Photo by Asilda Photography
The star of Inferno & Burlesque was the last variation of the evening, titled Variation VII and performed by Madeline Houk, Hannah Barr, Paige Wilkey, Quincey Smith, Brittany Yevoli, and Elise Kruger. With sultry music and composition by Michael Arrom, and drums by Andres Arciniega, and Ian Wurfl, we’re introduced to a single couch on stage and sound that is something from a Twin Peaks theme song. With only Madeline Houk on the couch in casual 50’s garb, it is one of the first times I get a pronounced and encouraged character out of the dancers. One by one they all appear in a single spotlight stage left, while anyone near the couch gives a direct look. Once at the couch each woman tasks herself while waiting. One girl attempts to put on a stocking, another smokes, and another fidgets with her lipstick. The audience is immediately intrigued and questioning what they’re waiting for, or who? The last dancer appears in a tufted 50’s dress carrying a pie before placing it on the floor in front of the couch full of waiting women. A little change in the music, and they all kneel down and plunge their faces into the cherry pie, creating a mess all over the floor and faces. Perhaps it is because this was such a welcomed interaction after an evening of one too many intermissions, but Variation VII was a masterful and comical triumph during American Contemporary Ballet’s night of Inferno & Burlesque.
American Contemporary Ballet – “Burlesque” – Photo by Asilda Photography
The show ended with each of the women in Variation VII choosing an audience member and awkwardly slow dancing, which was a welcomed choreographic choice by Jones that familiarized everyone with the feelings of shyness at a school dance for example. And while it was drastically different from the rest of Burlesque, the quiet but dramatic performance of engulfing a pie, leaving red globs all over their mouths was reminiscent of devouring blood; 50’s vampires take Los Angeles, so look out everyone! Despite the few inconveniences from the performance, what I love about ACB the most is their willingness to take risks in a field that usually likes to stick to what it knows. A classic is a classic, but it takes real fangs to push the boundaries of the art and think outside the coffin. ACB’s Halloween season is not to be missed!
To learn more about American Contemporary Ballet, please visit their website.
Written by Grace Courvoisier for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: American Contemporary Ballet – Burlesque – Photo by Asilda Photography
