By Rachel Straus<\/p>\n
Small is beautiful. That has been Miro Magliore\u2019s approach to dance making since he created the New Chamber Ballet in 2004. On September 6 and 7, at New York City Center\u2019s Studio Five, Magliore presented five short ballets. His selection of a salon-size cast\u2014five female dancers and two musicians\u2014and his decision to annually present his two-night seasons in a bare bones studio are not just practical responses to the dire state of U.S. arts funding. They express his aesthetic vision. Magliore\u2019s ballets cleave to modesty. His City Center evenings, which offer neither sets nor lighting, bear a similarity to the experience of sitting in one of the spare Lutheran churches of his German homeland. In contrast to the baroque spectacle of Roman Catholic churches (and Broadway theaters a few blocks west of City Center), Magliore\u2019s presentations, which always feature live music, are the opposite of the razzle and dazzle. A large number of his sixty plus dances explore classical ballet as modernist minimalism (think Mondrian\u2019s grid paintings or Balanchine\u2019s Agon<\/em>). His works demonstrate how ballet can occupy a space, and develop a small, loyal audience, beyond its visible position as an elite opera house entertainment for the rich and powerful.<\/p>\n Magliore\u2019s newest work Oracle<\/em>, seen on the 7, is for three dancers and it\u2019s a departure for this trained composer, who has a penchant for dissonant classical music. The only sound in Oracle <\/em>comes from the rhythmic rattles and propulsive stabs produced by the dancers\u2019 African-style anklets and by the wooden blocks of their pointe shoes. The Oracle of the ballet\u2019s title is Traci Finch. She rushes onto the stage and throws herself onto the floor. When she enters the dance space, marked by a square of white tape, she places the rattles, made of dried seeds, around her ankle. She disturbs a pastoral tableau created by the supine Sarah Atkins and Holly Curran, who, like she, are wearing Greek-style tunic dresses and golden bands in their hair (created by Sarah Thea Swafford). Finch spurs the sleeping pair into dance, and when she does, the trio performs triplet rhythms reminiscent of galloping horses. But instead of running, the lithe women execute \u00e9chapp\u00e9s (open and closing of the legs) and passes (balances on one leg), which in pointe shoes develop pliable and steely pointe dancing. When the three women circle the space in sets of three unison lunges, which pause long enough for their rattles to cease their echoing of the movement, they resemble three Greek muses, floating.<\/p>\n The subject of Oracle<\/em> certainly references ancient mythology. Finch, who is as an outsider and is abandoned at the ballet\u2019s end, is the soothsayer. She sees a dire future, becomes frenzied (her ankle rattle becomes possessed by a shuddering invisible demon), and then she drops dead. She’s seen the worst, but what it is is anyone’s guess. Magliore\u2019s approach to these events isn\u2019t particularly interesting. It\u2019s difficult to create epic drama without music, a sizable cast, and danceable music. But this new work should be perceived as a failure. It\u2019s a highly imaginative use of two traditions: pointe work from Europe and instruments from Africa (or the Middle East). When the dancers break into Dionysian solos, each undulating their torso to the accompaniment of their fellows dancers’ rhythmic stamping, Magliore is in new territory. I hope he continues this cross-continental pollination.<\/p>\n The other works on the program were Klaverst<\/em>\u00fcck<\/em> (2008) to Karlheinz Stockhausen’s\u00a0Klavierst\u00fcck IX<\/em> (as played by pianist Melody Fader and danced by Elizabeth Brown and Holly Curran). In A Simple Black Dress<\/em> (2010) to Pierre Boulez\u2019s Anth\u00e8mes <\/em>(as played by violinist Doori Na and danced by the remarkable Amber Neff), Anna\u2019s Last Day<\/em> (2013) to Rebecca Saunders\u2019\u00a0Duo <\/em>for violin and piano (with a cast of Na, Fader, Sarah Atkins and Neff) and The Letter<\/em> to Joseph Haydn\u2019s Piano Sonata No. 50 in D Major <\/em>(with Fader, Brown and Curran).\u00a0In each ballet, the musicans performed with or next to the dancers.<\/p>\n In Magliore\u2019s world, music and dance are given equal weight, both visually and aurally. In Magliore\u2019s world, small isn\u2019t just beautiful, it expresses something of the divine.<\/p>\n * The New Chamber Ballet’s 2013 season isn’t finished. For more information, go to Magliore’s company website or click\u00a0upcoming performances<\/a>.<\/p>\n