Did it Deliver?
I went out last night, enjoying a mezze of appetizers at Keifer's with a fried before attending the Ballet Magnificat! performance of Deliver Us! Dinner was wonderful - a seat outside in the gorgeous spring air, a table full of small plates (pita feta, hummus, cucumber and onion salad), and a glass of lemonade. We ate, talked, soaked up the sunshine.
Once we'd had our fill, we headed over to Thalia Mara Hall for the performance. The first half of the program, titled Freedom, is inspired by 2 Chronicles 20. The pieces therein are set to Irish-inspired music. Although there were some jumps that weren't landed solidly, a few odd extensions, and one shaky lift, all in all this portion of the program was BEAUTIFULLY done. Wonderful music and costumes, very well-rehearsed dancers, great music and production values. I really enjoyed it. And you've got to give props to company founder Kathy Thibodeaux. The woman is somewhere over 50, and she's still out there, cutting the mustard with all of those dancers half her age. PLUS she handles all the extra duties of choreography, company management, etc. The woman's a wonder.
After a brief intermission, the Deliver Us! section of the program was underway. This program wisely uses music from the Dreamworks production of "The Prince of Egypt," and the high quality of the music definitely adds oomph to the familiar story of Moses. I was very impressed with all of the pieces early in the program. The costumes were beautiful, the dancers looked fabulous, and the pieces were emotionally moving.
There were a few things that didn't work for me towards the end, though, as sometimes happens when I attend Ballet Mag productions. First of all, in "The Burning Bush" piece, in which Moses literally sees a physical manifestation of God, there was a fabulous prop used to signify the burming bush (which I LOVED). In addition, one dancer, dressed in bright red, yellow, and orange, stood in for flame as God's voice came over the theatre's sound system. What I would have changed - God's voice was one voice. I much preferred the treatment in the Prince of Egypt movie, in which God's voice was many voices. I think this choice would have better conveyed God as an all-encompassing entity, rather than just a white guy's voice coming over the loudspeaker. Secondly, I felt that perhaps three dancers should have been used to signify the flames. It would have given them more choreographic options (as opposed to the one lonely girl, shaking her arms wildly quite a bit), and they could have all interacted with Moses more directly. Also, it might have been nice to have streams red/orange/yellow of fabric hanging from their wrists, as it would have produced a more "flame-like" effect. Why am I nitpicking this? Well, this is God we are talking about here. And as my companion mentioned, if there's anytime to go over the top, this is it.
The remaining pieces (Playing with the Big Boys, Plagues, Passover, and When You Believe) were all very well done, with Passover being particularly moving for me. However, then the show took an odd turn. With no explanation, we jump forward nearly 1500 years to the crucifixion scene. Wha? Where was the parting of the Red Sea, the wandering in the desert, the Ten Commandments? While I understand that communicating the message of Christ is a mission of Ballet Magnificat!, the audience and the production were quite underserved, I felt, by skipping out on the rest of the Moses story. I think some highly arresting and inventive things could have been done with the portions of the story that were left untold. Boo. Hiss.
Anyway, other than that, I really enoyed it. Up next, a review from the Wonderful Town performance, scheduled for tomorrow night.
Once we'd had our fill, we headed over to Thalia Mara Hall for the performance. The first half of the program, titled Freedom, is inspired by 2 Chronicles 20. The pieces therein are set to Irish-inspired music. Although there were some jumps that weren't landed solidly, a few odd extensions, and one shaky lift, all in all this portion of the program was BEAUTIFULLY done. Wonderful music and costumes, very well-rehearsed dancers, great music and production values. I really enjoyed it. And you've got to give props to company founder Kathy Thibodeaux. The woman is somewhere over 50, and she's still out there, cutting the mustard with all of those dancers half her age. PLUS she handles all the extra duties of choreography, company management, etc. The woman's a wonder.
After a brief intermission, the Deliver Us! section of the program was underway. This program wisely uses music from the Dreamworks production of "The Prince of Egypt," and the high quality of the music definitely adds oomph to the familiar story of Moses. I was very impressed with all of the pieces early in the program. The costumes were beautiful, the dancers looked fabulous, and the pieces were emotionally moving.
There were a few things that didn't work for me towards the end, though, as sometimes happens when I attend Ballet Mag productions. First of all, in "The Burning Bush" piece, in which Moses literally sees a physical manifestation of God, there was a fabulous prop used to signify the burming bush (which I LOVED). In addition, one dancer, dressed in bright red, yellow, and orange, stood in for flame as God's voice came over the theatre's sound system. What I would have changed - God's voice was one voice. I much preferred the treatment in the Prince of Egypt movie, in which God's voice was many voices. I think this choice would have better conveyed God as an all-encompassing entity, rather than just a white guy's voice coming over the loudspeaker. Secondly, I felt that perhaps three dancers should have been used to signify the flames. It would have given them more choreographic options (as opposed to the one lonely girl, shaking her arms wildly quite a bit), and they could have all interacted with Moses more directly. Also, it might have been nice to have streams red/orange/yellow of fabric hanging from their wrists, as it would have produced a more "flame-like" effect. Why am I nitpicking this? Well, this is God we are talking about here. And as my companion mentioned, if there's anytime to go over the top, this is it.
The remaining pieces (Playing with the Big Boys, Plagues, Passover, and When You Believe) were all very well done, with Passover being particularly moving for me. However, then the show took an odd turn. With no explanation, we jump forward nearly 1500 years to the crucifixion scene. Wha? Where was the parting of the Red Sea, the wandering in the desert, the Ten Commandments? While I understand that communicating the message of Christ is a mission of Ballet Magnificat!, the audience and the production were quite underserved, I felt, by skipping out on the rest of the Moses story. I think some highly arresting and inventive things could have been done with the portions of the story that were left untold. Boo. Hiss.
Anyway, other than that, I really enoyed it. Up next, a review from the Wonderful Town performance, scheduled for tomorrow night.
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