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AUDIENCE REVIEW: Ballet des Amériques performs at Tarrytown Music Hall

Company:
Ballet des Amériques

Performance Date:
Wednesday, April 25th 2018

Freeform Review:

Wednesday night's performance of Ballet des Amériques at the Tarrytown Music Hall was a proclamation.  By presenting three extended works in this classic theater space, all choreographed by Director Carole Alexis, Ballet des Amériques made a powerful statement that this is a company to be reckoned with.

In this seventh year under the leadership of founder Madame Alexis, Ballet des Amériques presented three pieces as rich and affecting as any to be seen in today's dance world.

“Of Flowers and Tears”, dressed in the bright primary colors of the Caribbean, is alive with the energy we humans draw from the natural world.  Island flowers offer the theme.  Vivid in life, and sometimes in death as well, nourished and mourned by tears, the beautiful blooms were internalized by the dancers.

Mauricio Zenteno's solo work was glorious and all the dancers interweaving, blending and bending bodies in motion, swirling reds and greens and whites, are evidence of a masterful choreographer.

“Bolero” has become a masterwork.  For those of us who have been privileged to see the earliest manifestations of this idea by Madame Alexis, and to observe the building process as she has given shape to the idea over months and months of successive performances, this is a magnificent culmination …. or not.  What we also have observed is that Carole Alexis is an artist who will never stop seeking perfection so that the next performance may reach still higher.

Isodale Alexis is brilliant throughout “Bolero”.  However, Victoria Kress, Jessica Frazier, Corey Mangum, Garrett McCann, Irene Pryzwara, Mauricio Zenteno and Alexandria Ina Rose Bocca are also outstanding.

“Nos Ici et d'ailleurs” was an apt finale to the evening, reminding us why we need art.  In this dance, Madame Alexis shines a light on the mechanistic lives so many of us endure and the impact on our souls of our cold electronic devices suffused with the irony of our disembodied connectivity.

Again, Isodale Alexis performed superbly and the company proved their versatility, transformed from creatures of nature in “Flowers” to the obsessed and enchanted souls of “Bolero”, to anguished robots in this work.

From the start, Ballet des Amériques has sparkled.  Now, the dancers and the choreography shine.  We come away from each alluring performance, warmed and bedazzled, and looking forward with eagerness and delight to the next.

— Frank De Ligio  4/29/18

Author:
Frank Di Ligio

Website:
www.balletdesameriques.com

Photo Credit:
Francis Augustine