Temporada Primaveral 2011

I went to watch Temporada Primaveral 2011, a collection of dances choreographed by Jimmy Gammonet. Jimmy was born in Peru, and started dancing here, but then moved to the US. He not only became first dancer in the Teatro Municipal de Lima, but he also became first dancer in the American Ballet Theater. He managed to create his own dance company in Miami called the Gammonet Ballet, and due to economic issues it broke. He came to Peru earlier this year, and a few friends and I took some classes with him over the summer. I know his work, and in my opinion he’s an amazing teacher, so I was really interested in watching his show because after all, it’s the work of one of my teachers. Still, I didn’t enjoy it so much. I knew that since the choreographies were being performed with the National Ballet, they wouldn’t be a hundred percent classical, but though there were some dances that caught my attention, there were others that just lacked something: because ballet is an artistic form of expression in which the dancer can not rely on words, they have to use their face and their body gestures, making it clear to the audience what they’re expressing, but at the same time not making it too exaggerates.
First of all, the way some of the people on stage reacted to what was happening around them, didn’t connect with how the rest of the dances reacted to the same thing. Not only did they not connect with each other, but they also didn’t connect with what the pamphlet said about the piece. For example, there was a holocaust piece, in which there were eight women on stage, the dance was about how one of them lost her son in the camp, and is desperate trying to find the body. Though at times I (as the audience) could feel the anxiety because she was reaching out while the other women were holding her back, other times, it just seemed boring. Every woman on stage was static. Most of the dance they were in the same place, just changing to a different pose. Going back to what I said about not connecting with the theme, if this choreography is about the holocaust, it shouldn’t be so slow, unless they are portraying grief, which is not the case here. And even if they were portraying grief or death, they should be more united in the sense that the dance should have been more of a group dance. Everything seemed like each one of the characters was in her own little world in her own bubble of grief, when they should be suffering together.
Another element that didn’t fit in with some of the dances, were the costumes. The one that seemed the most out of place was the dance about the statues. I get that each of the two girls were representing statues, so the lack of facial expression did help make a point in this dance, but then, why were there cloths transparent? The audience could see everything. If the dance was expressing sexuality for instance, then yes it would be understandable, though it would be very controversial because they were two girls dancing instead of a girl and a guy. Still, the theme of this was statues. The slow movements and the body language fit right in, but the lack of real cloths didn’t. In fact, at times due to the movements and the tremendous elasticity of the dancers, it even made it inappropriate, like the wardrobe choice was being forced to try to make some point. Though the dance was beautiful, the dancers had an excellent technique; sadly the wardrobe choice ruined everything for me.
Though there were things like lack of chemistry between the dancers, lack of attitude, wrong costumes, there were also some good elements to the choreographies. The first thing that I loved was the dancers. The two main dancers each had an excellent technique, and though one of them was able to lift the leg higher, or jump higher, they both looked amazing dancing together because it almost looked like the competition made each of them work harder. Not only the technique was excellent, but on the last dance specifically, the tangos, which they were dancing some tangos that were suppose to reflect the Latin culture, the couples were well chosen. There was one couple that looked like they had some trouble performing certain parts, but in general they were all very well chosen. Finally, the lights were amazing! Something that is not always well done, here they were perfect! They helped set the atmosphere and the mood. For example, the color of the holocaust lights really did help make a more depressing mood, whereas the tango lights really helped illustrated a happier mood.
Though some dances were really hard to interpret, and this is not one of my favorite ballet shows, there are some really good things I saw here, including the dancers, some of the choreographies (more specifically only the first one and the last one) some good chemistry (or acting?) between the dancers, and a fun lights show.