`Sins,' song, and seeger.

Pacific Northwest Ballet May 30-June 8, 2002 Mercer Arts Arena Seattle, Washington

Pacific Northwest Ballet's closing program of the season, "Song and Dance," included social commentary, satire, and a rich variety of music, song, and dance forms--from jazz to neoclassical ballet. Seattle jazz singer Greta Matassa and a male vocal quartet sang in the world premiere of Donald Byrd's The Seven Deadly Sins, Pete Seeger's recorded songs backed the PNB premiere of Lynne Taylor-Corbett's Ballad of You and Me, and the Seattle Choral Company performed in Co-Artistic Director Kent Stowell's Hail to the Conquering Hero.

The Seven Deadly Sins, choreographed in 1933 by George Balanchine, with music by Kurt Weill and libretto, in German, by Bertolt Brecht, juxtaposes a stark modernist aesthetic with romantic storytelling and neoclassical dance. Balanchine revived the piece for the New York City Ballet in 1958. Choreographers including Maurice Bejart and Glen Tetley have created other versions.

Brecht's narrative tells a sentimental story: A simple country gift travels to seven cities in seven years, trying to earn money. In Byrd's production, two Annas--dancer Patricia Barker and singer Greta Matassa--and two families (one singing, one dancing) allow the audience to see the same scene in different ways.

In Adrianne Lobel's sets of the seven cities, poster-sized "sins" hang over the stage in each scene. Kudos to Paul Tazewell's costumes, although they were sometimes lost amid the black swaths of fabric forming the sets. The dancers, led by Barker's Anna, performed all the steps with a detached self-absorption--and modernist sensibility--that suited the piece.

The literalness of the piece first dominates a viewer's impressions. For example, in "Gluttony," dressmakers squeeze Anna into an exceptionally tight corset and evening dress while both her singing and dancing families eat to excess; in "Envy," dancers waltz in evening-dress attire but with eerie form-fitting masks. Subsequent viewing, however, reveals fascinating conceptualizations of mid-1930s America and staggering images in narrative and dance.

The severity of The Seven Deadly Sins was countered by the lightness of Ballad of You and Me, originally choreographed for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1995 by Lynne Taylor-Corbett. Ballad features the life work of folklorist Pete Seeger, with selected songs on themes of civil rights, civil disobedience, labor power, and environmental consciousness. It also includes Seeger's commentary on his conviction in the McCarthy hearings. Inspiring images of landscapes and people, from the Seeger family archives, were projected onto four screens. The dancers were costumed in overalls and work clothes.

The "Die Gedanken Sind Frei (My Spirit is Free)" section--danced with conviction by Olivier Wevers and, in another cast, Paul Gibson--is particularly noteworthy. In other sections, tender pas de deux, powerful dancer tableaux, and solid aerial work speak of singular resolve and confidence--adding to the exuberance of the dance.

The program's third piece, Hail to the Conquering Hero, was choreographed in 1985 by Stowell as a tribute to George Frideric Handel on the three-hundredth anniversary of the composer's birth. It is set to selections from Handel's oratorios and operas, and the songs were skillfully presented by the Seattle Choral Company. This joyous neoclassical work celebrates the hero in everyone via a gorgeous visualization of the music and Mark Zappone's costumes--pastel gray shirts and chiffon dresses. In highlighting the extraordinary in the ordinary--in plain, simple, direct steps--Stowell's classic piece is an invitation to both recover and celebrate humanity.

The dance also is one of Stowell's most exquisite works. Sweeping, elongated gestures and chains of dancers moving together portended urgency throughout the piece, as when Christophe Maraval was moved offstage by a circle of eight boureeing women. That sense of urgency was augmented by the musical tempo and the almost impossible quickness of some of the steps--the fast-paced "Hornpipe" danced so capably by soloist Kimberly Davey, for example, or a scherzo danced by Alexandra Dickson and Melanie Skinner with a generosity of spirit that belied the space in which they danced.

The steely calm in the dancers' bodies suggested contemplation and repose, as exemplified by the accomplished Louise Nadeau, breathing into every stretch with a watchful Maraval, or in the passionate "Andante" pas danced by Noelani Pantastico and Paul Gibson. The dancers partnered each other as if showing one line--particularly poignant were Julie Tobiason and Jeffrey Stanton. Tobiason showed a purity of line rarely seen, carried by the power of the chorale. Conductor Stewart Kershaw's attentiveness and acumen extended to the full orchestra as well.

Hail provided just one of the many emotional moments in this closing performance of the season, marking the end of principal Julie Tobiason's sixteen-year tenure with the company, as well as the end of the PNB careers of soloists Vladislav Bourakov and Kimberly Davey.