Art Springs to Life.

Pennsylvania Ballet Merriam Theater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania June 12-16, 2002

Two ballets based on the works of two well-known French artists emerged in Pennsylvania Ballet's season-ending program, "Rodin."

Inspired by a series of impressionistic paintings by Claude Monet, and set to several of composer Claude Debussy's solo works for piano, American Ballet Theatre Ballet Master Kirk Peterson's world premiere of Dancing with Monet--A Gathering at Argenteuil sought to capture the vibrancy and emotion of the painter's work.

Peterson's ballet was divided into nine segments, which he referred to in the ballet's program notes as "encounters." These were mostly pas de deux danced in succession, with little variation. Peterson presented Pennsylvania Ballet's dancers as refined romantics dancing intricate and lilting movement expressing several emotional states.

Two of the ballet's encounters stood out, imbued with a kind of artistic brilliance befitting their underlying influence. Svelte principal dancer Arantxa Ochoa and partner James Ihde brought an ardor to "Valse romantique," a waltz laden with crisp pirouettes, tight couplings, and Ochoa's piercing glances.

In "Clair de lune," the pas de deux between principal dancer Dede Barfield and soloist Meredith Rainey captured the innocent charm of two young lovers adrift in moonlight, with Rainey arcing Barfield in serene lifts that descended like mist from a fountain. Although technically sound, Peterson's series of emotional encounters became muddled by similarity, and the ballet as a whole never achieved cohesiveness.

Harkness Ballet debuted Margo Sappington's Rodin, Mis En Vie in New York in 1974; only this year was the ballet performed in the city that houses many of the Auguste Rodin sculptures that inspired it.

Rodin, Mis En Vie, which Sappington staged on Pennsylvania Ballet, imagines the movement possibilities had Rodin's sculptures come to life. Many of the ballet's thirteen sections are based on sculptures in the Philadelphia Rodin Museum's collection, including The Burghers of Calais and The Gates of Hell.

Set to a grand and stirring original score by Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Kamen, Rodin, Mis En Vie was a magnificent spectacle of sound and motion, danced with fervor. Most sections began with the dancers striking a pose reminiscent of Rodin's muscular statues. Sappington's choreography, then released the dancers to interpret visions of power, athleticism, love, despair, and debauchery.

In "The Athlete, also called The American," guest dancer Christopher Rudd of Carolina Ballet blended masculine power with self-confidence in athletic movements that delighted the audience. In "The Kiss" Tara Keating and James Ihde unleashed seating desire and heartache as Rodin's immortalized lovers.

Throughout the ballet, Sappington showed a deft command of subtle gesture that helped define the characters. Nowhere was this more evident than in "The Daniad," where dancer Natalia Charova, in a formfitting costume, displayed a sort of lustful insanity, seductively stalking the stage, swirling her body and appealing for attention, her arms outstretched.

The ballet climaxed in "The Gates of Hell," the work's final scene, in which the entire company climbed up and descended from an ominous fifty-foot scaffolding. In an orgy of bodies, the dancers writhed and coupled chaotically--Sappington's choreography revealed a beautiful mass of independent movement groupings that was both disturbing and mesmerizing.