Mediterranea.

BALLETTO DI TOSCANA JOYCE THEATER MARCH 17-22, 1998

It was a particular pleasure to watch the dancers of Balletto di Toscana, the twelve-year-old company based in Florence, Italy, in their American debut. Judging from the single piece they showed, Mediterranea, the style of the sixteen-member ensemble directed by Cristina Bozzolini is that marvelous combination of ballet training and lilt blended with modern dance weight and particularly supple backs, a style developed by Jiri Kylian and Glen Tetley. Toscana's members are, additionally, remarkably beautiful and handsome. It's a fantastically good-looking company.

Mauro Bigonzetti's choreography, however, is another matter. His theme is a danced travelogue through the countries of the Mediterranean; the score, edited by Bigonzetti with Paride Bonetta--seventeen sections over an in termissionless eighty-five minutes--is drawn From Mediterranean cultures, with a little Mozart thrown in for good measure. Curiously, what the choreographer (now director of the Italian company Aterballetto) seems to lack is musicality, as well as diversity: the athletic energy and imagery of his choreography remains monotonously similar throughout.

The dance begins with two men, Eugenio Buratti and Armando Santin, whose duets surface from time to time and who in some way act as our guides to the piece; they will conclude it as well, although their relationship remains elusive--are they lovers, two travelers, or traveler and guide? The dance surges on, here and there with costume changes--orange, black, white, always chic--as dancers come and go in groups or in pairs. Roberto Tirelli's stonelike set transforms itself from a mountain into a seaside. In an early male-female duet, the woman distinguishes herself with battements that are more aptly described as flung arabesques.

Indeed, this ensemble company includes a marvelous cadre of women. The statuesque and wonderful Simonetta Giannasi is flipped around by the handles on her leather belt by Santin, enabling him to manage unusual leverages and tosses. Some of the duos are love duets--in one of them, a man runs his hands over the side of a woman's torso as she lies on the stage, but the action is overtly theatrical, illuminating the fact that there is no tenderness or vulnerability anywhere in the piece. All are unremittingly dances of strength. When all is said and done, the emotional dynamic in Mediterranea remains just as unvarying as the physical dynamic.