OBT Bites Back.

OBT Bites Back Oregon Ballet Theatre Keller Auditorium Portland, Oregon October 13-21, 2001

Oregon Ballet Theatre opened its 2001-2002 season with something old--George Balanchine's 1934 masterpiece, Serenade--and something new, borrowed, and blue (as in sexy): the premiere of James Canfield's Lady Lucille and the Count.

Serenade was given the performance it deserves the second weekend--the first movement was a bit ragged on opening night--showcasing Anne Mueller, Kristin Bacon, and especially Katarina Svetlova as soloists, and new company member Kwang-Suk Choi, a real asset to OBT's slender cadre of male dancers. Niel DePonte conducted the Oregon Ballet Theatre orchestra with acute sensitivity to both the music and the dancing.

Set to prerecorded music of many styles--a little Schubert here, a little Bach there, Fila Brazilia, and the spooky sounds of Dead Can Dance--Canfield's Lady Lucille, loosely based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, is the latest in a series of ballets about "strong women" victimized by either the male sex, society, or both. As characters, Anais Nin, Edie Sedgwick, and Coco Chanel preceded Stoker's Lucy, a proper--if feisty--Victorian maiden who in the ballet (but not the novel) becomes the first female vampire.

Alison Roper, as Lucille, first confused by her attraction to three very different suitors, then in thrall to the Count, danced opening night with her customary expressive eloquence, her agitated bourrees drumming her passion and terror, her port de bras yearning, her carriage increasingly languid as the blood drained from her body.

As the Count, Robert Deskins was floorbound much of the time, in the first act coming to life in a writhing solo beneath a distracting set piece that looked like a giant inflated condom, turning from flesh pink to bright red in Michael Mazzola's dramatic if unsubtle lighting. Deskins is a fine dancer, on his back or his feet, and the slow, seductive pas de deux for him and Roper that ended with That Bite was sensuously and expertly danced, not only opening night but also the following weekend.

Act One also had a tender pas de deux for Lucille and her friend, danced by Larke Hasstedt, and a couple of good trios involving the suitors, performed by Kwang-Suk Choi as the Cowboy, David Strobbe as the Doctor, and Scott Trumbo as the Aristocrat. Movement for the Cowboy (a rancher in the book) was derived from Agnes de Mille's Rodeo, or possibly Billy the Kid, and the Aristocrat employed his walking stick in much the same way as the ballet master in Canfield's Degas Impressions. Act Two, in need of considerable editing, also contained recycled material, including ominous men in sunglasses who have appeared in other Canfield works.

Janet Elam's costumes were mostly in period and symbolized Lucille's growing depravity, though the kilt for the bare-chested metaphysician (a mysterious addition to the cast) was a little confusing. The set, mostly a self-conscious postmodern take on Victorian decor, tended to draw the eye away from the dancers instead of framing them, and there were far too many crosses in the design.

Stoker's intricately plotted novel has, mysteriously, attracted many choreographers; the material it contains is far more verbal than visual, the many film treatments notwithstanding. Canfield's version has some lovely moments but unfortunately, despite the efforts of OBT's increasingly strong dancers, they fall short of creating a sustained narrative ballet.