Peter Boal & Company.

PETER BOAL & COMPANY THE JOYCE THEATER, NEW YORK, NY MARCH 16-21, 2004

It's hard to believe that Peter Boal, a much-loved New York City Ballet principal dancer and full-time teacher at the School of American Ballet, has any spare time, but for a number of years now he has quietly involved himself with choreographers and projects somewhat outside of the ballet world. His most recent enterprise involved other dancers--NYCB colleagues Wendy Whelan, Carla Korbes, and Sean Suozzi--for the first time, allowing him to present an ambitious yet carefully structured chamber ensemble of contemporary choreography, Draw-card names like Twyla Tharp and William Forsythe anchored the program, but Boal, who has always been interested in new choreography, also commissioned pieces from John Alleyne and the lesser-known Marco Goecke.

The program began, however, with an older work. Tharp's Pergolesi was made on Mikhail Baryshnikov and became a signature solo for the Russian dancer. Boal doesn't try to imitate Baryshnikov's self-mocking charisma; instead, he infuses the dance with a debonair jauntiness and unforced charm that does nothing to suppress his innate classicism. Small, tricky, balletic jumps and a quick circle of turns follow little hornpipe steps or a doglike shake of the body, and Boal makes the speed and detail look easy. Nonetheless, the solo feels surprisingly dated. The "gala ballet" moments (the flight of hops in arabesque from Giselle, an elaborate preparation for multiple pirouettes) might have been funnier with the iconically virtuosic Baryshnikov, but the joke also hails from a time when ballet and contemporary dance had far less to do with one another than they do now.

Goecke's Mopey is also a solo full of odd juxtapositions. Impressively performed by Suozzi, the dance focuses at first on his nervous, lashing arms and upper body as he works his way across the stage with his back to the audience. Later, as music by C.P.E. Bach begins, carefully placed tendus are combined with hands ruffling the face, fingers flicking at arms, fists pushing at cheeks. The gestures look intentional, like a mimed language, then become repetitive and obsessional as rock music by The Cramps replaces Bach. Gradually the movements diminish in intensity, then stop, as Suozzi stands marooned in a pool of light. Even if it doesn't completely hang together, Mopey reveals interesting movement ideas and an individual choreographic sensibility.

The same cannot be said for 2nd Prologue, by Alleyne, who directs Ballet British Columbia and who made two intriguing works for NYCB in the early '90s. An indeterminate lovers' triangle is impeccably performed by Korbes, Boal, and Suozzi, but there is too much mooning about and conventional striking of poses for the implicit drama to arouse any interest. A solo of eddying turns for Boal is briefly more interesting, but the triangular interchange never springs to life.

Forsythe's vibrant Herman Schmerman (1993) pas de deux features quirky, syncopated footwork, angled bodies, and intricate partnering. Forsythe shows two people working hard, trying things out, having fun dancing together--and no praise is too high for Whelan and Boal, who were as perfect in every, way as can be imagined.

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:

July 30-31, Biennale Dance Festival, Venice, Italy. August 4- 8, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, MA (includes a work by Christopher Wheeldon)