Also this issue: "4 Artists of Distinction" The African American Museum's "4 Artists of Distinction" is bright and deep. -Robin Rice Wlodzimierz Ksiazek: New Paintings -Susan Hagen Le Ballet National du Senegal -Deni Kasrel Beatlemania Now Project -Paul Burress Dealer's Choice -Shivani Mahendroo Donna Uchizono Co. -Deni Kasrel In the Shape of a Spider -Shivani Mahendroo Georgian State Dance Company -Janet Anderson

November 14-20, 2002

dance

Phrenic New Ballet

by Janet Anderson

Way back in 1948, Martha Graham commissioned Vincent Persichetti to compose a musical score based on Shakespeare’s King Lear. The resulting dance, Eye of Anguish, was not one of Graham’s great landmark successes, and literally disappeared. But Network for New Music decided, when it included Persichetti’s Lear in its Festival of Philadelphia Composers program, to honor the music’s intent. And they invited Phrenic New Ballet, the fledgling ballet troupe with very new attitudes, to join them and create a dance for the performance.

One act of wisdom seems to have begat another -- namely, by selecting Phrenic and its choreographer, Matthew Neenan, to make a new work to Persichetti's rather old score, they guaranteed there'd be none of the faux-Graham stuff that such a commission might inspire in less talented hands. Neenan went his own way, which is upward and soaring. So, while one suspects that Graham's piece involved torso-centered earthy contractions, Neenan sent his small troupe (six terrific dancers, including Neenan) into the rising momentum of ballet.

James Ihde, who danced Lear, was upright and iconic throughout, and at the end, when he died with Cordelia, it was as though a redwood had been toppled. Christine Cox, Tara Keating and Amanda Miller, as the sisters, all moved like The Three Graces. Interestingly, the exceptions were Antonio Sisk, guesting from Philadanco, and Neenan himself. Sisk as Lear's Shadow and Neenan as Lear's Philosopher both rolled and undulated, providing vivid contrast to Lear and his daughters. The men wore slacks and long-sleeved shirts, and women black day dresses -- an interesting intersection of modern music, moves and looks.

Ultimately, Persichetti's King Lear has a Stravinsky-like mood and sound, scored for a woodwind quintet with piano and tympani, and it does not reek of tragedy, but of musical invention. The dance Neenan created for Phrenic is a movement tone poem, all mood and glimmers. The marvelous Network musicians shared the handsome Seaport Museum stage with the dancers, making the whole thing feel like a rather esoteric jam session.

There were three other New Music works with Lear: Melinda Wagner's 2002 Wick, Lukas Foss' 1978 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, and Aaron Jay Kernis' 2001 Trio in Red. All were given sharp-as-a-tack renderings -- with a special nod to the percussionist who played, among other things, piano strings with triangle beaters, as well as cow bells and Japanese bowls.