A translated review in Spettacoli by Silvia Allegri
Synchrony, polished technique and great physical expressiveness were welcomed with enthusiasm and warmth from the audience. Tulsa Ballet’s Masters of Dance, the fifth engagement in the Teatro Ristori’s dance season, conquers the audience with a program of noticeable depth, where dance transforms in an art-form capable of accompanying the audience member in an introspective journey, thanks to pieces of choreography that have achieved legendary status.
What most surprised us was the continuous, palpable emotional escalation, partly due to the change in the order of the program that allowed Shibuya Blues by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. This piece is an abstract work of great impact inspired by the Tokyo intersection that bares the same name, known for being the busiest in the world.
There, during the peak hours of the day, thousands of people move from one side of the intersection to the other, and on stage we relive the frenetic pace through the classical virtuosity of the piece melted together with contemporary movements, all with an incessant and pressing pace that unlashes an energy that engages the audience.
And then we are presented with the lightness and innocence of Who Cares?, by George Balanchine, a work that blends the refined music of Gershwin, composed between 1924 and 1931, to the beauty of neoclassical solos and duets, where the smart use of lighting effects beautifully highlights the female dancers and their pastel costumes against the dark skyline of the backdrop.
To close the program with its hypnotic circular structure was Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table, ‘a dance macabre in eight scenes’ as the subtitle express: diplomats wearing masks altercate around a green table and shoot their guns in the air to symbolize the declaration of war, which segues into dramatic sections that illustrate the conflict and its inherent stupidity with the presence of Death, depicted like a skeleton moving like a robot, perennially thirsty for victims.
Tulsa Ballet confirms itself, without a doubt, within the Top Ten American ballet companies, one that, for decades continues to enrich the international landscape of our field. To make this engagement even more precious was the presence of Marcello Angelini at the gathering, organized Saturday by the Associazione Evgenij Polyakov- dancer, choreographer, ballet master- in collaboration with the Liceo Coreutico “Michelangelo Buonarroti” and Immagine Danza Asd, in Verona. Angelini, who has lead the organization for the past 24 years, talked about his experience working with Maestro Polyakov, as his pupil, as a dancer and as a choreographer.