Boston College Dance Theater, Boston, MA.
March 8, 2026.
“Ballet may be so many issues,” affirmed Margot Parsons, Producer/Inventive Director of Boston-based DanceVisions, Inc., in her curtain speech for Curtain Name. This system, which the corporate curated to incorporate a wide range of voices from throughout the native ballet group, stood as an Exhibit A of her declare.
It made me replicate on the “post-postmodern” ethos: neither holding agency to custom or outright rejecting it. From this attitude, what issues most is what helps the artwork at hand, and the remainder is – arguably – simply labels.
Both deriving from custom or its eschewing, as long as crafted with intention and rigor, something can work effectively…reasonably, it may be nice. That gives live performance dance boundless risk, its solely limitation how daring and imaginative its artists may be. Curtain Name demonstrated all of that as effectively. This system’s 9 works had been all world premieres, until in any other case right here famous.
Ruth Fentroy’s meditative Between Waters, a brief work of massive concepts, opened this system. In entrance of projected video of a shoreline, she moved with notable ease: unforced, with no pretensions or something to show.
The white of her costume mirrored the purity of water, its circulation liquidity. Her shapes and contours had been exact, but additionally aqueous: completely satisfying completely with out gigantic leaps or sky-high kicks.
In voiceover, she requested if the divine may very well be in water – if that may very well be why she’s all the time been so drawn to it (to this point a thriller, she additionally famous). I mirrored: if the divine could be in water, we’re 60% water…so is the divine in us?
Fentroy’s voiceover implied as a lot; within the work’s closing, she known as us to fulfill – with a small motion or perhaps a whisper to ourselves – the divine within the water on the market with the divine within the water in us.
My head might need exploded with the immensity of that concept. But, I used to be additionally fairly happy to savor her motion in soothing concord with the water photos behind her: a magical confluence.
Katherine Vigly’s Synthetic Moonlight, that includes her fellow Ballet RI firm members Alexandria Troianos and Stephen Gunter, served up equal components soul and technical mastery.
Troianos’ motion, along with her alone in a highlight, spoke to me of resilience: by means of accents and gestures of crafted stress, to seek out size and elevate on the opposite aspect. Intentional gaze and a elevate of her coronary heart added to the sense of hope that such motion created.
Gunter entered to help her weight, in numerous methods – but she nonetheless moved ahead from her personal energy and volition. In each time and area, they got here collectively and aside: a dance of tender relating.
With their eager kinetic attunement as a pair, it wasn’t arduous to see that they dance collectively professionally. The ending, particularly, additionally struck me as an enduring picture: her softly releasing into his shoulder because the rating (by Dvořák) hit a poignant accent.
Robert VerEecke’s Seasons Suite (Autumn/Winter) entwined poetry and motion in a manner that equally left me pondering large ideas, asking maybe unanswerable questions – however I’d even have been greater than content material to benefit from the magnificence on supply.
Poetry from and skim by VerEecke instilled the theme of breath and its cycles. Motion danced by Wendy Rose and Cha-Cha Epps depicted the qualities of autumn into winter: lively, but easeful, shifting into one thing extra constrained and accented…in fact one other perpetual cycle.
The entire motion, nevertheless, carried that very same thought of “much less is extra”, the identical that helped Fentroy’s work really feel so efficient for me: nothing jaw-droppingly gymnastic or athletic, however immensely pleasing by means of its integration and intention.
Epps, particularly, danced with a stability of propulsive energy and fluidity that had me wanting to look at her dance for longer. On that notice, I might need loved extra time for the 2 dancers to bounce collectively on the finish (they did, briefly) – but maybe there’s alternative for that in future works. I hope to see it occur!
Margot Parsons’ trio The Everlasting Female (2024) got here subsequent, bursting with magnificence and beauty. Christine MacDowell, Maria Rogler and Elizabeth Rookey danced collectively as one unit, but additionally as a set of distinct personalities: the results of each their efficiency high quality and Parsons’ expert crafting of area and time.
There was simply sufficient motion throughout the stage to maintain the relationships between these personas dynamic, but not a lot as to muddle or overwhelm. Flowing clothes designed by Freda Romberg added dimension and additional circulation to Parsons’ energetic motion vocabulary.
I might need anticipated one thing with this work’s title to have extra overt photos, assertions, et cetera with respect to gender and even gender equality. But maybe the work made such a press release with out making it, “exhibiting” female grace and energy reasonably than instantly “telling” us viewers about it – and will have spoken all of the louder in consequence.
Janelle Gilchrist’s Crimson Shadows (2024), an intriguing have a look at one thing breaking the mildew of a classical context, closed the primary act. By and huge, the motion was probably the most classical in this system: absolutely lifted, primarily based in that vocabulary, and infrequently using conventional pas de deux.
But, the persona of 1 dancer carrying one thing completely different (gown designed by Ruth Bronwen) and transferring with a extra launched, softened high quality introduced one thing new to the group: a brand new manner of seeing, of being, of understanding risk. The bigger group surrounded her; distinction is sort of all the time challenged.
To finish, the dancers all surrounded and created a transparent form over her: safety or constraint? These are simply the type of open questions that maintain me endlessly fascinated with this artwork type.
Yury Yanowsky’s Fading Creatures (2025) opened the second act. Like most of his work that I’ve seen to this point, it was compellingly edgy: by means of electronica music supplying a sure stress to the ether (by Senking for this one), uniquely intricate, athletic motion vocabulary, and dancers who greater than meet the appreciable problem at each rely.
I all the time surprise what kind of different moods and atmospheres he would possibly deliver that choreographic command to creating – I wager these may very well be outstanding. What he does current, nevertheless: I’m spellbound each time.
Kathy Hassinger’s The Supply (The Deep – Streams – Nonetheless/Shifting), danced by Mitzi Eppley and Li-Ann Lim, introduced understated ease again to the stage. They moved with an Isadora Duncan high quality of discovering bliss in easy steps, leaps and locomotion. Their breezy skirts enhanced that free-flowing feeling. Rating (from Beethoven) and lighting (by Lynda Rieman, as all through this system) met that visceral pleasure by means of shiny, uplifting tones.
Like with VerEecke’s work, Eppley and Lim had been distinct as personas – each by means of efficiency high quality and intentional choreography (and as with Parsons’ work, being simply dynamic sufficient in time, area, and thru the physique). But, additionally they moved along with harmonious understanding: a strong reminder that individuality and collectivity should not mutually unique – and past that, are each obligatory.
Naoko Brown’s The Path offered her distinctive motion high quality and distinctive choreographic voice. Efficient variance within the tempo of her motion – by means of pauses, acceleration and deceleration – allowed every velocity of motion to resonate extra.
I puzzled if the identical variance within the depth of her motion – in measurement, within the energy she put behind it – might have had an analogous influence. Both manner, she danced with each inspiring ardour and dedicated command, and I hope to get pleasure from extra from her earlier than too lengthy.
One other work from Parsons, the intriguing Prelude for The Three Girls (2025), closed this system. I say “intriguing” as a result of whereas the motion and colour palette had been largely clean and calming, the rating (from Jeroen van Veen) was driving and accented – and thus introduced a turbulence to the environment. I puzzled a few potential significance to such dichotomy. As this was a “prelude”, maybe the longer work to which it belongs solutions that query.
In any case, the identical three dancers (McDowell, Rogler and Rookey) moved along with fantastic attunement: a bunch that clearly is aware of one another and itself inside and outside. Parsons utilized some contemporary, mysterious gesture on this piece – maybe with significance turning into clearer within the context of the bigger work, however kinetically satisfying even with out that.
“Kinetically satisfying”, in addition to satisfying in lots of different methods, is how I’d characterize this system total – even because it offered a smorgasbord of assorted ideas, atmospheres, and motion types. Parsons was proper: that’s all potential beneath the umbrella of “ballet”, and all of it may be fantastic.
In my view, pricey reader, that’s one motive (amongst many others) why I really like this artwork type: a lot is feasible, and – as long as it’s created with ample thoughtfulness and rigor – none of it’s “proper” whereas one thing else is “mistaken.” That leaves a lot to be explored and to be loved. So let’s dance on!
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
