Missouri Contemporary Ballet opened its 16th season with its annual fall performance, EMERGE, at the Missouri Theatre in downtown Columbia on Oct. 29 and 30.
Directed by Karen Mareck Grundy, the theme of the performance showcased the ballet company “emerging” from the COVID-19 pandemic. It featured three world premieres, meaning these were the first regular performances anywhere in the world. The company consists of seven dancers: Stephen Blood, Delphine Chang, Nathan Crewe-Kluge, Joel Hathaway, Elise Mosbacher, Victoria VanderPlas and associate performer, Dara Schlesinger
Before the performance, Craig Rooney, a member of the Board of Directors, came onstage to introduce the show and provide insight to what contemporary ballet is. Rooney was met by whoops and hollers from the three-quarters of the theater occupied by the audience, which seemed to be a community that supports Missouri Contemporary Ballet.
“Contemporary ballet … doesn’t like to be defined,” Rooney said to the audience. “In some moments, contemporary ballet is more like its classical parent: form, lines, on pointe and in the air. In other moments, contemporary ballet is more like modern dance: earthly, emotional, expressive, interpretative and grounded. Contemporary ballet brings together the best of the old world and the new, and leaves us not knowing who’s going to show up from moment to moment.”
The show consisted of many stories expressed with props and different styles of dance such as modern and classical ballet. They used different plot lines and either modern or classical ballet in each dance, making the performance engaging and prompt.
One performance presented the entire company in suits, hats and socks, dancing in a modern style to acoustic guitar. It seemed genderless as each dancer worked with everyone in uniform. They used the hats to bring attention to a single dancer by piling all of them on his head through intricate, illustrative movements. The chosen dancer performed a solo while everyone else rested.
Finally, a dancer came out with a pie, mimed singing a song and— after a man lifted her upon his shoulders and the rest of the company danced in a circle around them— smashed the pie in his face.
This is one of the many performances the audience had to interpret throughout EMERGE.
Delphine Chang, who is in her second season at Missouri Contemporary Ballet, spoke highly of this particular dance.
“We … have a new work by Joshua Peugh, who’s an awesome choreographer … it’s a little bit jazzy (and) quirky,” said Chang. “We generated the movement over a two-week residency with him using nursery rhymes. [It’s] a lot more gestural, and it also uses props like hats and pies and microphones, so no two works are truly alike.”
Chang also spoke about the change from performing ballet during the pandemic to performing to a live audience. The Missouri Ballet Company was not able to perform in the fall last year, so dancers spent most of the time practicing in masks. Chang said it was hard to dance in masks because contemporary ballet takes a lot of work, and “dancing in isolation was weird.”
In the live fall performance in October, the Missouri Contemporary Ballet emerged from the pandemic with its best foot forward — none of the dancers wore masks and had to frequently break social distancing to perform partner dances.
The company pushed the boundaries of ballet technique with its three new dances and favorites from its repertoire, featuring new and old faces, and succeeded in captivating its audience with its compelling take on contemporary ballet.
Edited by Shannon Worley | sworley@themaneater.com
