Sunday, May 6, 2018

Day 281-Pittsburgh Ballet West Side Story Suite+Fancy Free+In the Night-Hybrid of the Arts




For the last show of the 2017-18 ballet season, the Pittsburgh Ballet premiers three dances in celebration of the  100th  birthday of collaborators Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story Suite, Fancy Free and In The Night.   In West Side Story Suite, the Pittsburgh Ballet combines classic dance with the iconic music of  the musical West Side Story. I was excited to  see  these premier dances and  experience “a little rumbling”  with some singing in  West Side Story Suite. This was an interesting hybrid of the arts!




Reflection
The Pittsburgh Ballet ended the season with a production which creatively merged ballet, theatrics, and singing  in three premier ballets.  Parts of the show felt like we were watching  a  1940’s movie musical. It really was a hybrid of various  art forms. 

 Fancy Free   resembled one of  Gene Kelly's movies where he danced  his way through his films from the 1940's to the 1960's. Three World War II sailors on leave tried to impress and “get the girl”. They competed with dance. This was a male dominated ballet with spectacular strength displayed in the jumps and turns. Like a Gene Kelly movie,  it was lighthearted  and put a smile on your face- it was “fancy free”.



In the Night was “dreamy” as three different pairs danced  on a star lit stage  In the Night gave us more of a classical ballet with a flair of a 1940’s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers duet. The pairs flowed beautifully as they danced "in the night".


West Side Story Suite opened with an energy filled rumble between the American gang, the Jets, and the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks.  The love connection between Tony and Maria was evident as their eyes met  at  a dance. This was a merger of Broadway and ballet. 

One of my favorite parts of this ballet was the high kicks and turns to the show stopping song “America”,  where the character, Anita (Julia Erickson) sang as well as danced.   PBT managed to condense the entire musical  into the ballet.  An  inspirational mantra for unity concluded the  show  as the  cast sang and  danced to  “Somewhere” while the sun beamed over the horizon!

This was a night to remember as the Pittsburgh Ballet took us on a creative journey that mixed the best of theater, music, and dance in this show which was a unique hybrid of the arts.  

( Pittsburgh Ballet 's three dances premier on May 4-6, 2018 at the Benedum Theater.  For tickets  and more information on the upcoming 2018-19 season,  go to https://www.pbt.org/.)