Ballet Hispánico. Photo by Erin Baiano.
Ballet Hispánico is one of my favorite American dance companies. Their performance of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Doña Perón” at the Kennedy Center in 2022 is among the best shows I have ever seen. Saturday night’s program at the George Mason University Center for the Arts (the culmination of their time as a Mason Artist-in-Residence) was a well-curated, sophisticated, and poignant production with work spanning three decades. The dancers of Ballet Hispánico are all fabulous, technically talented, and charismatic performers.
…well-curated, sophisticated, and poignant…The dancers…are all fabulous, technically talented, and charismatic performers.
The evening opened with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Sombreisimo,” originally premiered in 2013 and inspired by the work of surrealist painter René Magritte. “Sombreisimo” is probably best known for the bowler hats which are worn, tossed, and imbued with different qualities throughout the performance. Bowler hats also make frequent appearances in Magritte’s work. When worn on stage, the hats shade the dancers’ faces causing them to appear faceless, an effect also depicted in Magritte’s 1928 painting The Mysteries of the Horizon. I particularly enjoyed one section towards the end of the piece where low lights from the front of the stage allowed the dancers to project themselves as shadow puppets against the upstage fog.
“Buscando a Juan,” choreographed by Ballet Hispanico Artistic Director and CEO Eduardo Vilaro, premiered at New York City Center this year. It was based in the life of Juan de Pareja, an artist enslaved in the workshop of Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. It featured Amir J. Baldwin as Juan de Pareja, Antonio Cangiano as Diego Velázquez, and Amanda del Valle with Baldwin in the pas de deux, “The Calling of Juan,” which might have been the highlight of the whole performance. Across the board, Ballet Hispanico’s partnered work is impeccable but “The Calling of Juan” was exquisite. As Baldwin tossed the soaring del Valle in swooping arcs everything was circular and continuous with the entry and exit to every sported step sweeping horizontally off or onto the floor. Although there was power, nothing ever looked effortful. There was never a moment of ‘I pick things up and put them down’ where a straight-up straight-down lift starts to look like a rep from the gym. Another thing that was consistent throughout the evening was the precision and musicality of the corps work. There were a few moments where the group sections of “Buscando a Juan” became a little formulaic, the dancers are so good that it didn’t matter.
Pedro Ruiz’s “Club Havana” from 2000 was the evening’s big, dance-party finish. As Franciso Repilado’s “Chan Chan” played, a man in a dark blue suit and a red tie walked into a single downstage right spotlight, puffing out his chest while smoking a cigar. A second spotlight came up to his left and a female dancer in white, facing upstage, slowly began to shake her hips. The red glow of another cigar cherry appeared in the darkness upstage, a second man emerged, and the show was off. The dance club as a scenario device used to create a world where relationships can be explored through the particular vocabulary of that space is a familiar formula in contemporary dance. Last spring, students from the George Mason School of Dance performed Kyle Abraham’s “Drive” which had a very similar functional premise. “Club Havana” was a particularly fun example of this form, from the cigars at the beginning to the disco balls and confetti at the end.
Running Time: Approximately one hour 45 minutes with two 15-minute intermissions.
Ballet Hispánico performed Saturday night October 5, 2024, at the George Mason Center for the Performing Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Dr, Fairfax, VA 22030. More information about Ballet Hispánico is available on their website. For more information and to purchase tickets for upcoming events at the George Mason Center for the Performing Arts, please go online.
