Dance Review: Ballet Noir – Fierce Infusion of Hip-hop and Ballet, Style and Grace

A beautiful dance company, Ballet Noir embraces a beautiful day in the East River Park of Manhattan, bringing the gift of dance to the gathered crowd. Presented by City Parks Foundation, this summer program features dance performances free to the public in various parks throughout New York City and its suburbs.

This afternoon’s program is set off with a warm-up master class led by Calvin Wiley. The aerobic dance routine infuses the styles of African, hip-hop, and Latin dance. Though it is a hot summer day, participants enthusiastically do their best to nail the combination.

A diverse program, Ballet Noir, creatively begins by having one of the dancers come through the audience, iPod inspiring her funky moves and sporadic verbalizations as she jams out to unheard tunes.  Soon audible music flows from the band-shell and dancers fill the stage. The company is beautiful, composed of well-toned bodies that undulate and extend to incredible heights!  The dancers perform with fantastic technique, which is required in their choreography filled with multiple turns and explosive jumps.  Not only are the dancers made to change direction, but style as well.  Within one sequence, steps are incorporated from various forms of dance including ballet, hip-hop, African, modern- to name a few.

A highlight of the program was a romantic love duet.  The couple intersperses expressive developes with pushes and shoves, depicting a tumultuous relationship. The partnering is captivating with its interlocking of dance styles, acting and mime.

As a whole, the program shows off the diversity of Ballet Noir’s repertoire.  There is an interesting piece depicting people lost in an insane asylum, that contrasts nicely with the opening piece seemingly designed to show off the dancers’ abilities and artistic passion.  Most of the costuming consists of a grayscale, white and black, perhaps fitting with the name of the company.  The choreography and staging wonderfully shows off the dancer’s abilities in both unison and simultaneously executed solo work.  This individualization of the dancers is extended even more so as some dancers perform in pointe shoes, while others in flats, and some in socks defying expectations breaking free from the norm.

The program concludes with a lovely spiritual piece accompanied by a live vocalist.  The vocalist weaves amongst the dancers, all dressed in brilliant washes of color creating a vibrant visual connection between the music and the dance.  As Ballet Noir continues to grow and flourish as a contemporary ballet company, they certainly have the potential to be a real force in furthering the future aesthetic of contemporary dance.

Photography credits:  Artist – Whitney Brown; Art Direction – Sophy Holland;  Photography – Justin Hyte;  Illustration – Adam Larson 

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Lea McGowan
Performance: Ballet Noir
Venue: East River Park, City Parks Dance Summerstage, New York City
Performance Date: Saturday August 15, 2009
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