Spiritual Aspiration and Inner Turmoil
Verb Ballets rocks in the rhythms

When winter throws its worst at us, we spring for the consolation of ART. Nothing iffy will get us out of the house in weather like this. It takes a sure-fire thing, like Verb Ballets.

True, just as lake effect snow is sure to hit the Snow Belt, misfortune can hit a dance company, but consider Verb's previous scheduled concert at Saint Ignatius' new Breen Center for the Performing Arts. A perfect storm of injuries to several dancers forced Verb to reshuffle their rep for the concert and - behold! Verb still put on an excellent concert including 4 company premieres, an inspiring collaboration with Cleveland School of the Arts, and vibrant performances of their outstanding repertoire including Erin Conway Lewis in the best performance of '"Poverty Train'" we’ve seen to date.

Verb left their options open when they first committed to Breen’s Home Grown Series but here’s the repertoire that has shaped up.

For families with children, Verb’s “Peter and the Wolf” will be the big draw for this concert. On the firm foundations of Sergei Prokofiev’s music and narration, choreographer Pam Probisco has built a straightforward story ballet in which the dancers act as well as dance their parts.

The result is a lot of fun for adults as well as children. Proving again that there are no small parts, the bumbling Hunters create a memorable demonstration of how not to handle firearms. Catherine Meredith Lambert is currently on dancer leave, so we’ll miss her portrayal of the self-possessed Cat.

“Vespers,” Ulysses Dove’s modern dance masterpiece, is probably best known through Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s performance on Public Television’s Dance in America, first televised in March of 1995. The company that brought us “Revelations,” seemingly the ultimate modern dance interpretation of the African-American spiritual experience, had found in “Vespers” a very different but equally powerful interpretation of that same spiritual tradition.

“The idea for ‘Vespers’ started in my childhood,” explains Dove in a widely circulated video about ‘Vespers.’ (Go to YouTube.com; search for “Vespers Dove.”) “I would go to visit my grandmother in the summer and she would take me to a little church, to a service that was all about prayer and all about energy. It’s the strongest memory I have from my childhood and I wondered if I could translate not how it looked but what it felt like.”

In contrast to “Revelations,” which rocks us in the rhythms of familiar spirituals and provides respite in comic business with fans and hats, “Vespers” is an unrelenting, explosive dance set to a sparse but driving percussion score by Mikel Rouse. The physical daring of the dancers provides an unmistakable metaphor for spiritual aspiration and inner turmoil.

But the first company Dove set “Vespers” on, and the company with which he maintained the strongest ties until his untimely death in 1996, was Ohio’s own Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. Listen to DCDC’s Dawn Carter, who set “Vespers” on Verb in summer of 2008: “This piece was choreographed (on DCDC) in 1986 but it still has all this power, all this femininity. It’s still fresh, not dated. That’s good choreography.”

We had the good fortune to see Carter put the Verb dancers through a studio showing of “Vespers” prior to its company premiere in the summer of 2008. “Remember, you’re pulled into those runs,” Carter admonished the dancers. “That pique has to come out of nowhere, BAM, like hitting a wall.” On point after point, Carter insisted upon specific, often risky choices, and Verb’s dancers responded with daring and fierce performances.

You can see a complete performance of “Vespers” on YouTube, performed by the Ailey company (search “Vespers Ailey”). We often find it revealing to see a dance multiple times.

Also on Sunday’s program, “Lady Be Good,” Verb’s take on the ballroom dance phenomenon, and “Speed,” former artistic director Hernando Cortez’ affectionate send up of the Speed Racer cartoon series.

If you’re in the mood for a bite to eat before or after the show, we notice that the theatre is within a block or so of some popular local restaurants, such as Flying Fig, Heck’s, Great Lakes Brewing Company, and Bar Cento. Verb offers a champagne brunch benefit prior to the show at Flying Fig. Tickets are $75 each, and all proceeds benefit Verb Ballets. Details at verbballets.org or phone 216-397-3757.

Verb Ballets offers one performance only at 3PM Sun 1/17 at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts in Ohio City, Lorain Ave. at W. 30th St., 44113. Tickets are $25, students $10; phone 216.961.2560, or order online at http://www.ignatius.edu/breencenter.

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.