Alaska Dance Theatre's Winter Repertory Concert is usually the company's biggest performance, the one where they pull out all the creative stops. This year the Repertory Concert was more ADT-Lite than anything else. Friday's production at the Discovery Theatre was more conventional than audiences have seen in awhile.
This was, by no means, a boring hour-and-a-half. ADT dancers are too well-trained for that to happen. But the choreography didn't startle or provoke as one has grown to expect from this company. Perhaps it was the heavy bias toward ballet that made Friday's performance more comfortable than intriguing.
The concert was bookended by two traditional, classic ballet works. "Configurations On A Cloud," by California Ballet's Maxine Mahon, opened the evening. Set to Brahms' Piano Quintet in F Minor, played live, the dance was gentle and airy and symmetrical. A corps of young dancers on demi-pointe played backdrop to five soloists. ADT's Nicole Maple and guest dancer Bryan Ketron seemed to set the tone for the dance: Maple was all feathery arms and downy-gentle steps while Ketron burst forth with the athletic moves of the classic male ballet dancer.
Guest choreographer Kenneth von Heidecke's world premiere "Tchaikovsky Suite," concluded the concert with just as much grace and gentleness. Four women in a swirl of tulle were partnered by a quartet of men in romantically loose black blouses and tights. All moved with formality in the piece's opening section, gestures and movements chosen and performed with a care to detail. They relaxed a bit in the second section of the music, from Tchaikovky's orchestral suites. Here leaps and spins punctuated the gentle discipline of most of the actions.
That grace and formality was tweaked in Ketron's, "Suite Intro." Setting the dance to music by Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXII, Ketron let the three dancers play with the medieval melodies in subtly flirtatious ways. Red-headed Keisha Saddler was the sexier echo to Avianna CJ McKee's elegant sensuality. In an interesting play on movements, the two would often begin a phrase identically, only to veer off slightly from each other or continue the theme a bit longer than the other. These little physical surprises underscored the sweet sexiness of the dance.
ADT company director Sarah Grunwaldt's "Tomo Tres" and Ketron's "Designer Skyline" were well-danced but uninteresting works. Grunwaldt set "Tomo Tres" to music by Stan Getz. The contrast of Getz's loose jazz rhythms and Grunwaldt's structured ballet was jarring and weakened the impact of both aspects of the dance.
"Designer Skyline" seemed a half-step out of rhythm, as if the dancers were trying to catch up to the movements. The dance was filled with lots of jumping and rolling around that didn't go anywhere. The end caught you by surprise only because it didn't seem to be the conclusion of anything.
It wasn't ADT's best creative effort, but Friday's performance was lovely and enjoyable.
Anne Herman holds a master's degree in dance and has been a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts.
BY ANNE HERMAN
Daily news correspondent