The male ballet dancer is rarely given the opportunity to perform solo works, dance pieces that make complete statements and develop choreographically through the performance of a single artist. Instead, the danseur is typically on stage for only a few minutes at a time, hoisting the ballerina or wowing us with brief explosions of high-powered, athletic tricks. It is for this reason that New York City Ballet principal dancer Peter Boal has been spending so much time "moonlighting," dancing for lots of different choreographers who are setting or creating major solo works on him.
One of the finest classical dancers of his generation, Boal explained his yearning to explore the art of solo performance during a discussion break sandwiched between his demonstrations of two solo dances choreographed for him by Leigh Witchel, artistic director of Dance As Ever, the chamber ballet company. Presented as an installment of the Guggenheim Museum's "Works & Process" series, Boal's dances formed the focal point of an evening of performance and conversation inspired by Witchel's choreography.
The program opened with Boal's performance of the contemplative solo, "Midare" (previously reviewed by this critic), and closed with "A Shropshire Lad," a six-part solo in which Boal embodies the emotional journey of a carefree youth heading fearfully toward a mournful death. The work delivers a powerful dramatic punch because Witchel's choreography "gets right to work." Boal enters, drops his wrap, and immediately extends his leg into a developpe a la seconde. Within just a few seconds, he's leaping into a tour jete. The moods of the piece are established through dancing--not by emoting or walking about looking wistful--and Boal has such sensitivity to the classical vocabulary that he can imbue the movements with myriad dramatic meanings. Boal's artfully slow arabesque turn feels like a sigh, rapid chaines reveal him deep in thought, and contained deep inside a double tour en l'air is a screaming fear of death.
Completing the program was Witchel's "Word Become Flesh," a slowly developing quartet that eventually breaks out into fun solos that lead to a gratifying conclusion.