Music and Dance Reviews : Joffrey’s ‘Billy the Kid’

Eugene Loring’s “Billy the Kid” emerged as a powerful morality drama about guilt, fear and alienation when a second cast of Joffrey Ballet dancers took over three principal roles Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The mixed bill--the second program of the current run at the center--also included two revivals--the pas de deux from Robert Joffrey’s (1973) “Remembrances” and Gerald Arpino’s (1962) “Sea Shadow”--and Arpino’s abstract group ballet “Viva Vivaldi!”

Jerel Hilding, originally announced to dance the title role of “Billy” on Tuesday (due to a company scheduling error), traced a masterful, detailed evolution from awe-struck, shy youngster to anguished outcast.

Burdened with guilt from stabbing his mother’s murderer to death, this Billy would live with continual wariness and fear, grimacing when killing again and never daring to let down his guard until he delivered a second shot. Even as the character hardened, he could only inure himself to his inevitable physical revulsion after each murder.

Though not entirely a finished characterization, Hilding redeemed Billy in part by rendering him tormented and vulnerable.

Tyler Walters as Pat Garrett also etched a strong moral evolution of character. He chose to become a lawman because he saw the killing of Billy’s mother. He disavowed Billy (in the card scene) because of the affront to his sense of honor and idealism. He accepted his own guilt in killing him. This Garrett seemed to cross the stage in the final march of the pioneers as a changed man, one who knew a price had been paid for winning the West.

In the dual role of Mother and Sweetheart, Beatriz Rodriguez danced with strength and lyricism, responding with rich musicality to Copland’s wondrous score.

Peter Narbutas as Alias was previously reviewed. John Miner again conducted.

Tina LeBlanc and Glenn Edgerton danced the pas de deux from Joffrey’s romantic “Remembrances” (music by Wagner) with impetuous heat, elegance and speed, and made a case that a revival of the whole work may be due.

Angelique Burzynski was the lustrous soprano; Stanley Babin, the responsive pianist. Allan Lewis conducted.

The lithe Valerie Madonia and the lanky Tom Mossbrucker danced Arpino’s “Sea Shadow”--a Ondine-themed pas de deux to music by Ravel--with commitment and sense of innocence. Babin was piano soloist. Miner conducted.

The program closed with Arpino’s “Viva Vivaldi!” an overwrought, unmusical response to the composer’s Concerto in D, danced with verve and aplomb by the company. Stuart Fox was the not-always secure guitarist; Endre Granat, the serene violinist. Lewis conducted.