Dance Review : ‘Operratics’: Unusual Look at Obsessions

Flanked by the ancient marble and bronze figures on display in the atrium at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, five dancers explored some of the more bizarre excesses of art-patronage on Thursday in Mark Franko’s hourlong “Operratics.”

Using grand opera as their focus, Franko’s New-York based Novantiqua dancers satirized the audience’s lust for over-the-top emotionalism in a sequence accompanied by the Toreador Song from Bizet’s “Carmen.” They also targeted desperate intermission cruising in a section set to Ravel’s Bolero and depicted private illusions of the opera crowd in a suite of solos.

Barefoot but otherwise overdressed in glittery evening wear, the dancers emphasized acting, expressive gesture and sculptural poses, with some passages requiring proficiency in balletic balances-in-extension and others a twitchy modern dance attack. Obviously, the key thematic issues in “Operratics” would be applicable to balletomanes and to the devotees of the Getty, since it calls into question what we get from all forms of art and whether our cultural obsessions are not, in fact, unfulfilled infantile longings.

But Franko (a current Getty Scholar) leaves that question unanswered and even manages to suggest that the deepest appeal of opera may be to our need for some sort of grandeur--large-scale noble-style--in modern life. And such a proposition, of course, makes the Getty a perfect setting.

Cristina Aguirre proved the sterling technician of Novantiqua, but Juliet Neidish emerged as its reigning diva by glorying in every demented facet of the satire from first to last. Robin Smith, Edward Henkel and Franko also performed skillfully--and lighting designer Anne Militello supplied some gorgeous color washes over the atrium courtyard. There are no further performances scheduled.