BalletFest Trips Over Modernist Concepts in Closing Programs

American ballet remains so obsessed by the 19th century that its periodic attempts at contemporary expression usually look hopelessly out of touch. As proof, the final two nights of BalletFest 2000 at Cal State L.A. offered a survey of muddled end-of-the-century ballet modernism.

Three of the five pieces on view adopted jazz scores (though seldom looking genuinely jazzy). The same number attempted to redefine female prowess by banishing toe shoes, and the same number pretended that old-fashioned technical feats were newfangled fireworks.

Only Francisco Martinez’s “Miniatures” on Friday offered new choreography for grown-ups: no virtuoso bonbons to sweeten the dancing, no pseudo-sexual playacting to spice it, just strongly etched character solos and one duet based on Modigliani portraits and set to varied instrumental textures by Ed Barguiarena.

You could label Martinez’s concept inherently static and complain that the lack of pointe dancing needlessly limited the women in his Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre. Yet these choices were those of a purposeful artist--and when performed by a dancer as dramatically resourceful as Veronica Caudillo (the opening solo), even his bold emphasis on stance and gesture rather than formal steps carried immense conviction.

Lisa Lock strongly executed the more conventionally balletic second solo, and skillful performances also came from Noune Diarbekirian, Carla Anderson and Jennifer Wilson.

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Caudillo also graced the premiere of Raiford Rogers’ “Knockaround” on Saturday, balancing forever on half-toe in one sequence and lending her sense of humor to an outbreak of ensemble head-wagging elsewhere.

And it helped, for this plotless, hyperextended suite to band music by Joey Altruda (performed live) depended so relentlessly on show-dance-style corps routines that it might have become a generalized light-show garnishing the more intense band performances.

Averting that danger: the few glints of individual style among the members of Rogers’ Los Angeles Chamber Ballet and the infusion of special effects (the use of giant boxing gloves, women on wheeled platforms, descending scenic embellishments, etc.).

In his earlier “Cocktails With Joey,” Rogers had found moods, emotions, social attitudes and dancer connections within Altruda’s music; here, however, he simply imposed arbitrary ideas on the accompaniment as if barely hearing it. Even so, his level of interpretive intelligence proved stratospheric compared to what Robert Sund inflicted on Miles Davis in the jazz “Carmen” performed by State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara on Friday.

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Burdened by a plot line that doubled back on itself so often that you seemed to be watching an endlessly recycling loop, plus a choreographic style that combined one part raw sex to two parts raw technique, this “Carmen” grew increasingly empty and desperate.

Among the hard-working dancers, the tireless Kathryn Petak sank under all the spitfire cliches as Carmen, and the choreography for Escamillo offered the forceful Sayat Asatryan no expressive opportunities whatsoever, just flashy steps. However, guest artist Fabrice Lemire coped imaginatively as Jose, and Olga Checkachova outvamped Carmen as Micaela.

Avoiding the pitfalls of State Street’s crude dramatics and L.A. Chamber Ballet’s bloodless abstraction, Diablo Ballet of Northern California appeared on the Friday and Saturday programs in finely wrought performances that made the company not merely the major discovery of BalletFest 2000 but its saving grace.

KT Nelson’s “Walk Before Talk” may have been less a focused piece than a compendium of millennial choreographic options, but it used its lush Michael Nyman score and the capabilities of its eight-member cast with unerring surety. Erika Johnson and Kyongho Kim emerged as the leads in a many-faceted partnership, but Viktor Kabaniaev stole scenes, and hearts, with his spectacular turning combinations.

His brother, Nikolai Kabaniaev, brought great authority to Marina Eglevsky’s staging of George Balanchine’s “Apollo,” danced in its abridged final revision rather than the richer, more daring original version. Still, with Tina Kay Bohnstedt, Karyn Lee Connell and Corinne Jonas as the Muses, the production strongly suggested that a 1928 classic can look more genuinely contemporary than any half-baked novelty of today.