“There’s a moment when we’re in a line and there’s a guy in the middle who’s just throwing the girl into the other guy. It’s just really exhilarating because there’s a bit of a risk thing but because everybody is so professional and we practice so much, everybody is always safe and taken well care of.”
That’s Houston Ballet First Soloist Eric Best describing what happens in Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, one of three ballets being performed during An Evening With the Stars opening this week at the Wortham Center Theater.
As usual in a mixed rep programmed by Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch the ballet company dancers will have many opportunities to get on stage to show off their talents in an evening.
Take, for instance, Tapestry choreographed by Welch. Its series of intricate steps involving an ensemble of dancers keeps everyone moving at a high level. Best is one of them, in fact he has roles in all three of the dances being presented during the program.
“For Tapestry I have three different roles I’ll be performing and in that one alone I have first cast Sisu and for Dances in a Gathering I’m the Green Man for second cast,” Best says. Listening to him explain his Tapestry assignments is like hearing the kind of statistics trotted out for MLB games. For example: “I’m in the second couple in the second movement for the first cast of Tapestry.”
Sisu by The Australian Ballet’s Resident Choreographer Alice Todd is a world premiere. Choreographed by Topp to the music of Arvo Pärt, it celebrates people able to stand up in hard times and their resilience.
And then there is the late Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering. A little seen work, it ranges from solos to pas de deux to ensemble dancing, moving in tempo from fast to slow.
Best explains some of the highlights of the different ballets and his part in them:
“Tapestry, like a lot of Stanton’s pieces, it has a lot of classical ballet elements. We still have a lot of those steps but there is a little bit of room in his choreography to make it a little more abstract while still keeping the classical frame.”
One of his Tapestry assignments is a pas de deux with Monica Gomez, “It’s a very difficult partnering. There’s a lot of tricky transitions from one lift into the next. It’s a little bit faster. I think our first step is a double assemblé throw catch. So, it really hits you with a bang right off the bat. We also come back in for the third movement. “
The second one I do is the solo man in the first movement and he has four to five different solos in that first movement. He’s kind of just popping in and out.
The third one that he’ll be doing on the final show date is another solo, a lot more explosive, he says. “It’s really fast with a lot of jumping.”
Sisu is a bit more abstract, Best says. As explained to the dancers by choreographer Topp, he says: “There are a lot of distractions in the world and a lot of people are so ready to follow what everybody else is doing. There’s kind of like this haze over everybody. Kind of like how everybody is on their cell phones all day long and they kind of disconnect from the world.
“But then we start to see how the world is starting to crumble and now it’s kind of shaking up everybody’s world in a way. I think it’s about the human condition and striving to be better and to work harder and strive to survive.”
Best calls Gathering “a very beautiful piece.Similar to Tapestry there ‘s not really a story to it. “It’s people on stage enjoying dance. Each movement, they kind of create their own feeling.
“I do a pretty long pas de deaux at the start of it. What makes this ballet so exciting is it takes you on a roller coaster ride of different emotions and everybody can relate to it in a different way or interpret it in a different way. Every time I dance this ballet, every time I watch it, I just feel different things.
“The fun of it sometimes the dancers don’t always do the same thing; they kind of switch it up a bit,” he says. “I would say one of the most exciting parts of it is the Grand Waltz where you have a group of the dancers and it goes on for quite a while but as we get more tired the stakes get higher and higher and we have to dance bigger and we have more difficult steps to do.
Referring back to the female dancers catapulted from one male dancer to another, Best says:.
“For the audience it’s really fun to see. The lady is thrown into the air and they’re kind of just flying and the other guy having to catch. It’s really, really exciting.”
“I really do like it when the audience is engaged and we hear them reacting to things. As a dancer knowing that they’re there and they’re present in the moment and they’re cheering you on just gives you that extra bit of energy that you need to work even harder to get it all done. We always love it when we get applause for different things.”
Performances are scheduled for May 28 through June 7 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $25-$168.
