Review: Houston Ballet's Mixed Rep Tutu

George Ballanchine’s Stars and Stripes sent the Houston Ballet crowd off in fine, fun style; Artistic Director Stanton Welsh’s Tu Tu showed off the company’s athleticism; but it was the world premiere of the powerful Delmira that most impressed us in Thursday night’s mixed rep program with its dark story, dramatic lighting, memorable music and spot on acting and dancing.

And the tree. That incredible tree.

Principals Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh danced the parts of Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini and her ex-husband and current lover Enrique Job Reyes who died in a murder-suicide on July 6, 1914. What made this more than just another sad tale of relationship dysfunction, is that Agustini was the first female Latin American poet to gain worldwide recognition at a conservative time and place when women weren’t supposed to write and certainly not about eroticism as she did. She was only 27 when she died.

Demi Soloist Syvert Lorenz Garcia danced the role of Manuel Ugarte, the writer and Agustini’s love interest. The push and pull enacted between the two men with Mennite in the middle as Agustini wants to go to Ugarte but is forced into marriage with Reyes is intense and expertly delivered. The costuming by Mark Eric establishes the Reyes character when Walsh first strides on stage in a business suit denoting his conservative nature. Equally, when Loreenz Garcia removes his shirt early on, the contrast between the two male characters is underlined.

Agustini’s marriage lasted less than two months before she returned to her parents’ home, but she continued to see Reyes and exchange correspondence with Ugarte.

In the program notes, Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa writes about how she compressed the dramatic story of Agustini’s poetry and death into just a 30-minute program. Rather than presenting a documentary, Lopez Ochoa chose to tell her story using the symbolism that Agustini employed in her own writing as male dancers as swans represent her desire for freedom, while those dancing as ravens represent the repressive parts of her society. A constantly moving line of 12 “book ladies” float in and out of the stage, sometimes represented in silhouette, other times crowding around Agustini.

Central to all the symbolism is the tree and its lighting devised by designer and filmmaker Christopher Christopher Ash. Set center stage in the back, it suggests entwined bodies, its leaves the pages of books. Constantly changing color, it’s where we first meet Agustini and what she returns to as a haven over and over again.

Another important element is the music which relies in major part on the bandoneon, a type of concertina similar to an accordian especially pivotal in tango music. The sound of castanets and mariachis punctuated the sounds throughout.

Mennite and Walsh have long been among the most expressive of Houston Ballet’s dancers. Besides the beautiful and effortless dance moves they perform, their faces convey so much more of any story. The death scene and the look of shock and dismay on Mennite’s face is not one we’ll forget anytime soon.

First Soloist Tyler Donatelli had herself quite a night, first appearing as part of the Gold Couple with Corps de Ballet member Eric Best in Welsh’s Tu Tu, as a Delmira double in Delmira and most impressively as part of the couple in the Fourth Campaign in Stars and Stripes appropriatley set to John Philip Sousa music.

Paired with an equally impressive Connor Walsh, they were the final couple and lead-in the the crescendo ending that summoned all the regiments back on stage. The lifts were gorgeous, the leaps and catches magnificent, the twirls awe-inspiring with a lot of trust going on there between Donatelli and Walsh.

Also a special nod to First Soloist Mónica Gómez who as the leader of the First Campaign, backed by a bevy of other female soldiers in pink skirts, got proceedings off to a fun start with her perky salutes. And, she performed much of her segment while twirling a baton and bringing a new dimension to what it takes to be a ballet dancer.

Welch’s Tu Tu, choreographed to Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, featured three couples who all performed with distinction. Besides the Gold Couple of Donatelli and Best, there was a Blue Couple of Principal Yuriko Kajiya and First Soloist Harper Watters and a Red Couple of Soloists Aoi Fujiwara and Naazir Muhammad. Whether it was the particular music and choreography they were assigned, or the way they carried it out, asked to pick a favorite, we’d have to declare for Team Blue.

The mixed rep continues through October 1 and gives Houston audiences the chance to see not only Houston Ballet stars and favorites but the others you well may want to add to your favorites list in a program appealing to a variety of tastes. And we can all salute that.

Performances continue through October 1 at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturdays at the Wortham Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $25-$215.