Carolina Ballet unveils world premieres

Having choreographed more that 50 works for Carolina Ballet over 17 seasons, artistic director Robert Weiss could rest on his laurels, but he’s more active than ever this season, including a lovely romantic ballet unveiled Thursday night.

Titled “Symphonie Fantastique: Un Bal,” the 20-minute piece uses the first two movements of Hector Berlioz’s popular 1830 work, “Symphonie fantastique.” It follows a young artist searching for a true love, imagining her in the first movement and finding her in the second.

Sokvannara Sar made the artist a dashing hero, searching desperately among nine women in knee-length tutus, dissatisfied until Jan Burkhard suddenly appeared, a vision in pink. Sar engaged her in various striking combinations, only to have her vanish in the crowd.

The scene changed to a ballroom with men in cadet uniforms waltzing with their lady companions. Sar arrived downcast, until Burkhard appeared in a beautiful gown from costume designer Kerri L. Martinsen. He beamed amorously as he whirled Burkhard around in the warm, amber glow from lighting designer Ross Kolman. Berlioz’s infectious melodies helped bubble the piece along, climaxing in Burkhard’s last-minute disappearance, the artist’s dream destroyed.

While “Symphonie” paid homage to story ballets such as “Giselle” and “Swan Lake,” Thursday’s revival of Weiss’ 2010 “A Dancerly Response” reflected his long association with and respect for 20th century choreographic icon, George Balanchine.

The 45-minute work, to J.S. Bach’s “A Musical Offering,” was a study in variations on a theme for 14 dancers, dressed in simple blue and white tights and tops. The precise, graceful choreography provided constant little surprises to satisfy the attentive observer. The soloists were in top form, with special nods to Lilyan Vigo as a sunny, muse-like figure leading her three attendants, and to Yevgeny Shlapko and Lara O’Brien for their impressive pas de deux featuring intricately entwined bodies.

The company’s choreographer-in-residence, Zalman Raffael, is also pumping out new works regularly. In contrast to Weiss’ stricter adherence to ballet tradition, Raffael employs angular steps and brash gestures to shape his energetic style. Raffael’s latest on Thursday was, “Book of Contradictions,” set to Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

The quarter-hour piece featured two lead pairs with six corps couples, all in unitards. In the highly passionate sections, Pablo Javier Perez leaped and turned intensely in combination with Amanda Babayan’s fleet spins and sweeping arm movements. For the moving lyrical portions, Adam Crawford Chavis and Lindsay Purrington, each demonstrating their career bests, embodied impassioned, doomed lovers. The choreography’s fevered vehemence sometimes leaned toward parody, but the dancers’ commitment and talent kept it contained.

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Carolina Ballet unveils world premieres."