Scaled-down setting perfect match for ‘Front Row’

REVIEW

For its 2017-18 season, BalletMet will keep its dancers’ feet in motion by performing at spots throughout Columbus.

In August, the troupe trekked to Bicentennial Park for an outdoor show, and in October, a collaboration with Ohio State University’s Department of Dance took dancers to the OSU campus. Later in the season, performances are set for the Ohio Theatre and Riffe Center.

For “Front Row: A Collection of Short Ballets,” however, the company asks audiences to meet its dancers on their home turf. The show is being presented in BalletMet’s 225-seat performance space, beside its Downtown headquarters on Mount Vernon Avenue.

On Thursday night, the scaled-down setting proved a perfect match for three ballets.

The evening began with Ma Cong’s “Ershter Vals,” intended to evoke Jewish ghettos in World War II. Eight dancers swayed and sometimes almost waltzed to jazz-accented Yiddish music, suggesting fortitude in unimaginable conditions.

Caitlin Valentine-Ellis and Romel Frometa were especially impressive in intricate, deeply connected partnering. Tamara Cobus’ appealing peach-and-purple costumes further contributed to the dance’s unlikely optimism.

Less successful was Andrea Schermoly’s “Fare Thee Well.” Eight dancers rocked and rolled to tunes by Bob Dylan, whose music is not the world’s most danceable.Schermoly’s staging was creative, with a guitar dangling from above before being placed in the arms of Gabriel Gaffney Smith, who proceeded to play (and sing) several songs, sometimes while dancing. But more often than not, the choreographic interpretation was strained.

More resonant was Artistic Director Edwaard Liang’s “The Silence Between . . .,” in which a group of dancers regard a wall — patterned after Jerusalem’s Western Wall — as a sacred structure. In bold, decisive movements reminiscent of George Balanchine’s “Agon,” the dancers flocked to, and around, the wall before dividing into couples.

Particularly graceful were husband-and-wife dancers Newton and Madeline Skelly, first-year company members given the spotlight in this strikingly small-scale program.