OU festival features graceful ‘Swan Lake’
NORMAN — The music was familiar and the movements graceful in “Swan Lake, Act II,” which opened a preview at the University of Oklahoma.
The number was the centerpiece of the Oklahoma Festival Ballet, performed Thursday at OU’s Elsie C. Brackett Theatre, 563 Elm Ave.
A scrim rose on a misty lakeside scene of swans — ballerinas in white — rising to perform, seemingly cued by a dark figure on a boulder with his cape.
Micah Bullard, as Prince Siegfried, was unforced yet commanding, and Caroline Preskitt, as Odette, was a vision in white, in a costume by Lloyd Cracknell.
Together, they made us feel their romantic attraction and understand why the prince ordered his three crossbowman friends not to fire their arrows.
The piece was choreographed by the OU dance school faculty, after that of Lev Ivanov, to music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky from ballet’s classical era.
It was easy to have a sympathetic reaction to the next number, “Simpatico,” choreographed by new OU dance school director Michael Bearden.
In “Simpatico,” male and female dancers performed in bare feet on a bare stage, in sheer crimson costumes, to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich.
Using their bodies and movements to portray the rewards and pitfalls of modern relationships — with a theme of unity — the dancers gave a modern feel to “Simpatico.”
Clad in black and white, adorned with multi-colored diamond shapes, Amber Bailey and Robert Montgomery were adept, yet had fun with the “Harlequinade ‘Pas de Deux.’ ”
Bailey sped up some movements while Montgomery executed forceful figures with a playful shrug in the comic ballet, choreographed by Steve Brule to music by Riccardo Drigo.
Having a fine period flamenco feel was “Estancia,” choreographed by Jeremy Lindberg, to the “driving rhythms” of a circa 1941 score by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera.
Three male dancers got across the masculine power of “Estancia,” while eight women in rich-hued, ruffled skirts were more sutble, defending themselves with big red fans.
Ending the evening on an energetic note was “Opaque, Unfazed,” a forcefully modern yet abstract number, choreographed by Trey McIntyre to music by “Tonstartssbandht.”
Dancing or running in place, in athletic workout-like outfits, about nine dancers made a garbled refrain (sounding like “drip, drip, drop … April showers”) come vividly to life.
With some dancers alternating in roles on different days, the festival
ballet program is highly recommended.