Smuin masters the ‘ Untamed’

Seiwert’s ‘ Objects of Curiosity’ the jewel in the new program

If the title of Smuin Ballet’s spring season, “Untamed,” conjures up images of skimpily clad women undulating to conga drums, this post- World War II motif is not entirely off the mark. When the company dusted off its 1996 Cuban- inflected ballet “Frankie& Johnny” — what its marketing material calls a “sinister Latin saga” — it meant that the female dancers would slither around to the mambo, dressed in slinky, saloon- girl attire, while the men would strut and quiver like peacocks in brightly colored zoot suits.

REVIEW

surprise of young lovers’ discovery. The dancers’ movement is packed with turns in open arabesque, acrobatic entwinements, sprightly canon patterns and a generoushearted sweetness in ensemble work that enlivens the stage. Best of all, the dance presents male- female relationships in a light that Balanchine rarely did: a shared push- pull between equal partners.

Less equal but more enigmatic are the partners in “Objects of Curiosity” ( 2007) by resident choreographer Amy Seiwert, who was the first outside choreographer to set work on the company. There is an air of “Star Trek” about this reprised work. Not only does Matthew Antaky’s lighting and decor cast a spell with a mysterious doorway upstage center and a curious stela suspended above the action, but Cassandra Carpenter’s sleek costumes and the surprising pairing of music by Philip Glass and Gambian composer Foday Musa Suso create an otherworldly appeal.

Seiwert uses these tools to create a carefully crafted work that makes classical dance itself strange and mysterious, beginning with the series of spotlit solos for four men and evolving into surprising couplings. Again and again, the women look away from and beyond the men, as though projected into some distant future, while the men remain locked in the past. This is one of Seiwert’s finest works, crafted with a jeweler’s attention to juxtapositions and detail. Untamed?

Far from it. She has subdued her material then set it free.

KEITH SUTTER Smuin Ballet dancers Ben Needham- Wood and Terez Dean perform in Garrett Ammon’s“Serenade for Strings,” part of the company’s “Untamed” dance series.