Twists and turns in Dove ballets

August 22, 2009|Janine Parker, Globe Correspondent

BECKET - At one point in Ulysses Dove’s “Red Angels,’’ the four dancers perform solos that are so beautiful, so daringly precise, so much a celebration of what the dancer’s body is, that you think your heart will burst. When each dancer finishes, however, he or she coolly walks away, giving a look that suggests you really should pull yourself together.

What’s especially fun about that cheekiness is that, emotionally, it’s a world-and-a-half away from “Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven,’’ which opens the all-Dove program that the Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Ballet is presenting this week at Jacob’s Pillow. This rare survey of Dove’s craft - he died in 1996, only 49 years old - is a generous gift from artistic director Peter Boal. The program’s three works are clearly imprinted with Dove’s choreographic stamp - he was heavily influenced by Lester Horton and Alvin Ailey, and admiring of George Balanchine - and also highlight his impressive range and grasp of content and musicality.

“Vespers,’’ which was originally created for the modern group Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, utilizes contractions, lots of rise/fall, and is danced barefoot to composer Mikel Rouse’s intensely percussive score. “Angels’’ and “Heaven’’ were originally set on New York City Ballet and Royal Swedish Ballet, respectively, use a ballet vocabulary, albeit stretched to contemporary extremes, and the women dance in pointe shoes. “Angels’’ is set to Richard Einhorn’s playfully perverse composition for solo electric violin; “Heaven’’ is set to Arvo Pärt’s haunting, anxious “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.’’ Though the titles suggest an ecclesiastical theme, the program is a secular thrill.

Curiously - on opening night, anyway - the company was weakest in the ballets. An apparent musical miscue at the beginning of “Heaven’’ may have been responsible for some performance jitters. The dancers had to speed into, rather than build up to, he mournful tone of “Heaven.’’ It was sentimental rather than sober. In general, the cast of six lacked the deep groundedness the movement demands, struggling, for instance, through many of the tricky turn sequences (a Dove specialty), their energy seeping out and deflating the turns’ momentum. Hopefully, the company will rally over the weekend: It’s a lovely work filled with resonating imagery.