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...a beautiful evening with Fonte's Made Man as the highlight.
Fonte's "In Hidden Seconds": a memorable discovery
The complex dance language of Nicolo Fonte makes one think he wants to show us what he knows. Nevertheless, the language is there (and it) speaks in favor of its author who makes us feel that his personality and ambition lead him down unbeaten paths. Moreover, Fonte found an interesting score by Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto to accompany his choreography ("Quiet Bang") that is far from easy, but lends his ballet an added elegance. As such, he seems to be the type of choreographer that neo-classic companies looking for a modern touch just love. He marries classic and contemporary aesthetic roots with ease to create his own individual dance language and, without ever being overwhelming, creates something unique. Nicolo Fonte's extraordinary "Spellbound by Beauty" abstracts from his Hitchcockian source materials in order to get closer - not to the stories, but to the artist. Fonte finds the commonalities in three of Alfred Hitchcock's dark films - Vertigo, Psycho, and The Birds (the music is Bernard Herrmann's, from the first two) - and uses them to build a kind of biography of the artist and his obsessions. Fonte is a former principal dancer from a great company, and he thinks like a dancer, in a truly kinetic language, which he sets loose in a field of visual symbols. There is some gorgeous dancing in every one of the work's nine scenes, and as in a Hitchcock film, there are numerous moments of dark shivers. "Spellbound by Beauty", with its interest in the kind of destructive lust Hitchcock often showed towards his (blonde) protagonists, is definitely creepy, the beauty of its dance sequences only making it more so. At times the dancers cause the hair to stand up on your arms. Undoubtedly, Fonte is fed by his experience as an international artist, working with companies around the world. He has made a dark reverberant dance amplifying on Hitchcock. A riveting take on Hitchcock... Fonte reincarnates the heroine-victims of "Psycho," "Vertigo" and "The Birds." But "Spellbound" really revolves around the characters Fonte sees as Hitchcock's alter egos: the men who send the blondes in "Psycho" and "Vertigo" to their doom. Fonte's eerily poignant choreography evokes characters, longings and fates rather than famous scenes. NCDT's dancers are magnetic. The third work on the bill, New Yorker Nicolo Fonte's "The Possibility Space", is the most wholly satisfying... The pleasure comes from seeing how Fonte works with and against the music in space and time. Using 10 dancers, he has made an abstract dance that, fascinatingly, has greater emotional resonance than the more narrative-driven pieces (on the program)... Against a backdrop of fluorescent bars that emerge and fade as if in a flattened sky (lighting is by Brad Fields), the dancers also ebb and flow. They dance in duos, trios, groups and singly. Sometimes they retreat to the sides and move in slow motion. There's a pleasing sense of mystery and immersion in private thoughts, and the performances are extremely beautiful, in particular from Danielle Rowe, Damien Welch, Adam Bull and Lana Jones. The back-marker in this event is Nicolo Fonte's "The Possibility Space". Form and function are gyroscopically balanced here. In a dark hall of mirrors, lit by flickering fluoro tubes, to music worthy of Stravinsky, the dancers seem super human. Beyond human, perhaps. Adam Bull and Lana Jones come very close to stealing line honours from Danielle Rowe and Damien Welch, who are quite sublime. It's a piece I could - and hope to - sit through again and again.
...Nicolo Fonte develops his own abstract narrative of experimentation and metamorphoses in "The Possibility Space". However, his choreographic framework meshes beautifully with Edwards's score, achieving a democratic counterpoint between dance and musical scenarios in which the work's suggestive power is heightened. Interestingly, Edwards and Fonte did not meet in person until just before performance, phone calls and emails serving as the means of communication during the collaborative exchange. The choreographer's artistic evolution is impressive - he keeps getting better. In "Cornered" Fonte has surpassed himself in the invention of refined movement... more than made to fit the dancers, it is haute couture. One can see that this choreography is not simply improvisation, that it has all been meticulously thought out and imagined by Nicolo Fonte. What impresses the most is that this choreography is obviously the result of a personal reflexion - distinctly and unmistakenly Fonte, proof of a rare quality. Fonte's "Cornered"... to a collage of string music from Ross Edwards, Gavin Bryars and Philip Glass, was an intensely thoughtful work for four couples. Fonte possesses a highly original dance language, fluid and complex, and exhilarating to watch. In “It's Not About the Numbers”, Fonte's skillful phrasing and clearly etched kinetic patterns seem to modulate the unmitigated persistence of Steve Reich's Three Movements for Orchestra and The Four Sections. Fonte allows relationships among the dancers to flourish in faceted duets for Dehler and Chittenden and for Klanac and Klinger, which imply emotional attachment even in their abstraction. With “Somewhere Light”, Nicolo Fonte has created another thrilling addition to the company's (The Göteborg Ballet) repertoire. The isolated notes of Schubert's 2nd piano trio are countered by intense, elaborate choreography. Fonte's dangerous mix of restraint and release stretches the dancers' technical ability while never losing its sensual aestheticism.
"Lasting Imprint", by Nicolo Fonte, startled with the clarity of its formal design, yet also packed an emotional wallop. The dance suggested the psychic transformation of a protagonist who encounters different characters, possibly in his dreams. Like a dream (or real-life relationships), the piece evolved organically, its measured pace interrupted by sudden, unforeseen events. As dancer Jason Kittelberger entered the empty space, alone and in silence, Fonte established a spare, oneiric atmosphere using nothing but the dancer's twisted movements and dull, white light. A corps appeared dramatically, assembling the dance piece by piece, with dancers entering in blocks from different directions. The young dancers, who have made terrific progress since Cedar Lake's debut, certainly deepened their understanding of movement dynamics and characterization through this encounter with Fonte's work.
Fonte's “Re:Tchaikovsky” is a rarity; a narrative full-length evening work expressed predominantly in contemporary dance. Its success is largely due to Fonte's rich dance vocabulary that grows with each new work. The choreography adapts to express the subtleties of intimate liaisons or the ebullient rough and tumble of adolescent friendships and family relations, while the addition of big ensemble numbers boosts the energy levels to make this a compelling evening of dance... The scene in the dormitory furnished with free-wheeling beds and bouncy mattresses is a gay romp in every sense. No less delightful are the beautifully devised trios with Pyotr and his adored twin brothers and the innocent affection he shows his sister... Tchaikovsky's relationship with Bob (his nephew), the muse in his old age, draws together the threads of the saga, culminating in a sensitive duet on the piano; a final ode to youth and beauty.
Nicolo Fonte's new “Within/Without” is a major new acquisition. Here I found the choreographic elements and structure to have been stronger and more interesting than its presumed springboard, the music. I find Arvo Pärt's compositional palette to be of a gray hue. The texture of this hue changes with the baritone solo but it's still of the same color. The challenging duet created for Ariana Lallone and Olivier Wevers was very kinetic and central to the ballet. PNB's wonderful dancers were clearly “into” Fonte's work and committed. This was exciting and compelling. The audience gave them and the work a deserved standing (and noisy!) ovation.
There's a signature pose in Nicolo Fonte's breathtaking new work “Within/Without”, which made its world premiere Thursday at Pacific Northwest Ballet: a dancer curled on the floor in a pool of light, one arm and one leg extended, as if reaching for something unattainable. In the ballet's central pas de deux, Ariana Lallone stretched out at the feet of Olivier Wevers, who slowly lifted her by her extended arm and leg. The effect was stunning; like a tree being raised by its roots, a quiet moment of great power, made melancholy by the wistful twist of Lallone's long limbs.
The dance, a dark, abstract ballet set to three pieces of music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, was the standout in an enjoyable evening of four repertory works grouped under the theme “The Romantics.” Fonte, whose previous work for PNB was “Almost Tango” in 2002, has great imagination and range. “Within/Without” balances beautifully between ballet and modern dance; with soft slippers and flexed feet mingling with perfectly balanced arabesques and quicksilver turns. Costumed in soft greens and lit in bright, stark white, the dance has a desolate, lonely feel to it, even in the ensemble sections. Fonte's work, which had many audience members on their feet cheering, dominated the evening.
His (Nicolo Fonte's) “Left Unsaid” to pieces for solo violin by Bach, suggested he is a choreographer worth knowing. On one level, the ballet is a series of shifting patterns for six dancers moving on and around folding chairs. But the many off-balance and off-center movements and the ways the choreography keeps pushing dancers together and tugging them apart soon suggest that this is a ballet of emotional as well as formal changes... the dancers seem like people attracted both by the opposite sex and by members of their own sex. “Left Unsaid” never explicitly says how deep these attractions are. But Mr. Fonte's choreography is rich in implications.
“Left Unsaid” to music of J.S. Bach is Nicolo Fonte at his best, featuring three couples and three chairs interacting in shifting moods and dynamics. The choreography is inventive, creating expressive original shapes built on an undercurrent of implicit human relationships. The astute placing of dancers to background the main action, and entering or leaving the space, holds the tension, while the chairs add their own social comment. Notable is Fonte's skilful rounding off of each section.”
(Fonte's) great talent is seen in the succinct language of form. He renders his competence in surprising, stimulating dance - original, self-willed.
Fonte creates open situations, fills them with a strong, abstract movement vocabulary without any superfluous décor.
...the choreography is electrifying.
Fonte is a thinker, an architect who creates the new rather than reinvent the old. He is a master of manipulating space and creating relationships. “Almost Tango” has 10 men and only four women. Fonte makes telling dances for all of them, individually and collectively...(Fonte) discards the literal coventions of the genre (of tango) and in the process evokes its spirit with boldness and theatricality. This is a work that makes a genuine impact.
Nicolo Fonte, in “Almost Tango”, seems to be preoccupied with revealing form, showing the structures that underpin the tango rather than presenting the dance itself. His movement language is based on the ballet vocabulary coloured by an off-centred, contemporary fluidity. He begins with a beautiful male chorus - men individually presenting, exploring and extending movement phrases. The competitive, combative nature of tango is evident in the duets and trios, between men, between men and women, and simply with the individuals themselves. Feet flick, legs flash and bodies curve languorously or whip agilely. It reveals the company's capacity to be classical and contemporary.
Nicolo Fonte's “Almost Tango” is probably one of the most stylish works I have seen all season. Using relatively unknown music by Laurie Anderson, Karl Jenkins and Thomas Oboe Lee - of which only the Jenkins piece had allusions to tango, and even then in abstract form - Fonte has successfully incorporated the elements that inspire tango without borrowing from it. In a dance for ten men and four women (the men outnumber the women as they did in the tango halls in Argentina), Fonte explores the relationships and conflicts between men, between women, and between men and women that are prevalent in tango, without repeating himself.
The ballet begins with the men on stage dancing in unison and in various combinations, including some very exciting all-male pas de deux (men practiced the tango with each other in Argentina), in which both men are protagonists, each very much capable of lifting and throwing the other. The women are introduced one by one throughout the ballet in steamy vignettes that project both their sexuality and their physical tenacity. In addition to the choreography, the costumes, designed by Mark Zappone and Fonte himself, also enhance the dancers' sensuality. “Almost Tango” is so rich in movement and images - with so many dimensions to fill your senses - that it never leaves you dull.
“In Hidden Seconds” is an exquisite piece and an almost mesmerizing experience.
(“In Hidden Seconds”) ... is a nearly perfect scenographic and choreographic gem that is challengingly abstract and at the same time immensely fascinating. There are unforgettable moments when you as the spectator cease to be aware of the movements and become one with them. Breathtaking? Absolutely.
Nicolo Fonte's choreography is astounding without any unnecessary embellishments.
The dancers billow across the stage ... sublime, poetic and with sensuous beauty in a language of dance with distinct characteristics of classical ballet.
Fonte has structured with vision and skill a piece where liquid images and quality of movement create contemplative food for thought. The lengthy lines that permeate the choreography imply openess and reveal beauty, but the overall tone remains one of seclusion... Fonte's phrasing floats evocatively in and out of a classical language and is executed with a sincere contemporary stance.
The world premiere of Nicolo Fonte's “Vertical Dream” is an eye-catching piece for any of several reasons... both ryhthmically incisive and reflective. It is an exercize in highly effective stagecraft as its sections emphasize the ensemble while giving play to individuals and smaller groups. Fonte seems to be celebrating the human body itself as much as its movement potential...It all adds up to a fine kaleidoscopic dream of movement filtered through a highly original talent.
...(this ballet) is top-notch, it has that magical quality that you can't put your finger on...unique and distinct. “Floating World” has great fluidity and is full of graceful movements.
... in Nicolo Fonte's “Lost, Then Found”... one of the most thoughtful and emotionally involving duets I've ever seen. In the gentleness and slightly desperate longing of a Bach countertenor, Fonte found inspiration for a dance full of generous gestures and surprising bursts of feeling. Expansive arms and open chests, dynamic long lines in lifts, a knee pulled up to the chest, a foot wrapped around a calf and a head cradled on a shoulder -- there were so many tender inventions here that every moment was like a little revelation of what it's like to love someone, to be losing and finding them, and yourself, every time you turn around. I can't wait to see more from Fonte.
Appetite for intellectual intrigue was satisfied with...”Spoken In Red”. Fonte clearly gleans layered emotional sustenance from his dancers, resulting in a visceral churned movement that has pain-felt rawness without being vulgar. Group symmetry is read (as) blind insistence... leg extensions are like silent screams. Particularly touching was a series of duets, each accompanied by a female solo... that underlined the uncomfortable sense of indifference between the dancers. Fonte (achieves) this effect by juxtaposing material, thus broadening the scope and maintaining spatial interest.
Fonte's ballet stood out for its dramatic strengths and a perfect ending. The dance begins in a silence which seemed like a vital force stronger than any other aspect of nature, gradually painting the stage with a passion that symbolised the exaltation of the senses...feelings as the motor of life and communication...The use of the costuming and scenic design were extremely interesting; both were designed by the choreographer.
... (“Like You” is) a graceful and enchanting ballet; light, with a great sense of space and optical effects. The dancers clearly felt at ease...
Fonte evokes a very different poetry in “Like You”...in the sideline of his choreography he creates a subtle yet striking mirror effect of dancers one behind the other.
Nicolo Fonte's terrific “The Same Wall” was a romp both tender and angst driven. A large, upstage-center wall became a focal point: The men ran to it and jumped, clinging to it. This unexpected excitement nicely foreshadowed a sweet duet...but the wall was like a magnet. The dancers slapped it, ran into it; (one dancer) grabbed on, threw his legs up and hung upside down by the knees. At one point all the dancers disappeared, only to pop up above the wall, each one then diving down it. The metaphor may be obvious, but the sheer delight of seeing this movement was worth it, and the end - as dancers hung full-length from the wall...was stunning.
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