William Forsythe may be a choreographer, but he sounded a bit like an engineer during a Pacific Northwest Ballet lecture-demonstration last week. If you do a stress test on a piece of metal, he said, “Something will transform or fall apart.” For him, dance operates the same way. Throughout his career, he has run the neoclassical ballet we inherited from George Balanchine through a series of choreographic stress tests.
The results have indeed transformed our expectations of the art form. Forsythe’s approach to ballet keeps the articulation and detail that has been part of the vocabulary since the 16th century, but the density and speed are definitely from the 21st.
The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude may be the shortest work on the program, but it may also be the most intense. Set to the finale of Schubert’s ninth symphony, the quintet is like one long fanfare: The dance starts at a clip and just gets faster and more exhilarating from there.
Opening night’s cast relished the challenge, feet snapping and arms wheeling, as they continued to gather momentum. Carrie Imler and Jonathan Porretta seemed to egg each other on, with Benjamin Griffiths, Leta Biasucci, and Margaret Mullin in hot pursuit.
New Suite is an anthology of duets that Forsythe has excerpted from repertory. Some are set to Handel and Bach, sharing the brisk clarity of their scores. Another group, set to music by Luciano Berio, is more eccentric: the bodies a collection of joints and sinew, folding and curving in multiple directions. While most of the duets here exemplify singular qualities, the duo taken from Slingerland (score by Gavin Bryars) has a more complex relationship—sometimes almost conventionally romantic, but then shifting into an egalitarian contest. New Suite is full of excellent performances, including a heightened sense of clarity and attack from Ezra Thomson and moments of pure power from Angelica Generosa. The swagger in her walk as she enters the stage is entirely legit—she earns every moment.
In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated is a dance packed with attitude. The semi-industrial score by Thom Willems matches the stage, swept bare of all its draperies to expose the lights and rigging. The work was made for the Paris Opera Ballet, and the dancers’ casually aloof quality seems to evoke a French disdain for our opinion. While we are slack-jawed at their virtuosity, they don’t appear to have the same response, walking nonchalantly away after a dizzying series of turns or joint-popping extensions. Both Lesley Rausch and Elizabeth Murphy usually perform with a kind of sweetness no matter the role, but here they add a renewed sense of authority. Indeed, everyone in the cast could fix us with a glance and knock us out.
This triple bill is an intense look at a phenomenal repertory.
dance@seattleweekly.com
THE VERTIGINOUS THRILL OF FORSYTHE McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St. (Seattle Center), 441-2424, pnb.org. $30–$184. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat., 1 p.m. Sun. Ends March 22.
