By snoadmin
The third season of Los Angeles’ Luminario Ballet stunned the audience at Cal State Long Beach’s Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theatre last weekend. The numbers ranged from contemporary ballet to more lyrical and modern pieces, including choreographer Judith Helle’s Cirque du Soleil-inspired aerial ballet, “LedZAerial,” which has been performed for Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page.
Some of the most enthralling pieces were Brett Womack’s “Striped Socks,” Jamal Story’s “If the Walls Could Scream” and the closing number, “LedZAerial.”
“Striped Socks” involved only one dancer and aerialist, Brett Womack, but that was enough to keep the audience awestruck. Womack climbed vigorously up a knotless rope with nothing but his hands and feet. Wrapping either his hand or legs with the rope, Womack dangled higher than 30 feet off the stage, eventually untangling himself by free-falling down, stopping gracefully mid-rope. With tricks such as these, it was impossible for the audience to save the applause until the end of the piece. The number was interrupted three or four times with abrupt cheers from the audience.
The song that Womack danced to was was UK electronic-composer James Blake’s “The Wilhelm Scream,” a slow R&B and electronic, yet indie-type song. Regardless of the mixed genres, it was a perfect song for the number, adding a somewhat sensual undertone to the dance and therefore mesmerizing the audience.
Story’s “If the Walls Could Scream” displayed the trials of varying relationships, depicted by three woman-man couples. The women were all dressed in some sort of lingerie and danced on pointe. One wore a standard black sports bra and boy shorts, another wore a white, lace nightdress and the last dancer wore a silk nightdress. Their male counterparts matched them, wearing black briefs, white briefs and white underwear.
Each couple had some unique characteristics that defined their relationship. Two dancers, or example, were consumed by one another and the chemistry they shared. The second couple faced infidelity issues, as the woman in the “relationship” was continuously tempted and seduced by the male dancer in the last couple, which ultimately failed to resolve their issues regarding adultery. The number ended with each couple, besides the last one, embracing one another.
The music was an abstract medley of an eclectic group of artists, including Photek and Nina Simone. The songs helped to accentuate all aspects of the relationships, from fury and frustration to extreme sexual tension and passion.
The theme of the choreography captured the audience, silencing them with the relatable strife portrayed in each relationship.
However, the number that hit the audience the hardest was an excerpt from “LedZAerial,” which played an altered version of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.” The piece was performed by five dancers, two on the left and right sides of the stage and the star aerialist dangling by a white drape in the center. Each dancer was in control of a portion of the white curtain that draped in front of them. The curtains rippled, as the aerialist in the center left the audience dumbfounded with stunts that made it impossible for the audience to admire both her strength and flexibility.
Luminario Ballet’s overall performance can be summed up with these three dances. Each number was abstract, mind-bending and exquisite in its own way, and the dancers’ strength and musicality was inspiring.
At the end of the show, the audience members commented to each other about what they had just seen, as they typically do after a show. But after this specific performance, each person in the audience was saying just about the same thing: “That was amazing.” And it undoubtedly was.
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