New ballet bears the heaviness of rock

By Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 31, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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A REVIEW

There's something instantly appealing about a rock ballet, with its catchy backbeats and youth- friendly musical sensibility, all combined with the visual delights of modern dance.

This weekend and next, Garrett Ammon's Broomfield- based Ballet Nouveau Colorado is presenting a trio of his rock ballets - works that set one's toes a-tapping and cause one's imagination to work harder than expected.

The concept has been done many times before: from Twyla Tharp's homage to the Beach Boys, Deuce Coupe, to the Joffrey Ballet's mangling of Prince, Billboards. In those works - and now in Ammon's treatments - the lyrics are not interpreted literally. As in any other ballet, the music simply triggers the choreography rather than serve as its master.

In BNC's three-part program, unveiled Friday in the Lakewood Cultural Center, the inventive music of INXS, Queen and David Bowie inspire dancing that now and again connects with the content but seems comfortable with unfolding in its own fashion.

Blessedly, there is no frugging, no fannie-shaking and no blatant attempt to tell a song's story.

Even the obvious imagery of Bowie's Space Oddity ("Ground control to Major Tom") doesn't send Ammon's dancers into the expected rocket-ship gestures. That song is included in An Occasional Dream, which received its premiere on Friday. Playing off the psychedelic charms of early Bowie, it impressed with touches of Magritte-like symbolism: an umbrella, a sought-after suitcase, an apple. The choreography was equally evocative and mysterious, never making its message clear, yet never straying into thick abstraction.

The program opened with Ammon's salute to INXS, Mediate, premiered a year ago by his old company, Ballet Memphis. The songs may be relatively unfamiliar, but their inventiveness and musicality are instantly appealing. Still, the choreography only intermittently rises above the expected. Here, as in the other works, certain moves and gestures come up repeatedly: one dancer slithering between the legs of another, lifts that feature intentionally un-balletic bent knees and spread legs, unison walking and marching in time to a song's heavy beat. Near the end, the dancers strip down to their white skivvies, for some odd reason.

Perhaps the strongest work on the agenda is Love of My Life, a soaring piece that does right with the remarkable songs of Queen. Seen last year at its premiere, it remains a powerful mix of great music and invigorating movements.

Here, as in the other works, the dancers deliver the goods with conviction and superb technique. This is a handsome, consistently pleasing company, led by a choreographer with courage and an unlimited imagination.

Marc Shulgold is music and dance writer. 303-954-5296 or shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.com

Ballet Nouveau Colorado

* Grade: B+

* When and where: Repeated at 8 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Lakewood Cultural Center; plus 8 p.m. Nov. 7-8 and 2 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Pinnacle Events Center, 84th and Huron.

* Information: 303-466-5685

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