Before a painted scrim reminiscent of the 1975 Peter Weir film Picnic at Hanging Rock, Florida Classical Ballet Theatre opened its 11th anniversary season Saturday with a beautifully performed rendition of Michel Fokine’s 1909 ballet Les Sylphides.
As part of a three-ballet program selected to evoke mood rather than tell stories, this classical ballet, which is given credit for being the first choreographed without a narrative arc, was indeed the perfect way to start what looks to be an interesting season for the Palm Beach Gardens-based company.
Les Sylphides was first performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1908 with Vaslav Nijinsky as the poet and prima ballerinas Olga Preobrajenska, Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina as soloists. The world premiere came by way of Sergei Diaghliev and his Ballet Russes in 1916 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.
During the entirety of Les Sylphides, set to nocturnes, mazurkas and waltzes by Frederic Chopin, the corps de ballet remains on stage congregating in small groups reminiscent of 19th century Impressionist paintings. The ballet is a series of elegant dances performed by feminine forest sylphs with a single male poet.
In the hands of FCBT, it was light, frothy and very well done. Rogelio Corrales as the poet gave a flawless performance, and soloists Lily Ojea, Marinna Kus, Rebekah Levin, Gianna Beata and Johanna Hurmemaa were a joy to watch, each unique in her interpretation of this classic work.
Next up on the program at the Eissey Campus Theatre on Palm Beach State College’s Palm Beach Gardens campus was an original bit of choreography by the company’s executive director, Colleen Smith and Resident Artist Marshall Levin.
Le Petit Egarement (The Little Distraction) proved to be a somewhat amateurish romp set to French accordion music. Lots of little students sashayed across the stage wearing fuchsia berets, carrying red balloons or mugging in picture hats. What the ballet lacked in sophistication, it made up for in enthusiasm and pure energy. Marshall Levin as a mime was very engaging.
But still the dance lacked a center and relied too heavily on cliché and well-worn visual jokes. And then there was the unfortunate moment Saturday afternoon when one of the male soloists fell on top of one of the girls in the picture hats. Ouch!
The final dance, In the Mood, to music by Glenn Miller, Erskine Hawkins, Bill Johnson and Louis Prima, was a kinetic bit of entertainment with all the glamour of the Big Band era.
Choreographed by Smith, it was a very smart piece that stayed true to the ballet when it would have been easy to break into a Lindy or other dance of the bygone moment.
The ballet began with floodlights roving the front of the stage while period newsreels spoke of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was all of a piece and expertly done – about 20 minutes long and featuring about 40 dancers.
The satin-doll costumes in an array of voluptuous jewel tones only added to the spectacle, and indeed, costumes throughout the performance were outstanding.
Florida Classical Ballet Theatre returns next month with The Nutcracker, which will be performed four times from Nov. 25-27 at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens. For more information, call (561) 630-8235 or visit www.fcbt.org.