If you haven’t had a chance to see Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 3 X Dove, a triptych of works by the late choreographer Ulysses Dove, I definitely recommend checking it out this weekend.
“Dove didn’t deserve to be lost,” Boal says in this video. “He was a choreographer that deserved a future and I believe that PNB currently is giving him that future.”
For 3 x Dove, the newest acquisition, Serious Pleasures, joins Vespers (added in March 2008) and Red Angels (the first Dove piece Boal added, in 2005, and one he performed in with the NYC ballet in 1994).
Serious Pleasures, Dove’s take on sexuality (“the merciless battle between spirit and flesh”), first premiered at the American Ballet Theater in 1992, four years before Dove died. Before the PNB premiere last Thursday, it hadn’t been performed in 18 years.
If you’re interested in dance at all, it’s worth it to see these three pieces together. Dove’s work is really a product of its time (late ’80s, early ’90s), with a brash MTV-like quality, electronic music, and stark, muscular movements. It’s a burlesque, a peep show, a dressing room fantasy—on a classical ballet stage. At the same time, the movement is so singular, so fresh, and so much a part of the modern-classical tradition (Dove worked with Merce Cunningham and later Alvin Ailey) that dancers can make it their own and keep it relevant.
I’m less enthusiastic about the inclusion of Victor Quijada’s Suspension of Disbelief, a contemporary work (the piece was commissioned by PNB in 2006) with a stripped-down set, earth-tone hoodies, and Asian-influenced electronic soundtrack.
In the pre-dress rehearsal lecture last Wednesday night, Quijada talked about the difficulty of finding dancers to fit his style, which is a classical-modern-street combo. (Quijada grew up in the hip-hop culture of Los Angeles, then he got a spot in Twyla Tharp’s company, leading to his eventual career in ballet and his own company, RUBBERBANDance Group in Montreal.)
At the same time, it was tough to settle into the narrative of the piece after the angular physicality and brashness of Red Angels. I’m still very interested in Quijada’s work, and I suspect Suspension of Disbelief is a pale reflection of what this street-dance influenced piece could be like when it isn’t upstaged by sex and red leotards.
As for the Dove lineup, I wish I could see every performance. The mechanics and emotional resonance of Vespers, the multiple pirouettes and suspended side kicks of Red Angels, and the burlesque nostalgia of Serious Pleasures—it’s a rich visual treat.
3 X Dove plays at Pacific Northwest Ballet through Sunday. See the PNB website for details.
