HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet’s LOVEX3
Saint Louis Ballet’s production of Love X 3, which took place at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center February 16-18, 2024, featured three pieces of varying styles of ballet, created by three different choreographers. The performances in this show clearly displayed how versatile ballet can be and gave everyone in the audience something to appreciate about ballet, no matter what their personal preferences may be.
Love X 3 opened with George Balanchine’s “Square Dance”, which began with a calm energy as the curtain rose that was further displayed by its simple blue scrim lighting, unadorned pale blue and gray costumes, and airy string music. The 14 dancers’ lightning quick petit allegro steps and playful partnering both contrasted and complemented the serenity that the audience first saw and heard at the beginning of the piece. “Square Dance” segued into a pas de deux that started at a slower tempo with partnering choreography that featured long arabesque penchés, pirouettes, and mirror images as the two dancers executed the same movements facing each other. The music’s timing gradually picked up to a more lively pace, but the dancers’ movement was no less refined as it adjusted to the music’s tempo. For a brief moment, Balanchine’s choreography included slow attitude turns which contrasted against the quick tempo of the music and provided an unexpected highlight in this section of the piece. The principal male solo performed at the conclusion of the pas de deux featured low balancés, sweeping port de bras, curving upper body movements, and high jumps that defied gravity on their way down.
The corps of dancers returned to the stage to conclude the piece with a rousing final section that began with partners bowing to each other as if they were about to begin a square dance and displayed effortless arabesque lifts, clear formations, two vertical intersecting lines of arabesque chugs, perfectly timed développés in croisé devant and sautés executed by the ladies, and additional rapidly performed petit allegro steps. At the end of this fast-paced final section, the music decrescendo-ed into near silence, but the synchronicity of all of the dancers, their commanding energy, and their clear intention behind each movement to the very last barely audible note of music strongly punctuated the end of this physically demanding 35-minute piece as the entire audience enthusiastically cheered.
After the first intermission, the company’s performance continued with “In Reel Time”, choreographed by Brian Enos. This contemporary ballet began on a dark stage that single white spotlights gradually illuminated one at a time as the dancers ran onstage from the wings. Dressed in varying shades of black, gray, and white, none of the eight dancers’ costumes looked alike, and they more closely resembled everyday street clothes than dance costumes. The music started softly and ominously but picked up its pace and volume with its intense instruments and percussive rhythm. The dancers filled the stage with explosive leaps, sharp port de bras, creative formations and pathways, choreography executed in canon, a gentle pas de deux danced by two ladies, and a driving energy behind every movement. This 15-minute piece’s style was a stark contrast to the piece danced just a moment before, but the audience gave its loud stamp of approval as the dancers took their bows.
Following a second intermission, “St. Louis Blues”, choreographed by artistic director Gen Horiuchi, began with a live band, led by Atsushi Toya Tokuya, performing jazz music onstage before the main curtain rose to what looked like a jazz club with an open dance floor. Upon the curtain’s lifting, the audience could see the live band placed far upstage against the brightly lit scrim. A small black table with two or three chairs flanked each side of the stage next to the wings, where some of the dancers would sit or stand and watch their fellow dancers onstage as a captive audience at the club when it was not their turn to perform. The dancers dressed to the nines for this performance, with the ladies in cocktail dresses in various colors and styles with skirts that floated gracefully with every turn, and the gentlemen wearing black pants, white button-down shirts, and either black suspenders or black vests. The company dancers were not just dancers in this piece; they were dancers coming and going at a club, chatting, laughing, working, flirting, falling in love, and trying to impress their crushes. The dancers impressed the audience right away with their effortless partner lifts, some of which featured the gentlemen tossing the ladies into the air with perfect musicality and the ladies jumping horizontally into their partners’ arms. The piece’s choreography also gave nods to Balanchine with its occasional flexed feet and a phrase that looked like it was borrowed from Slaughter on 10th Avenue when the ladies performed développés while leaned back into a layout position supported by their partners as they traveled across the stage.
The dancers’ pieces that they performed at the club varied from exuberant to solemn to comedic. The trainees of Saint Louis Ballet also danced in a section of this piece, dancing the part of waitresses at the club who occasionally interacted with the company dancers.
The audience constantly cheered the dancers’ engaging performances and the exciting choreography, which led to the climax of this piece when Ms. Denise Thimes took the stage to sing W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.” Her rich alto voice gave life to the lyrics of the song and added another depth to the jazz club scene portrayed onstage. Toward the end of her performance, all of the company dancers came onstage for one final dance together at the club as Ms. Thimes belted the final words to the song and the curtain fell. The audience applauded wildly, with many people giving a standing ovation as the dancers and musicians took their many bows.
Love X 3 showed what ballet can look like in different styles, as well as the talent and versatility of the company dancers of Saint Louis Ballet. From classical to contemporary to jazzy, this performance had much to enjoy, no matter what one’s personal taste in dance might be.
Photos by Kelly Pratt