HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents “To Love!”
Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Saint Louis Ballet presented "To Love!," featuring three works choreographed by Justin Peck, Christopher D’Amboise, and artistic director Gen Horiuchi. While the program notes highlight how the evening’s performances draw a through-line between ballet and Broadway—perhaps a foreshadowing of Saint Louis Ballet’s spring performance, "Feels Like Broadway"—and while the name of the show and its Valentine’s weekend timing may have suggested a romantic theme, the evening’s true intrigue stemmed from how the show order showcased growth in multiple forms. The trio of works asked audience members to consider the growth of the organization, the development of dancers within it, and the transformation of dance in popular culture.
The evening opened with "Balanchivadze," choreographed by Saint Louis Ballet’s artistic director, Gen Horiuchi. Set to a collection of works by Bach and inspired by the style of George Balanchine, the piece opened with a flurry of activity. Dancers from the company’s trainee program flooded the stage, dressed in classical white tutus with silver accents—a clear nod to the importance of the corps de ballet in Balanchine’s narrative works. The pre-professional dancers shared the stage with the main company, weaving in and out of formations to frame and punctuate solos and pas de deux. The effect was striking, drawing the audience in with a powerful sense of fullness. It’s impressive to see so many bodies on stage in a non-narrative work in a mid-sized city. Not all training programs have dancers strong enough to complement the main company so effortlessly. It was a bold move on Horiuchi’s part, but one that paid off, showcasing not only the company’s ability to attract and curate talent but also its capacity to develop it within its educational programs.
The standout performers in "Balanchivadze" further highlighted how individual dancers grow at Saint Louis Ballet. As the dancing gained velocity, Colin Ellis and Lori Wilson—two of the company’s more tenured dancers—wowed the audience with a duet full of lifts and classical formality, exuding a subtle confidence honed by years of performance experience. In contrast, that duo was followed by a solo from Amelia Erich, one of St. Louis Ballet’s new second company members. Rather than relying on experience, Erich danced with an energetic passion, performing the technically challenging solo with a zesty attention to detail.
Next on the program was Justin Peck’s "In Creases." The connections and contrasts between this and the preceding work were impossible to miss. Though costumed in the same colors, the dancers in "In Creases" wore sleek unitards, giving them a much more contemporary profile that emphasized the many shapes their bodies would form throughout the piece.
Set to music by Philip Glass, "In Creases" highlighted the fluidity of patterns—both bound by the limits of the dancer’s body and unleashed by the multiplying force of choreography. Dancers wove through tightly constructed formations, constantly making and breaking shapes with their own human form. The piece was particularly athletic. Audience members sitting close to the stage could hear the dancers breathing heavily as they powered through intense, step-packed sequences designed to test the bounds of ballet’s physicality. Those lucky enough to have been sitting in audience right may have even been showered by Sean Sessions’ perspiration during a particularly demanding series of pirouettes.
Both the costumes and the choreography reflected the early careers of Peck and Horiuchi. Both men danced for NYCB, eventually rising to soloist status. Horiuchi’s choreography explicitly pays homage to his former director, George Balanchine, while Peck’s work draws inspiration from contemporary masters like William Forsythe and Wayne McGregor. By programming these works back-to-back, the evening offered a glimpse into the evolution of two artists—linked by lineage but separated by time and style.
To cap off the evening, Christopher D’Amboise’s "Puttin’ on the Ritz" transported the audience to the golden age of Broadway and Hollywood. Set to a vibrant score of carefully arranged show tunes, the dancers amplified their showmanship to match the piece’s obvious crowd-pleaser energy. The colorful costumes—mostly red, white, and blue with a splash of pink—provided a welcome shift from the night’s neutral palette. The combination of score, color, and gendered roles harkened back to an idealized version of America that many would argue never truly existed. It was hard to separate this nostalgic Americana from the chaos and polarization of our current political climate. Nevertheless, the audience at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center ate it up.
In all, it was a lovely night at the ballet. I walked away feeling as if I’d gotten a peek into the future of Saint Louis Ballet’s company roster, explored the relationship between one of ballet’s contemporary masters and the company’s artistic direction, and enjoyed a whimsical trip down memory lane. If you’re around for the company’s next performances, I highly recommend experiencing Saint Louis Ballet.
Photos by Kelly Pratt