An Ear for Fresh Live Music (Hold the Canned Classics)

By Claudia La Rocco (excerpted)

"There were fresh brownies on offer, and first-rate live music, as Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet Company presented an intimate, homey program in City Center Studio 4 on Friday.

As Christopher Wheeldon’s megadebut with his new troupe, Morphoses, nears, it is good to be reminded that there are other young ballet companies out there.

It is also good to remember, or to discover, composers like Leos Janacek, Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio, when so many choreographers stick with canned versions of hoary classics. To hear their music stirringly played by the violinist Erik Carlson and the pianist Melody Fader was a revelation, and a needed one — not for nothing are dance audiences accused of having tin ears.

Mr. Magloire, who studied classical composition at the Cologne Conservatory of Music in Germany, has great musical sensitivity.

(...) In “Adue,” Lauren Toole’s lush, slow extensions made a striking counterpoint to the icy shards of Salvatore Sciarrino’s piano music. The ballerina, who has a captivating, almost sad presence, seemed to be skating around the notes.

(...) Set to a moody Janacek piano sonata, [Constantine Baecher's ballet "Viduity"] for four women used an enigmatic language of gesture and authoritative spatial arrangements to create a sophisticated, moving meditation on grief. Ms. Thompson’s silky, scoop-backed black outfits, complete with handkerchiefs and floor-sweeping trains, were deliciously formal, and the dancers, especially Christin Hanna, seized the occasion. “Viduity” is a ballet made for sinking into, and Mr. Baecher is a welcome new voice."

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