In one evening, Mara Vinson goes from toe shoes to bare feet to sneakers. As evidenced by Vinson's footwear (or lack of footwear), Pacific Northwest Ballet's Contemporary Classics places some unusual challenges on the dancers.
Noelani Pantastico dances in the dark with flashes of light in "Caught," a piece that uses strobe lights to "freeze" the dancer at the top of a jump or in the middle of a pirouette. Principal dancer Vinson and corps de ballet dancer James Moore return to the harnesses of "Kiss"; dangling from the end of ropes, the pair spin around and over each other in Susan Marshall's aerial choreography.
Contemporary Classics rounds out the program with George Balanchine's "Agon" and the PNB première of Twyla Tharp's "In the Upper Room." So besides learning to cope with strobe lights and ropes, the dancers have the usual heavy schedule of typical ballet rehearsals.
Although Vinson and Moore had danced "Kiss" before at PNB, they found the ropes were still a challenge.
"Working in the ropes, you really have to find a way to manipulate your weight to keep yourself getting yourself tangled," said Moore.
"The ropes have a way of twisting and untwisting naturally," said Vinson.
"But sometimes, you can twist around in an extra turn, and the choreography doesn't really allow for that, so you have to find a way to get out of it," added Moore. "Our game plan is to follow the choreography - and it works best if you follow the choreography - but once you get out there, it's anything goes. Something goes wrong every time."
The harness also places a lot of strain on the dancer's central body. "Especially for James," said Vinson, "as he has to manipulate both of us."
"When you're sitting in a harness and hanging from ropes, you have to use your stomach as well as push along with your legs," said Moore.
Vinson added, "There's a weightlessness, you don't necessarily have the control that you do with you're partnering with someone in a regular ballet."
"There's an urge, especially if something goes wrong, to stand up and to move her over," Moore explained. "But if you stand up, the tension of the rope changes and it becomes harder to make it smooth, so you have to stay down in the harness. It's not like the ballet that we're dancing every day. You have to rehearse it a few times just to get it back into your body, even if you have done it before."
"It takes a few minutes to get used to that feeling, of being a little nauseous," said Vinson. "I get dizzy every time."
"There's a couple of spins, where she's on top of me, and I'm looking at the ground, and the colors start to blur," said Moore.
"The last time we did this, during the dress rehearsal, I got totally turned around and thought the back of the stage was the front," Vinson recalled.
Pantastico also found the floor hard to find as she worked on "Caught." Between the strobe flashes, the dancer is moving in the dark.
"At first, I was afraid to jump in the studio in complete darkness," said Pantastico. "There's also a cartwheel that turns you completely upside down in the dark. At the beginning [of rehearsals], I would lose my sense of where the floor was."
The timing of the leaps also has to be perfect in "Caught" (and there are numerous consecutive jumps in the final three minutes) so the strobe light will illuminate the dancer at the height of the leap. The dancer controls the strobe through a hidden remote, which becomes one more thing to think about during the dance. "In the jumps, we are supposed to click on the strobe at a particular moment at the top of the leap, but the tendency is to trigger the strobe as you go up," said Pantastico.
During rehearsals, the technicalities of working with strobe lights caused some problems.
"We found out that the strobes in the studio are slightly different from the ones that are used on the stage. The studio strobes take a moment or two to recharge, which throws off the timing," said Pantastico. "The timing should come easier when we move over to McCaw Hall."
Strobes aside, "Caught" is an extremely physical piece, with just one dancer on the stage. Pantastico is the only woman dancing this six-minute solo. "It takes a lot of stamina," said Pantastico. "The first part isn't that physical, but the last three minutes are very physical."
During the opening week, Pantastico is scheduled to dance "Caught" on Nov. 2, and principal dancers Jonathan Porrretta, Batkhurel Bold and Olivier Wevers will dance it for performances on Nov. 1 and 3. Being in the studio rehearsing with only men was "so weird" at first, said Pantastico, "but everyone is so motivating."
Besides "Caught," Pantastico has been learning Tharp's "In the Upper Room," which she will probably dance during the second week of performances, and rehearsing Balanchine's "Agon," where she dances the ballet's second pas de trois on Nov. 2 and 3.
During rehearsals, Pantastico definitely "felt it" in her body. "This kind of schedule can be hard on your legs," she admitted. But she's looking forward to hearing the audience's reaction to "Caught" and would like to do even more modern pieces like it. "I'd like to explore that type of dance further," said Pantastico.
Vinson also enjoys to returning to her ballet slippers for "Agon," although the sneakers required for "In the Upper Room" took some getting used to.
"I go from pointe shoes to bare feet for 'Kiss' to sneakers, and I'm just glad that it is in that order," said Vinson.
"For me, I do a 'ballet couple' in 'The Upper Room' so it feels very normal," said Moore.
Like Pantastico, Moore and Vinson find the change in pace in Contemporary Classics both a challenge and interesting to dance. "I like to try everything," said Vinson. "I do enjoy partnering, sharing that time on stage with somebody. And when you have a good partner like James, it's enjoyable making that connection in the dance."
PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS Nov. 1-11 McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St. Tickets: $20-$150 441-2424 or www.pnb.org
