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When Karole Armitage was a student at the North Carolina School of the Arts, ballet was upstairs and modern dance was in the basement, and fusion of the two was unthinkable. "Now fusion is what it's all about," said Armitage at a recent talk at the Kansas City Public Library. Audiences for the upcoming Kansas City Ballet concerts will have a chance to enjoy three different takes on fusion: two world premieres -- Cantus Arcticus by Armitage and Salute by Kansas City Ballet Artistic Director William Whitener -- and a reprise of Nine Sinatra Songs by Twyla Tharp.

The motions of birds are abstracted and subtle in Armitage's Cantus Arcticus. Birdsong is central to the music, alternating with long, sustained melodic lines played by an orchestra, and the dance responds to both forms. The flock is what interests Armitage the most, a flock of women freed from sorcerers in legends of old. This is a flock in the here and now, made up of individuals. While they share the same moves, they do them at different times, with different timing and in different directions. "Cubism in motion" is how Armitage describes the choreography. But unlike a fixed painting, the flow of motion is more important than hitting positions. What stands out are the leg extensions of the ballerinas, which seem to go on and on and resolve imperceptibly, a signature of Armitage's own dancing and now of her choreography. To keep us interested, the flow sometimes breaks. A member of the flock bends down; another strikes the floor. A third walks off like a bird that has just landed from a lyrical flight.

Every so often the flock gives way to an intense duet. "Separate but connected," says Geoffrey Kropp, who performs one of the duets with Angelina Sansone. The dancers are far apart like birds on distant branches calling to each other, and it's the connection across the void that's so powerful. Kropp finds working with Armitage different, experimental, enjoyable. She comes to rehearsal with a definite idea. How can you get there? she asks, and has the dancers experiment until they do what she's looking for. Her movements push Kropp's long body into unfamiliar territory. She asks him to thrust his ribs sideways, roll his shoulders backward, curl his long arms inward or stretch them out as wide as possible.

For Deanna Doyle, who dances another powerful duet with Danny Ryan, Armitage's choreographic process and movement vocabulary are more familiar. While she was a student at the University of Kansas, she starred in Broken Glass, a dance that Armitage created for the University Dance Company. That dance marked Armitage's return to Lawrence, where she grew up and took her first dancing lessons. From there she went on to the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Balanchine-centered Geneva Ballet, and the Merce Cunningham Company before forming her own dance ensemble. Now known worldwide for her works for Armitage Gone! Dance and other ballet and modern dance companies, she has also won success as a choreographer for film, MTV (Michael Jackson and Madonna), and Broadway, most recently for the smash-hit revival of Hair.

William Whitener's experience also includes Broadway, TV and film along with ballet and modern dance. Whitener glances backward to popular forms of entertainment a hundred years ago for his Salute to Christopher Barksdale, who is retiring after 21 years with Kansas City Ballet. We recognize the vaudeville influence immediately when a ballerina crosses the stage with a placard announcing the first section, "Comedian," a motif that repeats for the second and third sections: "Romantic" and "Pleasant Memories."

From his first moves, Barksdale says this is my dance! He has many opportunities to show off his prowess as a dancer and an actor. He plays a comedian, a master of ceremonies, a director, a royal presence surveying his domain, a romantic cavalier, and just a dancer. He performs a poignant duet with Kimberly Cowen. "Nostalgia," says Whitener. A tribute calls for at least a small dose of it.

Whitener talks about the difficulty of making a dance comedy. He points to Jerome Robbins and Todd Bolender as among the few who could do it. They understood comic timing, the importance of the pause. "It takes time to set up a joke," he says, all the more difficult now when the demand is for ever-faster dancing. The dancers in Salute walk on their heels, lean and sit on each other, assume ridiculously triumphant or romantic poses, enter and exit with attitude. We cannot help grinning. The musical selections underline the comedy: early jazz cornet music from Todd Bolender's vinyl collection; the "Adagio" from the opera Norma, known to all ballet students; and "Pleasant Memories" by Scott Joplin to end the tribute on just the right note.

Salute was made to honor Barksdale, but beyond that it's a concerto for male dancer. While saying "farewell" to Barksdale, it also says "welcome" to the new male dancers in the company, one of whom may eventually perform the solo role in a new way.

The program ends with Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs, staged by Whitener. Tharp was recently celebrated as a Kennedy Center Award Honoree for her extraordinary achievement in dance over the past four decades. She was one of the choreographers of the '60s and '70s who paved the way for the fusion of today. She made the discovery that she could set sophisticated, brainy, eclectic choreography to jazz and pop music, that arabesques and pirouettes weren't so different from the kicks and spins of the jitterbug, and that it was OK to insert shrugs, arm swings and ordinary walking steps. She has made dances to the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, the Beach Boys and Billy Joel, to name a few, each exploring some aspect of the relationship between vernacular and school forms of dance.

Nine Sinatra Songs allows Tharp to do ballroom dancing her way, infused with ballet, modern, jazz and unexpected moves, all executed with style, grace, and a little impudence. A kata for the martial art of partnership? The formal attire by Oscar de la Renta gives the piece a hint of the '50s, when couples at socials still danced the foxtrot, waltz, lindy, and even the tango. Of the concert finale, dancer Deanna Doyle says with a big smile, "It's Sinatra!" And we all salute and go home happy!


Kansas City Ballet
Spring Performance
Nine Sinatra Songs by Twyla Tharp
Thursday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 9 at 2 and 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 10 at 2 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11th & Central, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-931-2232 or online at www.kcballet.org

By Jone Stone

 Dance Contributor (Past writer)

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