++READ MY REVIEW FOR SANTA BARBARA’S ARTS WEEKLY VOICE MAGAZINE OF THE OPENING OF STATE STREET BALLET’S 25TH SEASON AT THE GRANADA THEATRE IN SANTA BARBARA ON OCTOBER 12 2019, A COLLABORATIVE PERFORMANCE WITH THE SANTA BARBARA CHORAL SOCIETY

Celebrating 25 Years and the Choreography of William Soleau

Founding Executive Artistic Director Rodney Gustafson’s State Street Ballet launched its 2019-2020 Silver Anniversary season at Santa Barbara’s Granada Theatre last Saturday night celebrating not only the singular achievement of having successfully navigated a quarter century of financial and artistic growth as a professional dance company, but also SSB’s bond with its community and commitment to collaborative effort. Sharing the stage with the Santa Barbara Choral Society, which has enjoyed its own heady artistic history since 1948, SSB’s Co-Artistic Director/Choreographer William Soleau curated a program of his works - American Masters - that included two world premieres set to choral masterpieces by Leonard Bernstein (Chichester Psalms) and Morten Lauridsen (Lux Aeterna) and finished with his gorgeous original choreography from 2011 to Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Martha Graham’s eponymous pointe shoe footprint notwithstanding, Gustafson’s confidence in Soleau’s choreographic vision and moxie was plain to see; 25 years setting many of his most famous pieces to the unique dancers of State Street Ballet has been amply rewarding for both. The Choral Society’s Conductor and Artistic Director JoAnne Wasserman, enjoying her own anniversary – 27 seasons at the helm of the choir - officiated on the podium.

Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato, Artistic Director of the Berlin State Ballet since 2014 said some years ago during an interview that dance could not exist without music. A concept far deeper than it sounds, some choreographers miss the aural/kinetic connection altogether, most create movement that matches the music in rhythm, accent, accelerando and diminuendo, but they often ignore music’s deeper, sub-textual messaging. William Soleau’s choreographic portfolio is consistently beautiful to the eye and accessible to the intellect, his movement design simple in form and structure on many levels. Yet he also achieves what other choreographers often overlook; powerful emotional connection and authority through his deep study and understanding of the scores he sets to dance, particularly the music of composers whose sub-textual signals, tonal and harmonic progressions, dissonances and consonances beg for visual representation.

The program opened with world premiere choreography by Soleau set to Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms for Boy Treble or Countertenor, Choir and Orchestra (1965). With the Choral Society and orchestra upstage to allow room for the dancers to perform downstage the first movement Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, flowed like the text itself. The second movement, The Lord is my shepherd, with its serenely beautiful use of countertenor – sublime singing by Jacob Hall – featured dancers Saori Yamashita and Francois Llorente in a powerfully moving and mellifluous pas de deux. The third movement, My Heart is not haughty, Nor mine eyes lofty, together with the stunning Finale, Behold how good, And how pleasant it is, allowed the trio of Deise Mendonça with Jack Stewart and Noam Tsivkin and company members Anna Carnes, Amara Galloway, Marika Kobayashi, Emma Matthews, Tanner Blee, James Folsom and Nicholas Topete opportunity to emulate the beauty and meaning of Bernstein’s ravishing score.

            A brief video interview with composer Morten Lauridsen prepared the audience for his otherworldly masterpiece Lux Aeterna (1997), its five sections of the Communion antiphon for the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass conceived as a quiet meditation on mortality and the death of the composer’s mother. Soleau wisely intuited that some sections of Lauridsen’s deeply moving score required complete, stand-alone attention from audience and dancers alike and from time to time had the company - Amara Galloway, Courtney Hanaway, Chloe Kelley, Deise Mendonça, Tanner Blee, James Folsom, Francois Llorente and Noam Tsivkin - sit facing the Choral Society and orchestra, listening along with the audience to the touching and lovingly prepared singing of this, the most widely performed twentieth century choral masterpiece on the planet. Soleau’s choreographic design for Lux Aeterna featured State Street Ballet’s remarkable unison ensemble pairings; duos, trios, couples and the full company. A starry night projection and the choreographer’s visceral understanding of the score and text made for visually arresting body imagery-to-sound cognizance, particularly in the last moments of the work – stunning!

After intermission, a short silent video collage of snippets from State Street Ballet’s 25 seasons was shown, accompanied by live improvisations performed from one of the Granada’s boxes by SSB’s house guitarist Chris Fossek, a lovely preamble to the major work of the evening, William Soleau’s enchanting and deeply moving 1997 choreography to Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Simply but elegantly staged, the narrative of two nineteenth century American Shaker families joining together as one through marriage was both an homage to Martha Graham’s iconic original visual stylings and a completely fresh work of choreographic art by Soleau. The Choral Society orchestra now in the Granada Theatre’s pit and playing handsomely as it did throughout the evening, allowed for a sprawling panoramic  tale on stage of barn dances, weddings, picnics, pairings and partings; State Street Ballet’s corps and soloists enjoying this repertory favorite they’ve performed frequently over the years with technical zest and charming individual personality.

Daniel Kepl | Performing Arts Review