Beatles & Bach put to ballet

The Washington Ballet premieres two new ballets this weekend at the Kennedy Center with their "Bach/Beatles Project." As the name would suggest, the first half of the program is based on the "Goldberg Variations" by Johann Sebastian Bach and the second sets motion to 12 famous songs by the Beatles. In both of them, the music seems to be more important than the movement, but in two totally different ways.Septime Webre, the gay artistic director of the Washington Ballet, shows deference to the beauty of Bach's famous piece for harpsichord —this performance uses the piano version by Glenn Gould and with live piano and harpsichord accompaniment. The wittiest passage in the performance is a number played by a dueling piano and harpsichord as two musicians playing the instruments on raised platforms with wheels are hauled out on stage by the dancers. They swirl the platforms around each other, having the music engage in a dance of its own.The musicians and instruments remain on the stage for the rest of the show, sometimes with dancers standing at rapt attention to them instead of moving. With such stunts, Webre lets the music be the star of his piece, letting the movement amplify its beauty, making both of them even stronger.In three stages of costume and lighting that go from drab to dazzling to distant, the ballet also shows a progression that, while not a narrative, lends some structure to the evening. The thing that seems out of place is the martial arts choreography that appears sporadically throughout. The over-arching theme of aggressive masculinity is aided well by the skirt-like, brightly colored costumes the bare-chested male dancers use as a plume for a third of the production, but, even with all the posturing going on, the mock-fights seem a little too "The Matrix."
That said, Webre's signature style is in rare form here. While not as extravagant as his "Carmina Burana" or "The Nutcracker," his whimsical style is refreshing, especially in the clever ways he has the dancers enter and exit the stage.Trey McIntyre, the Washington Ballet's gay choreographer in residence, is surprisingly more austere than Webre, especially given that he is handling the Beatles half of the program.While not impossible to create a ballet to pop music, the Beatles are an interesting choice. Not only do their songs (even the later, more experimental work) have a verse-chorus-verse structure and the lyrics tell a story of their own, but the songs have surprising cultural significance as well. Who can listen to "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da" without thinking of Patti LuPone doing the theme song for the television drama "Life Goes On"? With all of this meaning already imbued in the songs, its nearly impossible to add another layer of meaning — that of movement — on top of it or to create movements that don't obviously mirror the sound and story of the songs. That's why the best pieces here are the ones where the dance follows the narrative of the song. The most accomplished is "Eleanor Rigby," where dancers Erin Mahoney-Du and Jared Nelson play "all the lonely people" searching for attention in a sea of dancers standing still. The result is a haunting image that will return to audiences every time they happen upon the tune in the future.As for the aforementioned "Ob-la-di," it looks a bit more like a number for the world's most accomplished show choir than a ballet troupe. Michele Jimenez soldiers through "Julia" looking like a robot on the fritz. She does a great job, but the dance adds nothing to the song, and vice versa. The best thing about this second half is the reliance on dancer Jonathan Jordan, who proves himself to be an expressive powerhouse and brightens every number he's in. While there are some brilliant moments in this experiment, it's nearly impossible to get out from under the Beatles' thumb, and McIntyre's seriousness doesn't help his cause.
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