Word: mateoã
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Dates: during 2002-2002
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...slender dancer in a black leotard presses the heel of her angularly flexed foot onto the hardwood stage before moving into an elegant enchaînement. This juxtaposition of elements of modern dance and classical ballet is the essence of Then, Here & Now, José Mateo??s new ballet program playing at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church across the street from Pennypacker Hall...
...bare stage and sparse lighting emphasize Mateo??s choreography. His choice of themes for Then, Here & Now underlines the simplicity of form and natural quality of the dancing. Mateo describes his program as “elemental,” a motif most conspicuous in “Still Waters,” a piece set to Debussey’s Nocturne and “Oceanid,” set to music by Mendelssohn...
...program and that the focus is the visual experience, what is consistent is the way he challenges the traditional manner that ballets are viewed. The music of Bach’s Piano Concerto in G minor which accompanies “Back to Bach” embodies Mateo??s iconoclasm. Towards the end of the second movement, soaring strings and a stage of fierce women in black is, Mateo says, “an affirmation of feminine strength and of women who are traditionally portrayed as ancillary characters in ballet...
Even the venue in which Mateo??s company now resides attests to his aim to liberate ballet from conventional theater. Mateo and his 15-year-old company have negotiated a 41-year lease at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, which they moved into in July 2000. A Gothic church replete with vertical lines of tracery and paneling as well as a gorgeous stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany may be an unlikely venue for a dance troupe. However, the notion is not entirely alien to dance. The Judson Church in New York’s Greenwich Village...