NextMove Dance presents Ballets Jazz de Montréal

Dance Me, with casually sexy street clothes designed by Philippe Dubuc, opened with an excerpt of the poem “Messiah.” On an empty stage, a single mysterious figure appeared out of the darkness and disappeared again. The dancing began with a lushly sensual tango to “Steer You Away,” followed by the company in the mournfully sensual “Boogie Street.”

“Marianne” was not a dance at all; dancer Kennedy Kraeling sat on the edge of the darkened stage, plaintively singing, while in the background a mysterious figure seemed to appear and disappear out of the dark. “Suzanne” was the highlight. Céline Cassone, in a short red dress and nude tights, hardly touched the floor as Alexander Hille lifted and turned her, but never seemed to set her down. It was beautifully danced, astonishingly sexy, yearningly intimate, and captured Cohen's essence.

Itzik Galili choreographs across cultures

Choreographer Itzik Galili created two wildly different dances that occupied most of the night. The notes to Casualties of Memory, set to Middle Eastern darbuka music, said the piece explodes traditional notions of patriarchy, and “men and women should not be regarded as separate beings.”

Galili, who also designed the lighting and costumes, used banks of lights to highlight or obscure the bodies of the dancers. It was often impossible to tell whether we were looking at a man or woman. Unfortunately, it was also sometimes impossible to see what they were doing. The tightly focused lights gilded a shoulder, shadowed an extension, hinted at one dancer slipping through the arms of another, but only in glimpses.

As the dance progressed with larger banks of light, the company’s strengths — liquid extensions that seemed to go on forever and a daring, sensual style — shone as brightly as the bulbs. A highlight was a fluid solo performed by Yosmell Calderón. Behind them, the company played darbuka drums held between their thighs.

Casualties of Memory reached for the stars and almost got there. But the beginning — slow, almost mournful, like memories slipping away — set a tone in conflict with the more aggressively connected — and more brightly lit — parts of the dance. It seemed to contain two warring ideas: one described by the choreographer and another by his title. But it doesn’t matter how good the dancing is if there is not enough light onstage to see it.

Salsa time

Before the company performed O Balcao de Amor, danced to music by “the king of the mambo,” Pérez Prado, it showed a film of the choreographer working with the dancers. He also discussed a visit to Cuba, explaining he wanted to emphasize the characters with street dress: snobby model in tulle, club guy in a nipped jacket, nerd in suspenders. He also intended to use light to direct the eye. He accomplished the latter more successfully here than in Casualties of Memory.

The piece opened lit by a single spotlight. The nerd tried to enter and the spot moved away again and again until the club guy jumped in, taking center stage. His supremacy didn’t last, however.

This was all about the comedic nerd, a modern-day nutty professor trying to find a girl in the crowd when she finds him. In a deliriously funny pas de deux, danced to “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White,” we heard that trademark wail in the raunchy trumpet. Alexander Hille and Céline Cassone danced with bravado and just enough awkwardness to stay in character. She taunted him and he could not believe his luck. It was a great way to end the night.