Reviews

Perhaps it was the poignancy of the event that made Texas Ballet Theater's performance Friday night so electrifying, or maybe it was the irony.

The company had come close to collapse just a month ago. Had such a disaster happened, it would have left a terrible gap for Bass Performance Hall and the new Winspear Opera House, not to mention years to rebuild the company. Fortunately, donors came to the rescue, offering $1.2 million of the $2 million needed to stay afloat.

The money came just in time for the Majestic Gala (held at the Majestic Theatre), but the budget allowed only a single performance. Other budget cuts meant no live orchestra. (Musicians staged a protest outside the theater.)

For all of Texas Ballet Theater's glorious productions, Friday's performance was special. Every fiber of the dancers' being seemed to throb with emotion. Add that to artistic director Ben Stevenson's elegiac Five Poems, a dazzling set of pas de deux, and Tim O'Keefe's sizzling Love Thing.

G.J. McCARTHY/DMN

Andre Silva, with Leticia Oliveira, stole the show performing Diana and Acteon.

Setting a mood of longing, Five Poems opened with fog covering the stage and two men carrying aloft a woman. They moved as silently and smoothly as the fog itself. Every poem has its own tone, but the most striking and ecstatic was the fourth poem. Lucas Priolo, Mark Troxler and Justin Urso maneuver Heather Crosby in interesting, shapes – stretching her legs out in a perfect plank formation, or later helping her dive like a dolphin, never once letting her touch ground.

Next came four sparkling divertissements. In Esmeralda, Mr. Priolo bats hands like a fly catcher as Carolyn Judson coyly evades his grasp. Not only does she etch wonderful lines, but her saucy attitude kept you smiling.

Seventeen-year-old Lonnie Weeks lit up the stage as the Bluebird with a buoyancy perfect to the part.

For sheer megawatt verve, Andre Silva stole the show as Acteon in Diana and Acteon, with turns that spiraled out like ribbons. He was just as brilliant in Love Thing (set to seven Tina Turner songs), catching every swagger with sexy élan.

Margaret Putnam is a Richardson-based writer who covers dance.