The Joyce Theater, New York, NY.
February 18, 2025.
Herman Cornejo takes on a century previous ballet that by no means fairly got here to fruition in his new piece, Anima Animal, carried out on the Joyce Theater in late February. Cornejo, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre since 2003, re-awakens a narrative supposed to be informed by ballet nice Vaslav Nijinsky in 1917, a few Guarani legend of the Urutau hen, recognized for its beautiful track and elusive nature. Grupo Cadabra, the revered modern firm from Argentina, joins Cornejo onstage to inform this story of affection, redemption and compassion.
The tone was easy: a darkish stage with dancers costumed by Anabella Tuliano and Elsa Schenone in flesh-colored, sheer material, creating a way of oneness and connection to the earth. Digital pulsing music scored the work, honoring native rhythms and folkloric beats crafted by DJ Uji and Noelia Escalzo. In each instances, components of custom and modern interpretation melded collectively.
In actual fact, the marrying of the previous and new permeated the whole work with a robust ballet vocabulary being danced by a recognized modern firm. Using each ballet strains and pedestrian components of latest dance, the work shows its message of magic and grounded humanity through the choreography brilliantly. Whereas Cornejo is the Inventive Director, Anabella Tuliano (additionally the Inventive Director of Grupo Cadabra) choreographed this work.
The dance is that of a selected story – one exploring the complexities of human nature in nature – however the work would have stood by itself as a plotless piece as nicely. The motion was enthralling in its complicated varieties, particular particulars, and the style through which the dancers morphed to and from components of nature, distinguished by the sensation they shared and fewer the apparent moments they executed. A lot of the motion is the group dancing with Cornejo an apparent outsider, till he finds an finally doomed partnership with a ladies from one other tribe, and finally transcends his human-ness in a closing solo.
There are various layers to this work – the historical past of its reimagining, the collaboration between Cornejo and Grupo Cadabra, the complexly composed music, the unification of conventional ballet and modern dance, and the unbelievable ability and expertise of the dancers, however the steadiness of all of them permits the imaginative and prescient to shine brightly by. The chance of over-complication is excessive, however the end result was a phenomenal and palpable journey by the dichotomies of being human and the interconnectedness we have now with the universe.
By Emily Sarkissian of Dance Informa.
