Ammon and Henry Break Some Eggs To Build a Luscious Omelette

In "Intersection," Ballet Nouveau Colorado's (BNC) newest work, now being performed at the Lakewood, Colorado Cultural Center (October 30, 31, November 1, 2009) and next weekend at the Pinnacle Center, Artistic Director/Choreographer Garrett Ammon and Poet Michael J. Henry, expand on something they began in a recent BNC choreography competition, i.e., the juxtaposition of poetry, dance, and music to produce collaborative work that enhances values inherent in its components. And in this case they added some wonderful projected images and film clips created by Ammon, great lighting designs by Vance McKenzie, costumes by Emilee Cooper, and sound tracks of classical music well mixed by Kevin Harbison. The result is a marvelous performance work based on human emotions as expressed in movement and text.

To build "Intersection" Ammon and Henry met over a a five month period to shape the piece. Henry wrote thirteen poems all tied to a thread about a runaway boy and the reactions of all the people touched by that runaway, including a detective and his own family dealing with that detective's preoccupation with the event. Henry and Ammon meld those poems into a narrative, and Henry chose an easy to read/hear and digest modality in the poems that allows rapid assimilation of content and delightful flows in the words. The poems are spoken by the dancers, either in voice-over recordings, or live. At times movement phrasing accompanies the spoken text, at other times the character speaking is still and movement sequences to music follow. Ammon and Henry build delightful characters in the words and movement and the performances are sterling, with the "Boy" danced by Jason Franklin, his "Father" by Damien Patterson, his deceased "Mother" - who moves in and out of a Vance McKenzie created light grave -  by Meredith Strathmeyer, his "Sister" by Megan Courtney, his "Girlfriend" by Sarah Tallman, his "Best Friend" by Colby Foss, his "Classmate" - who copied his homework -  by Julie King, the preoccupied "Detective" by David Barbour, the detective's "Wife" by Julia Meng, and the detective's "Sons" by BNC students Michael Hinton and Jeremy Studinksi. Add to that ensemble members James Joyner, Elizabeth Towles, and Sean Watson and anyone who knows BNC also knows it is a stunning cast.

Ammon carefully avoids mime throughout, even when the poems provide clear opportunities to fall into that trap. Often movement is understated, letting the words dominate, as in an opening ensemble to Henry's "Runaway." He uses many duets to illustrate relationships, often with inventive lifts, which are effortlessly performed. Ammon sometimes grabs onto one music aspect - like dynamic - for only moments and then gradually lets go of it, and he uses stillness to perfection in framing lovely movement choices. Of special note are a male-male duet between by Foss and Franklin - runaway boy and his friend - that is frequently interrupted by boisterous young boys - Hinton and Studinski, a Franklin and Strathmeyer duet - deceased mother and runaway son - about finding oneself in stars that left few dry eyes in the theater, and Sarah Tallman's understated solo to "Every Morning Opens," about letting go.

Ammon's projections of photos in both color and black and while are well chosen and projected in ways that they never dominate, and always add to the performance. Some of those contain endearing subtleties - like a street lamp that slowly disappears leaving a sky colored by sunset - or was it sunrise?

Donald K. Atwood MFA. Ph.D.

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