Passion served as the connective thread conjoining the three works presented by the Cincinnati Ballet at the Aronoff Center on Nov. 12-14, 2004, Seeking Velocity, Just You and Me and Carmen.

The program opened with the world premier of Artistic Director Victoria Morgan's original work, Seeking Velocity. Set to Felix Mendelssohn's lively String Octet, the choreography of the one-act piece meanders through a range of stylizations, set in motion by the dancers' individual qualities of movement.

At times, the moves bounced from one style to another so capriciously, one didn't know what to expect next. Whatever look the steps called for -- from straightforwardly balletic to modern and jazzy, even odd and idiosyncratic -- the dancers succeeded in differentiating them all with clarity and precision.

Not limited to male-female pairings, the partnering felt innovative and dynamic. This section featured unusual inverted lifts with the woman in an outstretched, supine position. Another thrilling lift sprinkled throughout the work involved the female partner shooting up vertically, spinning in the air, then being caught on her way down.

With their passion for dance aglow, the dancers appeared to be thoroughly enjoying themselves onstage, making them a delight to watch. The free-spirited choreography was by turns smooth and sensual, carefree and quirky, with flicks of feet, twisting of torsos and a prevailing sense of flight and energy. That was all part of the light, breezy fun found in the first movement.

Music, lighting and choreography set the stage for a dramatic mood change in the second movement. Trad Burns' expressive lighting design called for the background color wash to change to a deep red, occasionally accented by dramatic shadows. The focus shifted to more complex interactions between a couple (passionately played Janessa Touchet and Dmitri Trubchanov) and a corps of four men. Experiencing conflict between the security of staying with her partner and the longing tension of possibility outside the relationship, the woman embarked on a personal journey of growing empowerment.

A memorable motif recurring in this section was the woman's different ways of taking steps or moving forward -- an uncomfortable, spidery, crablike walk with the aid of her partner, steps taken on the ground and even in the air, as the men swept her off her feet, literally and figuratively. This woman on the move was passed from one man to the next. Exaggerated hand and wrist stylizations accentuated her feminine appeal and the power it brought her.

The final section turned the speed back up with creative ensemble work. Lyrical arms, quick footwork, spiraling torsos and level changes returned to the stage. The visual palette shifted to bright, cheerful hues of blue and orange. Standout moments here included a superbly executed suite of pirouettes and a juxtaposition of movement tempos near the end: female corps dancers upstage moving in deep, slow legato arabesques, contrasted with downstage male dancers who executed more rapid-fire, allegro footwork.

The choreography was punctuated with quick switches between movement danced in unison and in canon. Aside from several brief instances of detectable "watching and waiting" to follow the successive choreographic pattern, sharp, clean dancing predominated. To be fair, one must consider the level of difficulty not only of the steps themselves, but of the rapid tempo and timing of the canons.

One slight disappointment was that I didn't come away with a clear sense of how the three movements linked to one another. Still, the audience applauded the work with passion and gusto. Grade: A-

* * *

Based on the title, the audience no doubt expected Devon Carney's Just You and Me would involve a couple. What might not be anticipated was a modern piece of such unabashed sensuality tempered by exceptional form and technique.

In his choreography, Carney capitalized on Adiarys Almeida's extravagant extension and capacity to execute countless pirouettes to perfection: There were moments when the audience actually responded with gasps of awe. (I noticed her smiling a couple of times too!)

Dramatic, yet simple graphic lighting from Trad Burns complemented the heavily rhythmic, thumping techno music. The duo's non-traditional, fitted black costumes (designed by Diana Vandergriff) would be suitable for nightclub wear. Indeed, many of their moves and looks wouldn't be out of place in the heady atmosphere of an urban nightclub -- think slow, smooth undulations coupled with sharp, precise isolations accented with jazzy flexed hands and feet.

Initially, the audience didn't seem quite sure what to expect, but was soon won over by the pair's palpable chemistry and raw talent. Striking in style and stark in atmosphere, the contemporary piece offered a sexy showcase for Almeida's and Benjamin Wardell's remarkable skills, but came up a bit short on focused meaning and direction.

I applaud Victoria Morgan's passion for enabling Cincinnati Ballet's repertoire to stay fresh and provocative. Grade: B+

Cincinnati Ballet in top form with Carmen
Danced version of opera classic offers fresh insights

With its soldiers, cigarette girls and bullfighters packed into less than an hour by resident choreographer Kirk Peterson, Cincinnati Ballet's (CB) bravura Carmen might almost be called "Highlights from Carmen." And high, indeed, were performances of it at the Aronoff on Nov. 12-14 -- high on style, high on technique and higher on dramatic impact.

Dancing to the Carmen Suite that Rodion Schedrin crafted from familiar strains in Georges Bizet's opera score, the tempestuous gypsy girl, Carmen (Kristi Capps), reads of her doom in the Tarot. She meets a sweet-hearted swain in the soldier, Don Jose (Dmitri Trubchanov). She dallies with him, in the lusting way that is inevitable to her. He commits his heart to her, in the straightforward way that is his only way. She fights with and stabs another girl in the cigarette factory where she works. Jose arrests her but, besotted of her, allows her to escape punishment. Meantime, she and a famous bullfighter, here called Lucas (Anthony Krutzkamp), have caught each other's eye and Carmen, being Carmen, is off on another flirtation and dalliance -- only there stands Don Jose ... with a knife. Just as in Prosper Merimée's seminal 1845 novella and in Bizet's evergreen 1875 opera, no good end comes to any of them.

Shorthanded and excerpted though the story is in this ballet rendition, its raw tensions, its passions and its narrative flow remained focused. This was true, first because of the perception in Peterson's intricate choreography and his almost uncanny ability to translate ideas as well as emotions into movement; and second, because of the exceptional vigor and precision with which the work was danced. Leaps and lifts were so high. Lines were so straight. Movement was so crisp and so thoroughly 'on the music.' Positions and patterns were so exact. It was Cincinnati Ballet's 22-member, resident company dancing at the top of its togetherness.

Setting aside the dancing, and approaching the performance as a theater piece, it offered the clarity of narrative mentioned above along with positive dramatic validity. Observers with no prior knowledge of Carmen's plot and characters could follow the story, almost without reference to the program synopsis -- through such virgin viewers are difficult to imagine since Carmen (the temptress doomed by her passions), Don Jose (brave though besotted) and the vain, self-absorbed Lucas (Escamillo in the opera) have achieved iconic status outside the story.

Translating narrative into dance offered freshened insight into the characters. In their later encounters in Bizet's opera, Carmen and Don Jose sing with such intensity that some subtleties get squashed in the volume. Later on in the ballet there's a Carmen-Jose duet in which he offers an affection that the gypsy girl doesn't so much spurn as casually, painfully disregard. Danced well and partnered splendidly as this was by Capps and Trubchanov, the moment's tenderness, intimacy and pain emerged in a way the opera doesn't manage quite so well. Bizet's Escamillo is all swagger, vanity and blather. So, too, was Krutzkamp's Lucas, except that the very athleticism of ballet allowed demonstration of the swaggering both at stage level and several feet above it in mid-air.

Music director Carmon De Leone paced the 20-plus player orchestra briskly and shaped the sound with romantic passion. Jay Depenbrock's wooden-screen setting suggested time and place more than specific locale. Trad Burns lit the performance and Diana Vandergriff arranged the costuming. Performances of Carmen was preceded by world premiere performances of CB artistic director Victoria Morgan's Seeking Velocity and ballet master Devon Carney's Just You and Me. Grade: A