Diablo Ballet’s ‘Celebrated’ season finale
Despite mild reversals—dancers leaving for higher paying jobs, the move to the smaller Del Valle from the more prestigious Lesher Arts Center—the troupe has established itself in the community.
Yet, two of the three works on the bill were premieres made for these nine dancers’ techniques and sensibilities.
Since every ballet program feels incomplete without a romantic pas de deux, we got one of those, too.
Robert Dekkers’ “Carnival of the Imagination” seemed the ideal vehicle for this crew.
Diablo’s resident choreographer has given another listen to the popular Saint-Saëns’ orchestral score, “Carnaval des Animaux,” and fashioned a 14-part fantasy that recruits everyone on the roster, clothes them in outlandish costumes (dancer Christian Squires takes credit) and lets the performers frolic across the stage.
Saint-Saëns’ Aquarium became a pair of couples wearing costumes the colors of trout in sunlight.
[...] there was the inexplicable.
The cello-dominated Swan yielded a routine featuring a woman in a hammock that recalled Arabian Coffee of “Nutcracker.”
Nothing could offer a wider contrast than the program opener, Gary Masters’ “Mythic Place,” a quintet that recalls the great José Limón, the modern dance master with whose company Masters has been associated most of his working life.
Tilton left a particularity strong impression.
[...] Farris and Squires were up to the task.