Young Dancers a Knock-out in ‘Momentum’

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Photo by Rachel Malehorn

Milwaukee Ballet II's ‘Momentum’

Milwaukee Ballet II's ‘Momentum’

This season, Milwaukee Ballet’s Second Company – MBII for short -- includes 23 dancers from around the world, all barely in their twenties and at the doorstep of professional ballet careers. Momentum is the title of the annual concert of classical and contemporary work designed to showcase the talents of each year’s group. The 2024 edition that opened on Saturday, Jan. 20 at Milwaukee Ballet’s home theatre in the Baumgartner Center for Dance is an absolute knock-out. 

You can see it this Saturday, Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Oak Creek Performing Arts and Education Center; or at the Baumgartner Center on Saturday, March 2, at 2 and 7 p.m.; or on Sunday, April 28, at 2 p.m. at the Franciscan Music Center in Manitowoc. Performances this good are worth the trip.

The show begins with the climactic scene from the 19th century ballet Paquita as choreographed by Marius Petipa, the Russian master and virtual inventor of what we know today as classical ballet. This “Grand Pas Classique” unfolds as an engaging, multi-faceted wedding celebration built upon the music of Ludwig Minkus. The beautiful costumes by Lyn Kream and the Milwaukee Ballet Costume shop and fine lighting by Colin Gawronski are all that’s needed in terms of design. They give us the dancers.

The style takes me back to my childhood ballet classes. It’s what I once touched, and these dancers have mastered. Everything’s aimed at the audience, mostly with big smiles on faces. It’s about precision, timing, strength, balance, and teamwork. It’s meant to dazzle and delight. Moments can be delicate, silly, bravura, ecstatic, elegant. Solos alternate with group dances, trios, and several pas de deux for the lead couple. It’s a sort of classical Vaudeville show in which each new act presents new performance challenges that quickly grip the audience.

Great Star Turns

As the wedding couple, Nanaho Nakajima and Emery Meroni execute great star turns and excellent partner work. Nakajima is especially moving in the deep happiness she radiates. As bridesmaids, soloists Corabelle Kennedy, Roxy Slavin, Katya Chernyshev and Wakana Hara present contrasting personalities, all engaging. I found Kennedy especially commanding in the way she made her virtuosic ballet moves seem internally driven.

As fine as all the Paquita performances are, my favorite parts of Momentum are the three contemporary works that follow. Two are world premieres created with and for these dancers. The third is a first-time revival of a work created for the MBII of 2014. Each demands ballet-trained bodies, but the movements are new and organic. At its best, you see souls.

Timothy O’Donnell’s At World’s End is the revival. O’Donnell was a longtime Milwaukee Ballet Resident Choreographer. This work is about young people facing a difficult time in a difficult world, and not giving up. The cast of ten is excellent. Meroni is haunting in a featured role as an introspective artist.

Davit Hovhannisyan’s Reverie follows, a pas de deux exquisitely danced by Nakajima and Joel Kioko. Hovhannisyan was a longtime Milwaukee Ballet leading artist famed for his partnering in every sort of pas de deux imaginable. He left that role this fall and became the MBII Rehearsal Director. This tender dance with stunning extended lifts is his first choreographic contribution. Watching Kioko dance while holding Nakajima overhead, you might think you’re dreaming.

Morgan Williams’ Synergy brings the show to a riotous end. Williams is the Artistic Director and lead choreographer of Water Street Dance Milwaukee, recently singled out by Dance Magazine as one of America’s most exciting companies presenting original work. Williams’ dances draw from every style including ballet, but this is his first piece made with such highly trained ballet artists. The result, as the title suggests, is more than the sum of its parts. It’s fast and extreme and amazing and great fun to watch.