About half a dozen Edina High School students appear on stage with marching band gear and instruments, as more than 40 others in the orchestra pit play accompaniment with gusto.
Around them the dancers of James Sewell Ballet (JSB), dressed in vintage cheerleader outfits and sports uniforms, embark on a journey toward an imagined youth. They glide on hover boards in a mesmerizing ballet or get swallowed by a giant inflatable ball with a tube opening in the middle. They even grow musical instruments on their limbs, in scenes that resemble a Salvador Dali painting.
This was the scene Friday night as JSB premiered "Band It," a new piece created by James Sewell, Myron Johnson and the dancers themselves. It continues through next weekend at Cowles Center.
One section particularly stood out on opening night, when student dancers from the Reif Center in Grand Rapids, Minn., performed a marvelous color guard, choreographed by Johnson.
In his opening remarks, Sewell mentioned that Johnson has been teaching with the Reif, a longtime partner of JSB. His students' work provided moments of breathtaking fluidity and impressive spectacle.
Along with "Band It," JSB is presenting two pieces set to the music of Antonio Vivaldi and Frederic Chopin. The Vivaldi work, "Seasons," choreographed by the Nashville Ballet's Paul Vasterling, is the less successful of the two. Vasterling animates Vivaldi's familiar music but doesn't reveal anything new about it.
Taking a narrative approach, Vasterling creates short scenes to accompany the changing seasons. In one, we see two women fighting over the attention of a man, who shows off his muscles in a cartoonish manner. The women pout and throw tantrums, veering the story into outdated cliché.
"Chopin Studies," choreographed by Sewell, fares better at illuminating the musical material in a new light. Sewell throws tricks and shtick into the piece, which serves as an interpretation of Chopin's famous embellishments and flourishes. Sewell creates lovely moving patterns using the dancers' limbs and bodies, throwing in some pratfalls for good measure. Steven Rydberg's gorgeous scenic design and Tadeusz Majewski's luminous live piano playing add to the piece immensely.
The opening night performance concluded with a special Prince tribute, with choreographed dancing breaking off into improvised abandon. By the end, even the audience was on its feet dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."
Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities arts journalist and dance critic.
