Amid an outdoor museum of flora at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, American Ballet Theatre dancers took the stage, a temporary custom-built one, before an enthusiastic crowd this past weekend.
Before the program, a preshow soundtrack of classic rock hits played as dancers warmed up on stage, while ushers, wearing T-shirts made especially for the event, directed people carrying chairs and blankets to their "seats" on the open lawn.
"ABT Across America" in some ways recalled Merce Cunningham Dance Company performing "Ocean" (1994) in the Rainbow Quarry outside of St. Cloud in 2008. Cunningham's precise choreography found an added vitality when it was set in the granite landscape.
Similarly, the beauty of the Arboretum brought out intriguing new dimensions to the ABT performance. Outside of a dance hall, the works lit with natural light in the open air were stripped of a facade that sometimes accompanies concert dance, particularly of the classical variety. The sheen was lifted, and the audience had a clearer glimpse of the dancers as humans.
The first piece, "La Follia Variations," choreographed by Lauren Lovette, had its digital debut back in February, and its in-person premiere in April at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in California. The sprightly number, based on a Portuguese dance variation by Baroque composer Francesco Geminiani, popped with expressive vivaciousness, exuberant leaps and splashes of modern movement vocabulary, like the odd torso undulation and handstand walkover.
The program then alternated between two pas de deux works from "Don Quixote" and "Swan Lake." Wearing similar ornate costumes for both pieces, the dancers demonstrated a formality associated with classical ballet. Even with their cheeky flirtatiousness, the pieces felt a bit out of place in the horticulture setting.
The most successful piece was Jessica Lang's "Let Me Sing Forevermore," set to a compilation of tunes sung by Tony Bennett. The jazzy movement, danced with graceful style by Betsy McBride and Tyler Maloney on Saturday afternoon, featured imaginative lifts and angles, all the while maintaining a sleek sense of play.
The jazzy mood continued with "Indestructible Light," choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie during the COVID-19 pandemic. It premiered virtually last November, and in-person in April. The piece's idiosyncratic departures from the uprightness of ballet worked beautifully, especially its wonderful moments of sensual slithering.
There were a few drawbacks to the outdoor setup. Because the stage was built so high, audience members seated in front were deprived of seeing the footwork of the dancers, except when they jumped high in the air or kicked up their legs.
On the other hand, this was Northrop's first live dance presentation in 10 months, so a few hiccups like not being able to see the dancers' feet were a surmountable hurdle.
Sheila Regan is a Minneapolis-based arts journalist and critic.
