The contemporary ballet company’s new show ‘Icy Haught’ is a stunner
As the name suggests, Wonderbound’s new production Icy Haught is a study in contrast: ice and fire, white and red, cool and warm. Accompanied by a soundtrack of mostly well-known songs, the contemporary ballet company delivers 90 minutes of dazzling, sexy choreography by Garrett Ammon and Sarah Tallman.
Compared to other Wonderbound productions with a more narrative structure and some key characters, Icy Haught is comprised of 17 chapters divided into two acts with an ensemble cast. At curtain rise, we hear the opening strains of The Bangles’ version of “Hazy Shade of Winter” as all 12 dancers come out in flowing, all-white costumes. As the performance continues, costume designer Dawn Fay has the dancers in a variety of extraordinary outfits, all in white for the first act.
The individual pieces range from solos, duets and full ensemble with all featuring the unique signature of Ammon and Tallman: dancers who interact with each other and their surroundings (the floor, primarily) in flowing, gravity-defying sequences that amaze and surprise at every turn. The choreography is a continuous series of push and pull, where the dancers move from conflict to accord to neutrality and back again. There’s also a fascination with how two bodies can combine, entwine and tumble as one before breaking apart again — all in just seconds.
The performance builds suspense as one number ends and the next one overlaps while we wait to see how many dancers will take the stage, from where, and how they will interact. Accompanied by an eclectic mix of songs — from The White Stripes version of “In the Cold, Cold Night,” to Boogie Chillen’ by John Lee Hooker and “Cold, Cold Heart” by Norah Jones — Act One is all about the white-cold of winter and the cool, removed emotions of people at odds.
But not always. The biggest crowd-pleaser at the final dress rehearsal I saw Wednesday was Eartha Kitt’s version of “Santa Baby” performed by Jocelyn Green (or Danielle Lieberman, depending on the date). Along with three male dancers (Jacob Amey, Cameron Confrancesco and Patricio Di Stabile), the woman is a tremendous flirt, an all-star tease whose athletic antics and the guys’ responses provide the most humorous moments of the evening.
Image by Amanda Tipton Photography
Some like it haught
After intermission, the white is gone, replaced by a whole new set of splendidly designed costumes in red. “Devil Inside” by INXS kicks things off with a group number that moves quickly and establishes our new locale somewhere, perhaps, near the gates of hell. That’s followed by a fantastic duet with Lieberman and Nathan Mariano to Tia Brazda’s high-speed flapper-flavored “Cabin Fever.”
Not so devilish, and neither is the next piece, a solo featuring Rachael Dean and “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.” But then darkness comes again with a White Stripes version of “Jolene” — a love triangle that ends with a murder. Songs from Smash Mouth, Aerosmith, Billie Eilish and George Gershwin round out the rest as the dancers breeze past the genre-shifting musical choices and deliver one exacting, sexy performance after the other.
As it seemingly must, this act ends with an all-hands, all-red stunner danced to the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.”
If you haven’t seen a show at Wonderbound, this is a great one with which to acquaint oneself. It’s a fun, high-energy and very approachable series of performances that will convince anyone ballet-averse to give it a try.
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