Aspen Santa Fe Ballet 20th Anniversary Souvenir Program

"Pushing the Boundaries"

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Now more than twenty years old. In the lives of some institutions, this is still an upstart. In the dance world, to have made it this long, this far, and especially, this well, is a significant accomplishment. To put the work of this company into perspective, it is useful to consider the audacity it takes to found a ballet company. Or better yet, what does it mean to form a dance company of any kind at all? In the early days of concert dance in the United States, starting a dance company meant creating a place where the artistic vision of a dancer-turned-choreographer could be shared with dancers who were trained in the image of the founder. Isadora Duncan had her Isadorables; Ted Shawn had his Men Dancers; and Martha Graham taught generations of dancers to contract and release. Their dancers typically worked with only that one choreographer, only in that one style.

This is markedly different from the way ballet companies were traditionally created in Western Europe where the form was first developed. Typically, a ballet company would be housed in a national theater, under the protection of the royal family. Companies like the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet have functioned like this literally for centuries. Here in the United States, ballet companies didn’t have the luxury of royal patronage, but the 20th and 21st centuries saw the creation of formidable dance institutions. Typically such institutions thrive under the leadership of an artistic director who has a particular aesthetic perspective for the company (think of George Balanchine and New York City Ballet).

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is different from that model. Rather than a singular artistic voice, what this company has is a commitment to an artistic vision, or perhaps one might even call it a mission. Rather than stage classic ballets or well-known repertory, almost from the outset Aspen Santa Fe Ballet decided that it would rather work with choreographers perhaps not yet recognized in the United States and build the company’s reputation on the dancing. The company, under the leadership of artistic director Tom Mossbrucker and executive director Jean-Philippe Malaty, is dedicated to commissioning new works and setting diverse repertory.

Looking at the dancing background of Mossbrucker with the Joffrey Ballet, this breadth of aesthetic interests makes perfect sense. He performed in a large range of roles by choreographers such as Fredrick Ashton and George Balanchine, to Laura Dean and Twyla Tharp. In dancing those roles and seeing that company operate, he learned about experimentation and risk taking. Malaty, in his training and dancing in France and with Joffrey II, similarly has a vast appetite for dance.

While Aspen Santa Fe Ballet has in its repertory works by master artists such as William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp, and several by Jiří Kylián (including the new addition this season with Sleepless), the real impact they have had on American contemporary ballet is their commissioning of new works. The company gives choreographers substantial time to work with the dancers, allowing everyone to focus on the creative process. Choreographic commissions are in-depth residencies, not quick visits. Being present in the making of the dance allows the dancers to know the work from the inside, delving far deeper than simply reproducing steps. The time with the dancers allows the choreographers room to identify and build on individual strengths and characteristics in the dancers.

In addition to Cayetano Soto’s Huma Rojo (2016) and Alejandro Cerrudo’s Silent Ghost (2015), this season will highlight new works by Fernando Melo and Cherice Barton. Barton, best known for her work on Cirque productions in Las Vegas and collaboration on Broadway’s Spider-Man, Turn Of the Dark, pushes the dancers into new discoveries in their movement vocabularies. Melo, whose Re:play (2016) was the hit of the summer season at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, returns for a second year in a row, an unusually fast re-engagement for the company.

This commitment to boundary-pushing repertory, developing new choreography, and nurturing relationships with emerging choreographers is part of what makes Aspen Santa Fe Ballet so exciting as a company. The other part is the dancing itself. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet dancers’ understanding of and training in ballet is apparent, but none of the works seen this season feel like the crafting of a series of familiar steps. Rather, the balletic sensibility has been expanded with a sense of investigation.

What do we traditionally expect from ballet? Codified technique. Series of steps. Classes around the world taught with the same words. A sense of verticality. Formal organization of the stage space. But what do we mean by contemporary ballet?

Contemporary ballet has sometimes been more defined by what it’s not than what it is – it’s not classical ballet and it’s not modern dance. Arts scholar Carrie Gaiser Casey asks: “Now this question of labels and aesthetic rubrics is, some might argue, totally beside the point. As long as the performance offers compelling choreography and astounding dancing, who cares what we call it?”

Just as the company shifts easily between Aspen and Santa Fe, so do these dancers move between the worlds created with the diverse choreographers of this new season. Each leap a beginning of a journey, and each landing bringing us home.