Zakhele "Bboy Swazi" Grabowski in Dorrance Dance's "The Center Will Not Hold" on opening night at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. (Photo by Christopher Duggan)

Jacob’s Pillow opened its 93rd season with one of its most memorable and vibrant collaborative efforts – Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance’s dynamic and dramatic “The Center Will Not Hold.”
 
Audience at the Ted Shawn Theatre’s first night were gob smacked by the power to harness percussion, lighting and Black American vernacular dance – from tap to street to current club styles — to shape a dystopia that served as a cautionary tale with a hint of hope.
 
As Pillow Artistic Director Pamela Tage explained, the title comes from William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” that speaks of the drowning of innocence and the darkness of the world, and prayer for a second coming.
 
Regardless of one’s belief in the possibility of a second chance, Dorrance Dance created an audacious world in which confrontations and struggles rarely get a helping hand. And as such, blackness descends, and humanity isolates, untouched by the healing the power of love.
 
The piece begins with a call to action with drummer John Angeles banging with fingers, palms and fists on a table. The anger of his percussion, as scored by Donovan Dorrance, and his subsequent disappearance into a blacken stage, sets the tone for the rage that followed.
 
Asherie, a break dancer, and Dorrance, a tap superstar, then appear in a spotlight, centerstage. Their sneakered dialogue is muted but clear – they are facing a discord that is not settling well. Yet they end, however, by standing side-by-side, offering each other a hand, a slim gesture of hope.
 
Then comes the stage craft, designed expertly by Kathy Kaufmann, that shows dancers appearing and disappearing. It all lends an anxiousness of the whole as the work moves through clashes of sound – Dorrance and Angeles duet was particularly powerful – and sights with dancer Zakhele “B-boy Swazi” Grabowski throwing himself down in a way that looks more than dangerous. It’s a call for help.
 
The scene with Asherie doing the same as a strobe light flashes, as if she were enduring a raft of missile strikes, also hits home. It clearly depicts a world wracked with military conflicts.
 
Other standouts include the sleek Tomoe “Beasty” Carr, the compelling Donnetta “Lil Bit” Jackson and the spiraling Matthew “Megawatt” West.
 
The ensemble, 12 in all, are donned in black. Is that a references to our psychological, spiritual and physical funerals? Perhaps. Regardless, “The Center Will Not Hold” is a feast for our nightmares. Watch if you dare.

All eyes remained on Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal III during American Ballet Theatre's production of "Giselle." (Photo by Rosalie O’Connor)

The most romantic of the Romantic ballets, “Giselle,” can be one of the more difficult to pull off. If its fragile love and tragic outcome are not expressed with sincerity, the 1841 ballet becomes an exaggerated melodrama, with mediocre score that audience mainly endures.
 
American Ballet Theatre’s production, now on stage at the Metropolitan Opera House through June 28, was not one of those. At Saturday’s matinee, this version swept audience into the fatal tale of betrayal and divine forgiveness. This high-quality staging – with glorious settings and lighting -- was memorable for its leads, Christine Shevchenko as Giselle and Calvin Royal III as Court Albrecht. Their love, that was ultimately tainted by class – he a royal and she a peasant – was deeper than any social divide.
 
It was a beautiful, tear-inspiring rendering because Shevchenko and Royal imbued their characters. They only had eyes for each other and therefore the audience only had eyes for them.
 
Their playful flirtations and tentative touches were pure elation. And then when it was revealed by Hilarion, a jealous suitor danced by Andrii Ishchuk, that Albrecht was a noblemen betrothed to a princess, Giselle descends into madness and dies. Their palpable affection makes this loss a devastation to all.
 
The second act moves the action to the cemetery where Hilarion erects a cross on Giselle’s grave. There, he is snagged by the wilis, angels of death, who seek vengeance because they died before their wedding days. Hilarion becomes entrapped in their nightly ritual, killing men who enter their realm by forcing them to dance to death.
 
As they summon Giselle to join them, with their leader Mryta as danced by Fangqi Li, Albrecht appears. But as Mryta coldly points to him, a command for the wilis to strike him down, Giselle rises from her grave to protect him until the dawn when the wilis’ lethal power dissolves.
 
With scenery designed by Gianni Quaranta and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, the second act is atmospheric. Lighting flashes as the wilis take aim, first at Hilarion and then Albrecht. The dancing is staggering as the wilis and Mryta glide silently toward their prey. Dressed in their flowing white tulle skirts, they float like clouds – quiet pillows of death.
 
So too does Giselle. Shevchenko marvels as she glides to surround Albrecht with her invisible shield. He senses her, reaching for her in his grief. Though he stumbles and falls, her love lifts him to live another day. Their vibrant love not only crosses class but otherworldly barriers.
 
This excellent version was staged by Kevin McKenzie, former principal who danced the role of Albrecht and later served the company as its artistic director from 1992 to 2022. McKenzie’s version is pure, heartfelt gold.