World Ballet Company from Los Angeles performed a gorgeous "Swan Lake" on Wednesday night at Proctors in Schenectady.

World Ballet Company might not be one of America's elite ensembles that balletomanes revere, but maybe it should be.
 
This excellent company, based in Los Angeles and directed by Sasha Gorskaya and Gulya Hartwick, is doing what Anna Pavlova and the Ballets Russes once did. It is leaping across the nation, showing audience in big cities and small that ballet has the power to speak a universal language that cuts across political divides and arrows directly into the heart.

And like these earlier artists who jeted through the vast and varied American landscape, World Ballet, hopefully, can help stop the desperate hemorrhaging of the ballet audience. Thus, I would like to thank World Ballet Company for taking the road trip, to breezily preach the ballet gospel, and in some way, revive its slowing breath.
 
Among the company’s stops was Proctors Theatre in Schenectady on Wednesday night in which this mid-size company performed ballet’s most beloved classic – Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”  And while the company, that has many Slavic names attached indulged in some very Russian traditions, World Ballet enchanted with a gorgeous rendering. Set and costumes by Sergey Novikov were lush and vibrant. And better still, the dancing was top shelf. I was impressed.
 
The Russian inclination in the program showed up in the many bows the dancers take every time they have a solo or duet, which can become tedious and break the romantic haze of “Swan Lake.” The other was the ending. The Soviets censored the original tragic ending for the lovers – Prince Siegfried and Odette -- in which they drown themselves in the lake. Soviets officials demanded an upbeat ending, in which evil in the form of Rothbart is vanquished and the lovers prevail.
 
That is the ending that World Ballet stages. And that’s fine with me because there is enough to cry about these days. No one needs to see the bereft lovers commit suicide.
 
That aside, the two leads in the production: Darya Medovskaya as Odette and Arsenty Lazarev as Siegfried were marvelous. Medovskaya, a fine technician, delicately balanced the vulnerable Odette and fiery Odile with a bit of aloofness to both. Lazarev played the earnest lover, clutching his chest and in hysterics when he discovered Rothbart and Odile’s deception.
 
I can only lament that Lazarev did not have much of an opportunity to dance, the real tragedy of “Swan Lake,” until the second Act. And then he’s sprung like an arrow from a taut archer’s bow.
 
Also of note was Konstantine Geronik as the court jester. His antics – and tireless bouncing straight into the air, often in splits – kept the eyes open during the rather long and sometimes ho-hum opening scenes at the palace.
 
Despite the slow start, which is always a problem for this ballet, thus the reason George Balanchine scrapped the opening scene all together, World Ballet Company’s “Swan Lake” shimmered with beauty. All one can say is let's hope it glides on and inspires some love.

Donovan Reed and Jamaal Bowman performed in Kyle Abraham's "MotorRover" at the Spa Little Theatre in Saratoga Springs. 

Beauty and humanity – those are the things A.I.M by Kyle Abraham brought to the Spa Little Theatre on Saturday night.
 
The contemporary dance company took audiences on a ride that awed, showing us that these dancers are not only artists who paint a resonating picture, but also connect the visions to the heart. They remind, too, that dance is most powerful when it links both fine-tuned technique with compassion.
 
Case in point, Abraham’s 2023 “MotorRover,” which is danced in silence. Right off, I’m skeptical because dancing without music can feel cold. Yet in this duet, Jamaal Bowman and Donovan Reed are so absorbing that one becomes lost solely in the movement. Reed is a gorgeous dancer – so strongly centered he can draw out the extension and then ronde de jambs a raised leg without a quiver.
 
Bowman moves around him, at first a curious bystander and then one who mirrors his movement. He occasionally moves off to reflect and then counteract Reed who appears to exist in a cool self-absorbed world. And as in many of Abraham’s works, the two twirl, the circular movement become a tornado that sucks us all in. Yet Abraham also inserts gestures to signal, “hey, we are just two guys up here,” which is both humorous and touching.
 
While fascinated by “MotorRover,” I was moved to tears in “If We Were a Love Song” to music by Nina Simone. Here, love songs – many of them with crushing lyrics – speak of the universal desire and need for love and respect. The piece opens with seven reaching out as one to “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” Moving upstage in a shaft of light, the group appears to claw in an attempt to capture a remote love.
 
Each of the successive five dances drew on the difficulty of relationships in a world often unfriendly to the poor, people of color and those in the gay community. Gianna Theodore is heartbreaking in “Little Girl Blue” as she falls to the floor, then rises up to only fall again. Reed returns with Mykiah Goree in “Don’t Explain” about a difficult partnership and William Okajima is phenomenal as “Wild in the Wind,” eating up the entire stage in search of something that won’t fly away. Finally, Joy Mondesire reflects on a world that doesn’t respect women of color. A timely topic indeed.
 
The evening also included “5 Minute Dance (You Drivin’?), to the percussive sound of JLin. This piece for four opens the show with a jolt. Finally, the choreographer Paul Singh’s solo “Just Your Two Wrists,” to music by David Lang’s “just (after song of songs),” is brilliant. Amari Frazier dances this complex piece with staggering refinement.
 
Through it all, Dan Scully’s lighting creates just the right atmosphere in all four works. Scully is masterful.
 
A.I.M by Kyle Abraham will repeat this program at 2 p.m. today in the Spa Little Theatre, Saratoga Springs. Go.