Ballet delivers emotional experience

The IU spring ballet was as beautiful and pure as a baby's smile. It made you want to cry, as does an original Monet, or the ocean at night. The ballet was delicate, powerful, unabashed and eloquent all at once. It was real, but it danced like a dream. It was, all in all, a complete success. \nThe ballet was separated into two sections. The first piece was "Walpurgisnacht," the ballet music from "Faust," written by Charles Gounod (1818-1893). This piece was traditionally choreographed by George Balanchine and seemed to be no more than the usual sea of limbs and tutus. Nonetheless, it was beautiful, and certain artistic directions, such as the decision to leave the girl's hair down during part of the dance, gave it some extra flavor. \nAmanda Jesse, the leading female ballerina, was luminous in her role. She had the grace of a swan, while managing to also maintain the crisp movements that make ballet such a difficult art form. Addison O'Day, Jesse's male counterpart in the piece, was also very talented. He displayed the incredible strength of a good male ballet dancer, exploiting it several times as Jesse jumped and twirled to seemingly impossible heights. \nThe true victory of this ballet, howeve, was the second act's "Dafnis et Chloé." The music of this classic ballet is written by Maurice Ravel, who reportedly took a painstaking three years to complete the composition in 1909. The original choreographer was Mikhail Fokine, whose vision of Dafnis and Chloé was a pastoral romance in which Dafnis and Chloé are two youths who fall in love. \nThis ballet presented two brief conflicts. In the first, Chloé must choose between the brutish cowherd Dorcon, effectively played by Scott Harris, and the more graceful Dafnis, whose character Stefan Calka performed with the sweetness of a young Adonis.\nThe second conflict arises when Chloé is kidnapped by pirates and spirited away to their island. Dafnis is overwhelmed by grief at his loss and is hopeless until three nymphs of the god Pan appear to lead him to his love. \nThe nymphs lead Dafnis to the pirate island where the captain of the pirates, who is very artfully played by O'Day, is attempting to have his way with Chloé. This scene was gorgeous. O'Day shines in the role of the vicious captain, playing opposite the beautifully feminine and innocent Chloé, performed by Amanda Callison. Jacques Cesbron's choreography manages to capture the raw passion and fear of the situation without losing the delicate movements and subtle aloofness that ballet demands. \nIn the third scene, the nymphs spare Chloé the horrors in store for her by protecting and reuniting her with her lover Dafnis. This begins with an endearing dance in which Dafnis and Chloé rediscover each other and ends in a joyful dance among all the youths in the wood. Throughout the entire performance, Callison is radiant in the role of Chloé, capturing a purity and incorruptibility that is rarely found in modern youth. Calka's interpretation of Dafnis exhibits the same unabashed youthful joy. His sweet pale features and masculine figure capture the Greek idea of a handsome young man. \nThe choral and orchestral music, artfully led by guest conductor Michael Barrett, spans the spectrum from eerily haunting to gently uplifting. It is a joy to listen to as well as watch. The costumes, designed by Michelle Boyle, Eléonore Maudry and Patricia Pershing, are ideally suited to the piece. The colors and the fabric show a sort of luminescence, giving the audience the illusion that everything on stage is gentle, soft, and romantic. The effect is wonderful. The ballet mistresses, Virginia Cesbron and Doricha Sales, have obviously done a great deal of work with these young men and women, and the result is a performance that is without a doubt an enormous triumph.