NBT excels in ‘Streetcar’

Marilyn LaRocque

Monday, Feb. 23, 2004 | 8:29 a.m.

Nevada Ballet Theatre explored the breadth and depth of the ballet world at UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre this past weekend and mined the rich vein of talent of the NBT dancers.

The elegant perpetual motion of George Balanchine's "Allegro Brilliante" (1956), which opened the program, contrasted dramatically with the raw emotion of Mark Diamond's interpretation of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947).

Diamond's choreography and symbolic gestures and actions, scenic design by Alan Jones and music ranging from classic to cacophony made words unnecessary for the telling of the story of the disillusioned, and, ultimately, deranged, Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern Belle (Tess Hooley), her weak-willed sister, Stella (Natalia Chapourskaya) and Stella's crude, sexually overpowering husband, Stanley (Baris Ehran). The couple are barely surviving in New Orleans.

Blanche first appears in front of gauzy panels depicting the porch columns of Belle Reve, former plantation home of the DuBois family. Her back to the audience, a suitcase in each hand, she is leaving to visit her sister.

Draped in sheer brown sheets, spirits of her past flit around her. She moves to the melancholy music of an oboe and strings, then clarinet, brutally disrupted by the hissing steam, strident whistle and metallic chugging of a nearby train, symbolic of the culture clash to come.

New Orleans reverberates as a raucous trumpet and saxophone set the mood with "I Hate to See the Evening Sun Go Down." Energetic street dancers are interrupted by Stanley, who enters with leaps and bounds, uncoiling across the stage.

Erhan has the perfect physique and predatory posture for the muscular, virile role. As his compliant wife, Chapourskaya runs the gamut from submission to passion.

A poker party of Stanley and his buddies begins to a heavy percussion background. Again, Erhan's athleticism was impressive as he executed over-the-shoulder rolls, whirling pivots on one foot and a concluding splits.

Another highlight of the scene was the poker players dancing a tango with, and manipulating, chrome dinette chairs with yellow backs and seats.

Blanche meets Mitch (Kyu Dong Kwak), and the two become interested in each other.

Stella and Blanche return from their evening out, and Stella and Stanley argue. He hits her. However, their sexual attraction overcomes them in a torrid dance, during which Stanley lifts Stella upside down over his head, and she slides down the back of his leg to the floor. He carries her off to bed as the noisy trains keep rumbling by.

As Mitch and Blanche's relationship develops, they go out to a nightclub. In one of the calmest scenes of the ballet, they perform a ballroom-style dance to "In the Still of the Night." The serenity doesn't last long, however.

Throughout "Streetcar," Blanche is haunted by visions of soldiers, with whom she has been involved in the past and also by the spirit of her late husband (Zeb Nole), who committed suicide.

He appears, and the two dance a tortured interpretation of their relationship, first in a blue spotlight, then emerging momentarily into white light. Nole's jumps and turning movements are superior. Ultimately, Blanche returns to reality, and Mitch, and kisses him.

Act II moves toward the inevitable confrontation of Stanley and Blanche. Blanche is alone in the apartment while Stella is in the hospital having a baby. She is drinking. Mitch arrives. He is very agitated, expressed in the fantastic spins, jumps and leaps for which Kwak is known. Stanley has shown him a letter confirming Blanche's sexual encounters with soldiers and one of her students during her supposedly chaste life as a teacher.

He kisses Blanche passionately, but she shoves him away and out the door, then takes a towel and tries to wipe all contact with him off her body. In an attempt to recapture her genteel life, she takes a white jacket and tiara from her suitcase, puts them on, makes a floating scarf out of a curtain and dances quaintly, making curtsies, as she pirouettes around the room.

Hooley's range of expression, body extension, fluidity of movement and ability to change dance personality from classic to contemporary are extraordinary.

When Blanche breaks a bottle to ward off Stanley's rape attack, unsuccessfully, Hooley's entire body portrays her terror. Her degradation and destruction complete, she quivers and shakes.

When the doctor and nurse arrive with a straight jacket to take her to an asylum, she writhes on the floor and fights off the nurse, but then goes quietly when the doctor, gentlemanly, offers her his arm.

All 20-plus dancers of "Streetcar" deserve accolades. It was a tour de force accomplished with inventive style, emotional verve and technical distinction.