Alison Mayes
CALGARY HERALD

Alberta Ballet has brought some neat choreographic tricks, an old-fashioned classical treat, and costumes that would jazz up any Halloween party to the Jubilee this weekend.

The tricks spring from the imagination of world-class Canadian choreographer Mark Godden.

The 20-minute abstract Godden ballet on this program, Minor Threat, was created for Alberta Ballet in 1995 and remains one of the most intriguing works in the repertoire.

It's a dynamic, ever-surprising dance that seems to perfectly express the music, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, despite the fact that Godden constantly plays with our expectations of elegance - often to witty effect - by using bent knees, doubled-over bodies, hand-cuffed wrists and other "ugly" images.

If you also enjoy traditional balletic dazzle, Mikko Nissinen, the company's new artistic director, has programmed a show-stopper in the Don Quixote classical pas de deux. It's a chance to see newly hired danseur noble Jose Martin, a young Spaniard of slender build, soar to his deserved spot as the company's indisputable star.

Martin electrified Friday's crowd with flamboyant jumps and perfect landings, lovely arms and skilled partnering. His partner, Lorena Jimenez, is also a new asset for the troupe, and the duo earned one of the loudest, longest ovations in Alberta Ballet history.

The evening's third work, Jean Paul Comelin's lyrical Les Nuits d'Ete, is a lesser achievement than his moving Requiem, danced by Alberta Ballet two seasons ago.

An abstract depiction of the seasons of life, from carefree youth to a struggle with a personified Death, and ultimately to rebirth, it's full of emotive lifts, expressively bent backs and a rushing, skirt-billowing romanticism. Martin, Patricia Maybury, Patrick Canny and the vibrant Sabrina Matthews were especially impressive here.

Kudos, too, to mezzo-soprano Nan Hughes for her poised, heartfelt performance of the ballet's five poetic songs by Berlioz while being integrated with the dancers onstage.

Comelin ends each song with a breathtaking sculptural effect, concluding the wintry song about grief, for example, with a stunning cortege image suggesting burial at sea. As well, in the final song there's a sort of group caress - six or seven dancers forming an affectionate human sandwich. A few more such inventions would give Les Nuits d'Ete more bite: as it is, it's a bit mushy.

The final ballet, Chameleon by Julia Adams, features fabulous costumes designed and hand-painted by former Alberta Ballet dancer Inga Borg. The narrative, in which a young woman tries on different identities and strives to fit in with cliques only to decide that integrating the parts of herself and being herself is best, is trite and far too predictable.

But Adam's quirky choreography and the fact that the cliques are stunningly costumed as flowers, worms, jazzy wasps and hypnotically swirling butterflies, make this piece an engaging topper to a great evening.

Get the trick-or-treaters out of the way early so you can head to the Jubilee for tonight's final performance.