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AUDIENCE REVIEW: Miro Magloire's Well, a feast for the pattern-seeking human brain

Company:
New Chamber Ballet

Performance Date:
April 26, 2025

Freeform Review:

Miro Magloire’s ballet, Well, choreographed to original score by composer Anthony Cheung, was recently performed at the Mark Morris Dance Center. Well had all the trademarks of Magloire, and his company New Chamber Ballet’s signature elegance, tenderness, exactness, and compositional logic. His ballets, always performed in the round by his company of five dancers on pointe, are a feast for the pattern-seeking human brain. Regardless of where you focus, he is able to superimpose shapes and movements that create an ever-evolving web of patterns. Often, you will notice the dancers grouped in one pair and one trio, allowing for windows to open up between these groupings where fleeting relationships are formed.

What struck me the most about this ballet was how intensely musical it was. You would be carried through elaborate choreography and a slurry of notes that, all at once, would crystallize with breathtaking simplicity into perfect unity and harmony with one another. Simple movements of the head or hands, or a pause from one of the dancers, created snapshots where you could take a breath and feel refreshed to dive back into the complex visual composition.

This composition is made possible by a group of five incredible dancers who retain effortless elegance and an air of complete control while lifting one another, melting in and out of the ground, and placing each other upside down. One memorable moment was when dancer Anabel Alpert was placed in a headstand and left there in a moment of pause and silence before being joined by the rest of the company in the same position. While the partnering and floorwork in Magloire’s choreography at large, and in this ballet, is extremely impressive, what I retained the most from Well was a recurring snaking arm movement. The dancers would do this both individually and wrapping around each other, and its tenor ranged from seductive to nurturing. It felt reminiscent of the water in a well, how its movement can be slippery, unattainable, and sinuous, but is also something that gives us life. The interactions between the dancers, especially between dancers Amber Neff and Nicole McGinnis, who were often partnering with each other, would vacillate between states of seduction and deep care. Much like the Romantic authors and painters of the late 18th century, this ballet explores that ever-elusive relationship to water that is both beautiful and powerful, seductive and dangerous, and nurturing and safe.

Overall, Well leaves you feeling immense visual satisfaction and hints at multiple interpretations. Just like the in-the-round nature of the show that gives the audience the choice of what to look at, you are left to decide where and how much emotional depth to attribute to the visual beauty you are given.

Author:
Sarah Yasmine Marazzi-Sassoon

Website:
https://www.sarahyasminemarazzi-sassoon.com/

Photo Credit:
Steven Pisano