Smuin Ballet at the Joyce Theatre (Faster Times)

On August 14, I saw the Smuin Ballet at the Joyce. They performed Smuin’s Medea; Trey McIntyre’s Oh, Inverted World, from 2010; and Soon These Two Worlds, by Amy Seiwert (2009). My review for The Faster Times is here.

And here is a short excerpt:

“The best work of the evening, and the one that most suited the dancers, was surely Oh, Inverted World, by Trey McIntyre. There’s a plainspoken-ness to his work that I’ve always found refreshing. His dances draw their tone from the people with whom he collaborates: young, dynamic, normal but conflicted, with the particular vulnerabilities of the young. Inverted World is set to songs by the indie-rock band The Shins; I couldn’t make out the words, but they sounded like just what you would expect, slightly plaintive, energetic expressions of teenage angst and enthusiasm. The dance reflected these feelings perfectly: boys and girls in simplified sports attire, cavorting and pairing up vigorously, their antics tempered by the occasional eruption of awkwardness and misanthropy. As in Rebel Without a Cause, Loneliness and rage lay close to the surface of collegiality and horseplay.”