Before ballet got pointy and athletic, it must have looked something like Mark Morris’s V.
The short piece set to Schumann’s Quintet in E flat major has ballet’s chevrons and patterning, as well as its speed and synchronicities, but it also has an ease and expressiveness that have been squeezed by the modern mania for high extensions and extreme turn-out.
The US choreographer conjures a hush-lush mix of rounded gestures and low-key leaps combined with gossamer gallantries and sly visual jokes.
