Charlotte Ballet's artistic director shines as a choreographer with 'A Realm of Existence'
Charlotte Ballet's “A Realm of Existence” runs Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at Knight Theater
This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on March 7, 2025. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. And check out this link for Toppman’s full archive of reviews in the Ledger.
Charlotte Ballet artistic director Alejandro Cerrudo puts his stamp on the company as a choreographer with ‘A Realm of Existence’
Two of the three pieces choreographed by Alejandro Cerrudo for ‘A Realm of Existence’ were created in past years; the third was made specifically for and with the current dancers at Charlotte Ballet. (Photo by Taylor Jones)
by Lawrence Toppman
Alejandro Cerrudo has shown audiences what he wants for Charlotte Ballet since becoming artistic director in 2022. On Thursday, he showed us who he is as a dancemaker.
And he is: Earthy. Thoughtful. Goofy. Sensual. Maybe romantic, though I didn’t think so. (Perhaps that comes later.) In short, a choreographic kaleidoscope whose Knight Theater program “A Realm of Existence” lives up to its cosmic name.
He also had the modesty and wisdom to close the program after an intermission with the one work he didn’t make, Johan Inger’s “Walking Mad.” That showstopper, which unravels to the hammering repetition of Ravel’s “Bolero” and knits itself up a bit to the fragile piano musings of Arvo Pärt, has been in the company’s repertoire awhile.
You wouldn’t follow these 20 intense minutes with anything else. They begin lightly, as a movable wall with hidden doors reveals comical aspects of life within a building I took to be an asylum: Patients dancing sweetly in pajamas, jittery men in dunce caps careening wildly after similar women in similar headgear. Yet as the walls literally close in on one lonely, frightened inmate, her attempts to find solace with a series of male partners leave her unfulfilled. Finally, another couple connects tentatively and impermanently, before one departs.
All three of Cerrudo’s pieces were originally intended to run without an intermission, but he judiciously set off the longer “Dos y Dos y Dos” from “Pacopepepluto” and “Cloudless.”
The last two, choreographed respectively for three men dancing alone and two women dancing together, have been around for years. “Dos,” made specifically for and with his excellent current troupe, had its world premiere Thursday and sticks longest in the memory.
“Pacopepepluto” — named, I’d guess, for the first three guys to dance it — consists of men wearing nothing but dance belts and gyrating to tunes sung by Dean Martin and Martin imitator Joe Scalissi. I needed a while to get the joke, assuming I did. Each song represents a type of happiness — family, religion, infatuated love — and the dancers’ paroxysms of joy, including mincing on tiptoe and flailing their arms in ecstasy, juxtaposed their sculpted bodies with these corny sentiments. Maurice Mouzon Jr., Mario Gonzalez and Rees Larner had a ball with it.
The quieter “Cloudless,” a short pas de deux, shows us a bond of affection that begins as sisterhood and mutual support and grows, maybe, into the beginning of a sexual connection. Anna Owen and Adriana Wagenveld started out in their own worlds and eventually entered each other’s, intertwining psychologically.
Yet the thing that really made me want to see more of Cerrudo’s work was “Dos,” oddly named because it doesn't consist of pas after pas. A program note said he created it in the studio with the people who would dance it, which contributes to its utter naturalness.
Everything has a pulse, a continual flow, that seems to follow the dancers’ breathing. It starts with tenderness deferred: couples almost touching, hardly touching, briefly touching. They mirror each other, push or pull gently at each other, connect and disconnect. The liquid movements repeat with variations but don’t wear out our attention.
You feel that anything in the world might be danced to: nature sounds, ambient noise, Chopin’s piano. In the end, the dancers keep going in silence, finishing with a beautiful arrested gesture that leaves them about to take to the air. You’ve dropped into the studio with Cerrudo, where movement was happening before you got there and will go on long after you leave. The piece stops for us, but the narrative has no end — like dance itself.
If You’re Going: “A Realm of Existence” repeats Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St. Tickets are $32 to $133.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews several times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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Thank you for bringing us Mr. Toppman's thoughts. I have long wished for some commentary about the pieces that are performed. I for one so appreciate our talented Troupe but can now understand more of what I am witnessing and this will add to my enjoyment immensely.