Quaint Santa Barbara is home of the prestigious State Street Ballet (SSB)—a company whose fifteen year longevity has augmented a devout local audience and international acclaim. Under the artistic direction of Rodney Gustafson, founder of SSB, the company has consistently flourished. Over the last year, Gustafson has fully immersed himself in the creation of a new full-length ballet that has audience appeal written all over it. The production: "The Jungle Book" based on Rudyard Kipling's classic tale.

Jose E. Gonzalez and Victoria Luchkina, "The Jungle Book," State Street Ballet Photo by David Bazemore

Gustafson became inspired during a visit to New York. "I saw the Disney version of 'Tarzan' on Broadway a few years ago and was fascinated by the choreography for the monkeys. Shortly after, I was approached by Milan [conductor/composer Milan Svoboda] who composed a full-length 'Jungle Book' for the ballet company of the National Theatre in Prague. Mr. Svoboda had heard about State Street Ballet's history of creating original works and asked if I would be interested in producing my own version to his music."

The choreography was a collaborative effort between Gustafson and SSB ballet master Gary McKenzie. They incorporated several dance styles that were just as varied as the music. The compilation consists of classical music performed by the Symphonic Orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague, jazz music performed by Svoboda's Jazz Orchestra, and world fusion music by various guest artists including Czech vocalist Yvetta Blanarovičova. The world premiere of Gustafson's "The Jungle Book" was held over the weekend of October 10 and 11, 2009 at Santa Barbara's historic Granada Theatre. The Sunday matinee on the 11th was filled with scores of families with children from toddlers to teens.

Good sound quality emitted from the theater sound system for the recorded taping of Svoboda's ballet score. The production began with the mysterious classical piece, "Rise of the Jungle." The music had an epic film theme quality, a typical characteristic of Svoboda's work given his years of experience composing Czech film scores. The audience was instantly drawn to the animal characters dancing on pointe slowly down the theatre aisles. Then their attention gravitated toward the stage where the devious Bengal tiger character Shere Khan, performed by Bayaraa Badamsambuu, made an impressive grand entrance. This pivotal first scene where Shere Khan discovers Mowgli, the young human child, and whisks him off into the jungle, was captivating and masterfully performed by Badamsambuu. Coming to Mowgli's rescue were his guardians in the jungle, Raksha the She-wolf, performed by Alyson Mattoon, and John Christopher Piel as Akela the pack leader. Mattoon brought a gentle quality to her character with her feather light movements and during the duo's pas de deux, their overt display of affection was genuinely moving.

Victoria Luchkina as Kaa and Sergei Domrachev as the Monkey King in State Street Ballet's "The Jungle Book" Photo by David Bazemore

As the python character Kaa, Victoria Luchkina performed a magnificent solo to African rhythms and riveting vocals by Blanarovičova. Luchkina's incredible contortionist ability mesmerized the audience. Even during scenes thereafter, each time Luchkina appeared on stage, all eyes were on her. Leila Drake was also striking and sleek in her dark velvet unitard in the role of Bagheera the panther. Interestingly, with every dancer on pointe, one couldn't help but notice the absence of the dainty pitter patter of pointe shoes on marley. Not many audiences have the privilege of witnessing the miracle of noiseless pointe shoes. It was pure pleasure.

The honey-loving sloth bear Baloo, played by ballet master Gary McKenzie, was a particularly small role, but lighthearted and sweet nonetheless. The characters Ikki the porcupine, performed by Katie McDermott and Rikki-Tikki-Tave the mongoose, performed by Cecily Stewart were a cutesy pair that seemed to appeal to the children in the audience, but their significance to the ballet seemed a little redundant.

Jose E. Gonzalez as Mowgli and Jennifer Rowe as Messua in State Street Ballet's "The Jungle Book" Photo by David Bazemore

Dancing bare-chested in red pantaloons was Jose Edwin Gonzalez, fittingly cast as the grown-up Mowgli with his long lean limbs and bronze complexion. A slapstick style comedy bit between Gonzalez and dancers David Michael Eck and Steven Jasso, portraying two grown wolves, was playful and fun. During this scene, Gonzalez demonstrated soaring athleticism with his high jazz style barrel turns.

Mowgli's first human encounter was with the character Messua, played by Jennifer Rowe, a young maiden whom Mowgli falls in love with. Though the character Messua plays Mowgli's mother in the original story, the character change seemed appropriate for the ballet. Playing the Safari Couple were ballet mistress Marina Fliagina and ballet master Gary McKenzie. The seasoned artists' brought about a delightful charm during their humorous dance and mime sequence to the cartoonish song "Tourists' Arrival."

From a distance, Mowgli observes the Safari Couple light a fire. The Bandar-log (monkey tribe) notice Mowgli's intrigue with the fire and they too become fascinated. As the exciting music "Mowgli and the Fire — the Monkey's Attack" begins, tension builds and the monkey's capture Mowgli with the intent to make him create fire for them.

Following intermission, a 70s jazz funk style song entitled "Mowgli — Prisoner of the Monkey Kingdom" played. The Monkey King character Jacala, performed by Sergei Domrachev, along with six other monkey characters, were a lively bunch. Younger children were entertained by their silliness such as with their monkey pyramid formation. Longer dance pieces with the monkeys fused African and jazz dance styles that were truly fantastic to watch. With their swaying body movements and long striding struts it was the perfect amalgam for simulating primate animal gestures.

Mowgli is eventually rescued from the monkeys by his friends Kaa and Bagheera and shortly after, he sees Messua. Mowgli's animal friends observe his longing and come to realize he belongs among humans.

Once more, Shere Khan made a re-appearance to proclaim his domination. Mowgli and the animals rebel and a chase scene begins to the powerful music of "The Fight with the Tiger Begins." Watching the dancers dart back and forth across the stage doing swift grand jete's during the chase was thrilling. When Shere Khan is finally defeated, Mowgli realizes his fate lies within the human world. For the finale, Mowgli appears dressed as a human with Messua at his side and he bids adieu to his animal friends.

Visually, the production was stunning. Set designer Jean-Francois Revon created incredible backdrops with trees, distant mountains, and realistic hanging tree limbs against vibrant colors for night and day scenes.

Costumes by prominent designer A. Christina Giannini and assistant Anaya Cullen, were highly original. Most elaborate were costumes for characters with smaller roles such as the vulture whose wings were represented by large hand held fans and two walking trees propped up on block shaped stilts. The four peacocks in tranquil blue hues and flowing feathers were amazing and their make-up by Brittany McClelland — gorgeous. There were a few costumes where you couldn't quite tell what kind of animals they were without looking at the program. Among those were the porcupine, the mongoose, and the wolves.

Since the story is set in India, adding a few Indian cultural elements for authenticity such as introducing some villagers dressed in traditional Indian clothes and adding a few songs with Indian influence, would be a nice touch.

There were a number of comical scenes where the music style did feel a bit dated. This largely contributed to some of the rough scene transitions. The allegro's and adagio's performed to the classical and world music pieces were wonderful, but many of the humorous scenes that followed disrupted the flow of the softer moments.

Some character development with the humans could have been furthered, as certain scenes felt disjointed from the rest of the ballet. Such was the case during a piece danced by Messua and five other maidens. No reference was made as to whom or why these characters were present. The farewell scene could have also been slightly more climactic. Had there been more scenes with Mowgli and Messua interacting to show how their ensuing love grows and more bonding shown between Mowgli and his animal friends throughout the ballet, the final scene would have exuded their emotional connections more emphatically.

Jose E. Gonzalez and the Bandar-log/monkeys in State Street Ballet "The Jungle Book" Photo by Rose Eichenbaum

For such an ambitious undertaking with so many components, this first unveiling of "The Jungle Book" was a massive achievement. Dance companies entertaining the idea of presenting "The Jungle Book" will be pleased to know... "I produced the ballet with the hope that many presenters would like to bring it to their theatres. The entire production was built to be very mobile and the sets and costumes can easily travel," says Gustafson.

With such an engaging storyline, "The Jungle Book" is worthy of becoming an essential staple in most dance company repertoires. Given how much more challenging it has become to stimulate patronage in the global dance community, particularly when it comes to promoting new works, "The Jungle Book" could be just the right production to help many dance companies re-build their audience.

statestreetballet.com
milansvoboda.com

Jasmine Rios is a freelance writer and consultant for the arts. Email minacommunications@gmail.com or visit minacommunications.com

Dance Chatter

Would you like to add to this conversation? If so, you have two simple options:

1. Using an Account: login or create your account. Once logged in, your comments will post immediately using your alias.
2. As a Guest: You will need to confirm your post via email. Post as guest now!