Viver Brasil seeks new heights, with caution

L.A. can be a tough town for dance companies. Just ask Viver Brasil, which has struggled to survive -- and has mostly succeeded -- for the last 12 years. Friday marks the company's seventh consecutive summer at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, and with it comes a renewed ambition to take the troupe to a new artistic level.

For the first time, the company is incorporating digital video technology into its performances, projecting abstract imagery as well as supertitle text to make the narrative numbers more accessible to audiences. The company is also mixing more modern dance into its folk Afro-Brazilian choreography in a bid to ratchet up the company's athleticism and physical pyrotechnics.

Viver Brasil is in the midst of launching itself on the national stage -- over the next few months, the company will take its bow in a new partnership with the Hollywood Bowl and also perform in its first significant foreign engagement in Mexico.

But climbing the evolutionary ladder in the dance world can be a difficult maneuver, one that requires flexibility, stamina and the acceptance that you might end up falling flat on your face. "It's not going to be easy," said Linda Yudin, the company's artistic director. "But I still think that the next few years look promising to us, and we have not let the recession stop us."

Read the story in today's Sunday Calendar.

-- David Ng

Photo: Members of Viver Brasil perform "Avanhia." Credit: RGB Photography

Review: 'Peter and the Wolf Jump Cool' at Ford Amphitheatre

"Tough luck, duck!” the narrator drawled amid the cheerful hullabaloo of choreographer Robyn Gardenhire’s family-friendly 1960s-retro ballet, “Peter and the Wolf Jump Cool,” which opened the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre’s 17th summer season on Saturday night. Seated on a high perch smartly clad in emerald-green, actress Sloan Robinson read her own scripted version of the children’s fable, her witty words interwoven with jazz composer/arranger Oliver Nelson’s 1966 adaptation of Prokofiev’s beloved score.

The Duck in question -- and she’s no swan as played by City Ballet of Los Angeles dancer Perris McCracken -- paraded her long legs on pointe shoes that accentuated the pouf of feathers saucily cushioning her derriere. The plucky duck has fallen for the considerable charms of a big, bad London swinger named Wolfie (Gary Franco), accessorized with peace-sign neck medallion and Austin Powers spectacles. But in Gardenhire’s winsome view of Peter and his feathery friends, ballet birds flap happily ever after. They’re empowered; it’s the '60s embellished by a “you go, girl!”

The ballet’s boisterously fun disco-party scene had go-go girls doing the monkey and the jerk in groovy jumpsuits and rainbow-colored Afro wigs. In fluttered Bird (Ellen Rosa), dressed adorably in a Catholic schoolgirl miniskirt (also poufed by feathers) and knee-high socks, a scrumptious costume finished by a single tapered feather topping her bird-hunter’s chapeau.