In Condemi and Adoniou’s hands, the dances are as functionally important as arias, in terms of telling the story. Just as an aria might allow William Burden’s Orphée to bare his soul, the dances express mourning, emotional roadblocks, the serenity of companionship. Adoniou’s idiom here is much more modern dance than ballet (his dancers–Daniel Howerton, Scott Bartell, Kate Chamberlin, Roxanne Foster, Kyle Johnson, Marissa Quimby, Demetrius Tabron–are barefoot), but their movements are nonetheless balletic. Continue reading A Footloose Orphée? Blame the French