The Felberg Chamber Virtuosi, lead by David Felberg, played familiar works by Johann Strauss Jr., Robert Schumann and Frederic Chopin Sunday afternoon in the final performance of the Festival at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

The full chamber group performed “Postcard from Vienna,” choreographed by Alex Ossadnik to Strauss waltzes arranged in 1921, amazingly, by the 12- tone modern masters Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Ossadnik opened his “Postcard” with ten dancers placed on trapeze-like seats that swung from two suspended bars. The bars moved side to side in opposition before the dancers stepped down on stage and the bars rose above the proscenium arch. Costumed in ball dresses evocative of romantic 19th century, the ladies whirled in circular motifs through four waltzes describing playful flirtations, arguments, and romantic tiffs. Ossadnik demonstrated a fine sense of design as he arranged movement in ever- evolving circular patterns. The men spun their partners in aerial cartwheels, passed one girl above their heads in a circle, and formed a rotating line. The dancers performed with as effortless élan, projecting a light, humorous ambiance. The choreography demonstrated a fine musical awareness and understanding.

Jessica Lang’s more serious “From Foreign Lands and People,” to Schumann’s “Scenes from Childhood,” was a series of 13 short vignettes that blended together seamlessly, accompanied on piano by Arlette Felberg. Lang, a modern choreographer who formerly danced with Twila Tharp, now teaches at the American Ballet Theatre. She used the piano theme in set design and use of props. Five rectangular black boxes became visual symbols of the keyboard. These were moved and arranged in architectural patterns as a part of the dances becoming arches, slides, inclined planes, and finally a bridge that was then rearranged into a cubist formation, with dancers aligned along its structural forms.

Four couples moved in fluid continuity, describing abstract designs and varying  changes in mood. The dancers’ sharp attention to line brought this truly architectural piece to vivid life.

“Yes, Virginia, Another Piano Ballet” was Peter Anastos’s spoofing tribute to both Chopin and Jerome Robbins. Nobody can present the comedy of classical ballet like Anastos, as demonstrated by his hilarious Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo. Every pitfall (and pratfall) that could happen on stage was allowed full sway in this take-off. Chopin’s Mazukas, with Cossack flourishes that broke into classical pirouettes and cabrioles, ended several times with a partner thrown into the piano, seemingly knocked out, or thrusting the pianist right off his stool. Stephen Montoya, playing piano on stage, was tightly involved with the evolution of the comedy.

The fast waltzes, “Minute Waltz in D-flat Major” and “Valse Brillant in A-flat Major” played with Polish folk dance, but at one moment the dancers formed a living canoe, then a fast swing at golf. A dirge-like “C Minor Prelude was inserted between the two waltzes. It consisted of slow, slumped walks as the dancers plodded across the stage to contemplate the inner workings of the piano. All of this was beautifully off-the-wall, yet could only be carried off by such a professional caliber dance company.

It was announced at the beginning of the dance that each of the dancers was shifted to another’s role. Five dancers were mixed and matched, hard to tell who was who, but it was all a comic ploy to knock the audience off balance for the ensuing mayhem. The audience loved it! 

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