The Elevator Pitch: Why Ballet Idaho’s ‘Mozart in Motion’ is a don’t miss this weekend

Finding an audience here for a dance or theater review has been a challenge over the years. So, here’s the approach: elevator pitch review. The pitch is historically the information you can convey in the average elevator ride. Well, I’ll try. Remember I talk fast and there is a lot to say here. Maybe it’s a tall building.

So here it goes:

If you have the inclination to see dance at all — meaning if you love “The Nutcracker,” give this program a shot. Ballet Idaho’s 50th anniversary season opener at the Morrison Center is simply stunning and shows how far this company has come in both talent and artistic expression. It’s a small regional company with power and grace that the city and state can be proud of.

The four pieces on the “Mozart in Motion” program — Blanachine’s “Divertimento No. 15,” Stephanie Martinez’s “Kiss,” Garrett Anderson’s “Seen/Unseen” and Lar Lubovitch’s “Concerto Six-Twenty-Two” — are incredibly strong, diverse, entertaining, funny and beautifully rendered, wonderfully thematically connected through the music of Mozart, in obvious and surprising ways.

The journey is delightful and you’ll want to savor every pirouette and ports de bras.

I’ve been watching, writing about, and reviewing this company since 1996, under various artistic leadership and I’ve seen a range in this small regional company from brilliance to ho-hum.

Now, these dancers, at this time, under the guidance of Anderson, the artistic director since 2018, and Associate Artistic Director Anne Mueller are incredible artists, who handle this program’s diversity of movement with ease. It’s got everything from Neoclassical to contemporary to post-modern, so there’s something for everyone.

I was so delighted to see the company of women managing Balanchine’s nuanced and incredibly transparent and difficult choreography so beautifully in the opening “Divertimento No. 15,” to Mozart’s piece of the same title. Solos by Adrienne Kerr, Elizabeth Kanning, Ashley Baker, Madeline Bay and Megumi Nishimori were impressive. The three men accompanying them — John Frazer, guest artist Sebastian Vinet and Ian Rotheroe (in for an injured Daniel Ojeda) — showed a solid technique that seemed almost effortless. And you know dance is never effortless.

“Divertimento” is known in the dance world as a seriously difficult work and it seems to have brought out the best in this company of young dancers — including the corps of apprentices who performed.

Martinez’s “Kiss” is up next filled with quirky, fun, intriguing contemporary movement, with enthralling twists in music and movement that delighted and brought out-right laughter from the opening night audience. The dancers brought the energy and expressiveness to pull it off. Dressed in sleek renditions of Elizabethan costuming, the dancers illuminated this wildly expressive piece that ranged from fearless intensely to the edge of silly, without crossing. No movement was wasted or thrown away in this unapologetically entertaining work. Dancers Cydney Covert and guest artist Jacob Beasley set the tone, with Beasley clearly reveling in his part.

(Full disclosure: In my former career as a professional dancer, I worked with Martinez as a founding member of River North Dance Chicago in the 1990s before landing in Idaho.)

This piece marks Anderson’s main stage debut since he took the company reins. “Seen/Unseen” offers the perfect contrast in the program with dark, intense movement with a post-modern flavor, with a score that layers Mozart with a musical soundscape that is sometimes creepy — in a cool way that draws you closer. Hopefully this is just the beginning of Anderson’s choreographic work.

The closer is Lubovitch’s “Concerto Six-Twenty-Two” — to Mozart’s Concert 622 — an effervescent celebration of life, community and dance. Flouncy, skirts for the women, causal sweats for the men and boundless energy for all that brought giggles and put sheer joy on stage. One of Lubovitch’s signature works, it contains a lovely duet for two men that is a heartwarming expression of connection performed by Beasely and Leonardo González. The ebullient solo is performed by Trey McIntrye Project and Lubovitch veteran Brett Perry with verve, who is a guest artist for this repertoire.

The entire opening night and this program are a success and a harbinger of things to come this season and beyond.

2 and 7:30 p.m. today, Nov. 5, 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, Morrison Center, 2201 Cesar Chavez Drive, Boise. $41-65 for individual tickets at MorrisonCenter.com. Full season tickets (includes “The Nutcracker”) $183-$247; three-show season (no “Nutcracker”) $130-$173, at BalletIdaho.org.