There’s a fine line between austere and dull, and Emanuel Gat crossed it. Switzerland’s Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve opened at the Joyce Tuesday with the Israeli choreographer’s “Preludes & Fugues,” a clean and carefully wrought hourlong piece. But the most dramatic moment all night was a change in lighting.
The company’s been around for a century. It’s morphed over the years from ballet — for a time, it was one of the strongest Balanchine companies in Europe — into a more contemporary group that invites guest choreographers to create new works for it, including this one.
The music, taken from Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier,” was intended for honing a pianist’s playing skill, but when Glenn Gould recorded it, he brought out the restrained emotion in its depths. That’s what’s missing from Gat’s choreography.
At the start, the dancers, clad in simple dark outfits, are scattered across a bare stage. Dividing into small groups, they jump and cascade to the floor in break-dance moves. But Gat has been stymied before by having too little concept for too long a work. After only a few minutes, the dancing looks familiar and repetitive.
Apart from a duet where the couple careers around, switching hands as if they were doing the jitterbug, one section looks like another. And the music plays on. The dancers have impressive physical control, but the choreography is so cool and even-tempered throughout, it’s a wonder anyone broke a sweat.
A pensive fugue ends the piece quietly with a single woman in the light, crossing and posing her arms slowly. The unexpected, quiet minimalism in place of a big finale might have had a riveting, restrained impact.
But it didn’t. We never had reason to care.