Troupe Gives ‘Dark Elegies’ Stoic Beauty

On the second evening of its engagement at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse featured new principals in two ballets of the night before and added one searingly beautiful masterwork by Anthony Tudor in between.

It turned out to be a very successful sandwich, starting with Marieke Simons illuminating Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony” in the ballerina-sylph role. Preceded by a deft Marina Lafargue in the kilt solo and supported by Leon Pronk, Simons unfolded again and again into exquisitely stretched and filigreed arabesques, indicating, with her buoyant exactitude and beaming face, a proximity to enlightened states.

In the last ballet, Agnes De Mille’s “Rodeo,” Elodie Le Van had the same power to rivet attention, but as the much-spurned cowgirl, she did it with sweetly naive attempts to fit in and a heartbreakingly poignant expression when she didn’t. Guillaume Brun, Matthew Madsen and Agnes Murail ably provided cowpoke and frilly-gal backup.

Displaying impressive versatility, the company did a cleanly etched, quietly moving performance of “Dark Elegies,” Tudor’s 1937 ballet on mourning the death of children, to Gustav Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder.” Each song (sung by uncredited singers on tape) was danced with a deeply modulated stoic lyricism, often with razor-sharp technique becoming the piercing edge of grief. Evelyne Spagnol, Minh Pham, Silvia Pairotti and Brun were particularly affecting, but the whole company had a stillness and sureness that allowed Tudor’s shapes of elegant suffering to come through.

Undoubtedly aided by Sallie Wilson’s staging and original costumes and backdrop by Nadia Benois, the ballet’s success depended on the bodies of the dancers, who seemed to rise to each role of the evening with skill and commitment.

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* Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse dances this program tonight at 8 in the California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $14-$41. (800) 988-4253.