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Mannheim Ballet has been out of luck for the past eighteen months. Long-time director Philippe Talard was forced to leave under the suspicion of embezzling money, though charges were later dropped. Mark McClain, former dancer with Stuttgart Ballet, was called in for the past season. While being a good showman, his choreographic talents left much to be desired. So it came as a relief when Ulrich Schwab, head of Nationaltheater Mannheim, announced that Joffrey-trained fomer American Ballet Theatre soloist Kevin O’Day would take over the company. Only last year O’Day was touted to become head of Berlin Ballet, an offer he, like many others before and after him, has declined. The Mannheim company comprises seventeen wonderfully mature dancers, forteen of which O’Day cast for his first premiere.

The title “Fielding Sound” takes its cue from the work method employed by both Kevin O’Day and composer John King. King, a sometime Cunningham collaborator, has already provided scores for several of Kevin O’Day’s choreographies for The Royal Danish Ballet, New York City Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet, amongst others. In his composition “AllOut”, which was commissioned especially for the Mannheim premiere, he uses techniques of live sampling to create sounds that are then fixed or fed directly back into the system, such as the distorted voices of the dancers or the nagging sound of a miniature piano used on stage. Act One starts with a piano section that is punctuated by percussive sounds, which in turn lead to fully-fledged drum’n’bass sounds and rhythms.

In a similar vein, O’Day “fields” movement through improvisations along the lines of questions that the dancers had to answer. For the first act of the ballet this leads to a fixed structure with choreographed transitions. The second act follows a much more open structure with various segments whose order and character is defined anew for each performance. Thus the relationship between movement and music will shift randomly, keeping the dancers alert and on their toes. For the premiere, the match was almost too perfect, though. The music and the mood of the scenes fitted so well that it actually distracted from the execution and the articulation of the dance, weighing it down and limiting its scope. With no other idea behind them apart from a formal arrangement of time and space, certain phrases of movement thus came pretty close to gymnastics.

Although O’Day’s choreography uses chance techniques like Cunningham’s, the dancers rarely display a Cunningham body. There are difficult neo-classical sections on pointe and Balanchine-style sculptures with legs extended straight into the air. Especially in act two there is a certain openness in the use of space, a constant disruption and repositioning that reminds one of William Forsythe’s pulling apart of neo-classical positions. Dancers rest on chairs lining the stage, wave across the space to establish contact, only to join their colleagues later. Ballerinas are dragged across the floor while certain solos make use of internally refracted movements and release technique. The eveneing begins with a man and a woman lying on their backs with the man getting up, hovering closely over the woman before they contact themselves into an upright leaning position. Their repeated duos, different in nature, run through the evening like a red thread.

“Fielding Sound” is a strong piece. Surprisingly enough, this does not always work to its advantage. With all the wealth and diversity of material on offer, it makes you wonder which direction Kevin O’Day actually wants to pursue. As a fresh start for Manheim Ballet, however, it bodes very well for the future.