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Sarasota News Leader November 1, 2013 complicated choreography in Alex Harrison's classically based ballet, though one difficult overhead lift — with Brown arching backwards — captured the delicate wistful mood of the piece. Perhaps Harrison wanted to reflect the drifting melancholy in the music as the dancers swept across the stage in a series of embraces. However, except for the many stunning lifts, there was little emotional connection between the dancers. Kelly Yankle, who joined Sarasota Ballet last year, used a powerful recording of Edith Piaf as inspiration for another anguished love affair (Ne Me Quitte Pas), in which Sara Scherer — wearing a Bill Fenner satin slip — hung onto David Tlaiye in making plain a woman's need to keep her lover. At first Scherer was alone, doubling over as if battling a stomach ache. When Tlaiye appeared, I was not certain whether he was a figment of her imagination or the lover. As in Tlaiye's exploratory choreography, Yankle's movement vocabulary was centered in the torso, and it explored natural emotional gestures. Both duets were short and danced with such aplomb that they gave the choreography the look of professionalism. The delight of the evening for me was Logan Learned's ballet, Nebulous, set to Philip Glass' Violin Concerto, Movement 3. The ballet opened with Juan Gil, Ricardo Rhodes and Ricardo Graziano in dark tights and T-shirts, standing in a straight line, arms hanging down at their sides with palms turned in, surrounded by the rhythmic underpinnings of Glass' insistent pulsating music. It was obvious that Learned had turned to Balanchine for his inspiration in creating a ballet exploring movement, space and rhythm. Surprising Page 97 for a young choreographer, Learned used the spare minimalist music well and was not overwhelmed by its power. In fact, I enjoyed watching how the six dancers — including the three women, Kate Honea, Victoria Hulland and Elizabeth Sykes — came together as a trio, separated into groups and then into couples, separated again and regrouped into trios, with the focus on continuous movement, whether in counterpoint or in unison. It was like watching pieces move in geometric patterns but responding all the while to the changing nuances in the tone and rhythm of the music. Not surprising, from a choreographer who jumps and leaps like a bouncing ball, there was a great variety of backwards, sideways and inventive leaps and lifts. I thought it was the most exciting ballet of the evening, and it will be interesting to see what direction Learned will follow in his next work. Though Jamie Carter's ballet, The Tarot, sounded interesting in the program notes, I found it was bland, academic and disappointing. Nonetheless, Theatre of Dreams can be thought of as an appetizer of a program that showed off the growing artistry of the dancers. It also acted as an incentive to follow the company through the rest of the season, as the members delve into the world of master choreographers: George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Agnes DeMille and Antony Tudor. Then audiences, myself included, can appreciate the levels of sophistication, knowledge and artistry that come together in a work that communicates both emotional and aesthetic coherence. %