Looking back at youth

“Fallen Angels,” the latest production of Washington’s peripatetic In Series ensemble, is a provocative blend of cabaret and art songs imaginatively interpreted in dance.

The program, at Washington’s Atlas Performing Arts Center, marks an unusual collaboration between the In Series and the Washington Ballet Studio Company, with songs selected by In Series artistic director Carla Hubner and direction and choreography by Septime Webre and David Palmer, the company’s artistic director and associate artistic director.

The creative conceit is a look back in time from the perspective of four older singers. In effect, they play back, with regret, the tapes of their long lost youth as vigorously interpreted by the Washington Ballet’s attractive young dancers.

Cleverer still are Miss Hubner’s musical choices. Most In Series cabarets draw heavily from popular music of the period as well as well as from the now somewhat forgotten genre of operetta.

While both are represented here, the program adds creative tension by highlighting the art songs of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner, polar compositional opposites better known for their massive orchestral and, in the case of Wagner, operatic works.

In the latter half of the 19th century, critics and musical cognoscenti split into rival camps when it came to supporting the classically oriented Brahms or the more radical Wagner. The resulting passion and vitriol would be familiar to students of today’s liberal and conservative culture wars being played out on America’s electoral stage. Here, it subtly contributes to the generational conflict on stage.

In addition to the Brahms and Wagner songs, the more acidic 20th-century cabaret music of Kurt Weill, Friedrich Hollaender and (surprise) Arnold Schoenberg rounds out the program, focusing on songs popularized by Marlene Dietrich and closing with Hollaender’s familiar, bittersweet “Falling in Love Again.”

Performances by vocalists Laura Lewis, Michelle Rice, Richard Tappen, and Stanley Webber were excellent, although Mr. Tappen occasionally experienced difficulties finding his top notes. The dancers were superb, bright, and refreshing, and the occasionally manic choreography perfectly reflected the impetuosity and exuberance of youth.

Pianists Gerald Coleman and Miss Hubner accompanied the artists. Miss Hubner’s uncommon sensitivity in the Brahms and Wagner pieces was an all-too-rare opportunity to hear this fine pianist whose In Series presence is usually hidden away backstage.

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WHO: In Series

WHAT: Fallen Angels,” music and dance cabaret

WHERE: Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE,

WHEN: 8 p.m. Oct. 17; 3 p.m. Oct. 19

TICKETS AND INFORMATION: Tickets $18 to $33; 202/204-7760 or visit www.inseries.org

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