Lust for life Festiva Ballet’s fiery Carmen BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ

Though most of us are familiar with the story of the sultry gypsy girl Carmen from Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera of the same name, Bizet himself picked it up from the French writer Prosper Mérimée, who had heard it from a Spanish countess. Since that time, there have been numerous incarnations of this durable tale, ranging from the Oscar Hammerstein-adapted operetta Carmen Jones (film version, 1954) to the Senegalese indie Karmen Geï (2002). This weekend (October 3, 4, and 5 at the VMAArts & Cultural Center), Festival Ballet Providence will premiere a brand-new Carmen, choreographed by Boston Ballet’s Viktor Plotnikov.

If there is one thing that has remained constant about Carmen’s story, intertwined with her lust for life, it is her reputation as a dancer. Thus, when Festival’s artistic director Mihailo "Misha" Djuric considered a contemporary ballet based on Carmen, it seemed a natural form for this romantic tragedy about ties that bind too tightly, about soured love and ruined lives, about the consequences of pursuing passions to their ultimate end.

Djuric found himself too busy to create a new Carmen for the 2003/04 season, so he cast his line northward and reeled in Boston Ballet principal Plotnikov, who was raised and trained in the Ukraine but who has performed in the US since 1990 and with Boston Ballet since 1993. Carmen is Plotnikov’s first full-length work and, judging from scenes in rehearsal last week, it is nothing if not dramatic.

Leticia Guerrero and Jennifer Ricci share the title role, with Gleb Lyamenkoff and Davide Vittorino partnering them, respectively, as Don José, the soldier who falls for Carmen and throws away his career, his self-respect, and ultimately his life for her. The ballet is framed by the memories of Micaela (Karla Kovatch and Heather O’Halloran) as she relives the tragic events that overtook her childhood sweetheart José.

The characters in the ballet range from villagers, factory workers, and soldiers to smugglers, pub-revelers, and even a bullfighter. A noontime break at the cigarette factory brings the female workers, Carmen among them, outside to interact with the military guards, Don José among them — he had previously been seen talking to Micaela. Carmen tosses a rose at his feet and he is unalterably smitten.

When a fight erupts a bit later between Carmen and another worker Mercedes (Beth Petkus), Carmen is arrested by the guards for pulling a knife and Don José is put in charge of her. Her seduction of him and the subsequent bedroom scene are some of the steamiest sequences I’ve seen in a Rhode Island ballet. Hands tied in front of her, she manages to slip them around his neck, to butt her head at his crotch, to completely mesmerize him. Later, after he has released her and they rendezvous in a nearby hotel, he lifts her out of her skirt and their legs enfold each other on the bed.

But Carmen’s freedom, especially her sexual freedom, is vital to her, and she leaves Don José immediately, feeling no ties to him in any way. He’s just the opposite, hopelessly ensnared and jealous of her attentions, first to the Captain of the Guard, whom he kills, and then of her flirtation with the bullfighter, whom he attacks. Piotr Ostaltsov and Eivar Sair alternate the captain and bullfighter roles.

Plotnikov’s choreography draws on both modern and classical movements, beginning with bare feet for the villagers in the opening scenes but continuing with toe shoes for all of the women in the second act. More noticeable is the shortage of long, extended lines: toes may end turned up instead of pointed; arabesques sometimes arc instead of stretching; partnering is tight, close to the floor and to each other instead of lofty lifts.

In addition to the flamenco-influenced tosses of the head, the flat swirl of the hands and the sometimes staccato steps, this ballet asks for strong acting from all of the dancers. The principal dancers must convey the urgent tension of their interactions with each other, whether they are dueling or dueting. At one point during last week’s rehearsal, Djuric was pushing his company of young women to get across their idolizing of Escamillo, the bullfighter, in their stance, their glances, and their dancing: "If you don’t believe that he is the sexiest thing alive, the audience is not going to believe it."

Djuric is enthusiastic about this Carmen, not just for the vibrant choreography and his four new company members — Guerrero, who stepped in as Billie Holiday in his ToDay last spring; Kovatch, who’s been with Boston Ballet for 10 years; and Ty Parmenter and Cameron Baldassarra, both recent graduates of the National Ballet School of Canada. He feels strongly that many more people than just ballet fans can relate to this familiar story.

"Love, jealousy, men wanting to possess and own females, and women who want to be free individuals," he reflected. "Everyone experiences that in their life. We all experience weaknesses, jealousies, or we’ve had someone strangling us with their love. We’ve all been chased or have chased someone else."

And we all like to see those stories come alive before us. In Carmen, they’re rolled into one production. Catch Festival Ballet Providence’s take on this timeless tale.