Domy Reiter-Soffer

“Passion and youthful exuberance swept across the Bass concert hall stage as Ballet Austin continued its repertory season. Domy Reiter-Soffer's House of Bernarda Alba was the strongest ballet on the program, a gripping drama based on Federico Garcia Lorca's last play. The newly widowed Bernarda danced superbly by Susan Stowe, secludes her five daughters, insane mother and herself in the family home to mourn in isolation. The appearance of Pepe Romano Eugene Alvarez, the oldest daughter's fiancé, fires the emotional and sexual frustrations of the isolated girls. His seduction of the youngest daughter, Adela Gina Patterson, is a well-crafted pas de deux displaying the couple's acting as well as dancing skills.
The mood of the whole ballet is tense, provocative and a bit unsettling, as Adela first hesitates then hungrily abandons herself to Pepe's advances. The dancing is passionate and sensual but not explicit; a guilt-ridden mating dance that consummate Adela's downfall in a morally rigid society. Patterson and Alvarez are riveting as the lovers. Reiter-Soffer's choreography is original combines arched backs and thrusting hips with over-head lifts to symbolize the couple's lovemaking. There is nothing gentle or affectionate about the entwining of the bodies as Alverez holds Patterson above him in a dramatic lift with a touching final tableaux as the two kiss and caress before they are discovered. The whole ballet is astounding in its quality and choreographic invention”.
(Sondra Lomax-Austin American-Statesman).