Domy Reiter-Soffer

“ La Mer ” premiere is a coup for Pittsburgh ballet Theater and the company scored a real coup last night by securing the Ballet by Domy Reiter-Soffer, whose multi- faceted personality-choreographer, artist and Theater Director.
As such he was able to design the costumes and set with just the right touch for a kinetic canvas of color true to the impressionistic ideals. The backdrop depicting an endless wave that under various lighting conditions took the audience through the different facets of the sea culminating in a storm.
Few choreographers attempt to put debussy's work to movement but here his style with its strong undercurrent succeeds to portray the difficult rhythms and the emotions play forth in crosscurrents, which are beautifully captured.
Reiter-Soffer centered on the tides of emotion with fluid groupings periodically climaxing in oceanic images. A single spot of light caught Ernest Tolentino contemplating the vastness of the sea. He began to sense the ebb and flow of the water. Gradually the awakening day drew the dancers in, one by one, in an endless wave, culminating in a pas de deux by Evelyne Desutter and Tolentino that matched the radiance of the sun ascending the heavens.
Then Tamar Rachelle bathed the stage in the reds and oranges of her dappled leotard and golden hair. The second section genially followed the transient moods between the sun and water with beauty and strong choreography.
Gentle movements were replaced by surging strength of an oncoming storm with an extraordinary effect and powerful movement. Then the dancers slipped away while leaving tolentino once again beheld the majestic force of nature before him”.

(Jane Vranish- Pittsburgh post-Gazette).