On Friday we went to Cain Park’s Evans Amphitheater for our first dance performance of the summer. It was a rainy night, less than perfect weather for a venue which involves a considerable amount of walking out of doors, but it was a concert we didn’t want to miss, the farewell performance of Lieneke Matte as she retires from the stage after 10 years with Verb.

For her farewell concert, Matte chose her favorite works.

First on the program, was Similar, a dance for 3 couples that’s notable for its innovative partnering. One of the first ballets Matte performed with Verb, on Friday she danced the long Second Movement duet with Antonio Morillo.

Ne Me Quitte Pas, a duet set to music by Jacques Brel, was one of her first featured roles. On Friday she danced it with Sikhumbuzo Hlahleni and we were again struck by how effectively the choreography and the dancing portray a couple at once very unhappy and deeply intimate.

Schubert Waltzes, another dance that Matte has performed in, was on the program but for some reason the cast did not include her. Choreographer Heinz Poll often included jokey touches in his ballets and in Friday’s performance of   Schubert Waltzes the dancers brought out many quirky head movements and rolling eyes.

The concert ended with Heinz Poll’s Bolero, a popular closing number, with Matte dancing the central role for the first time.

That was Friday’s farewell concert. Now stay with us as we remember Lieneke Matte in some other excellent dances, pieces that may never be performed again.

Back in May of 2019, three lullabies for you and I was choreographed by Daniel Cho in collaboration with the dancers for Fresh Inventions at Cleveland Public Theater, Verb Ballets’ showcase for their dancers’ own choreography. In one “lullaby,” a Chopin piano etude provided accompaniment for a duet for Matte and Kelly Korfhage; at the time we recognized the committed ardor of the dancing. We wrote, “Committed. Ardent. Inexorable. This dance made a strong impression.” (Verb @ CPT Artists’ Portfolios – Cleveland Concert Dance)

In July of 2017 we wrote a review (Dancing, Singing, Talking Verb Ballets This Summer – Cleveland Concert Dance) of a studio showing of Dianne McIntyre’s Dancing Memories: Lost & Found, which featured the stories of eleven residents of Eliza Bryant Village (on Wade Park Avenue on the east side) and Eliza Jennings Health Campus (near the corner of West 107th Street and Detroit). In one of many vignettes, Matte entered and told her character’s story in a Scottish accent, how she immigrated to the USA from Scotland. “Eventually I became a nurse. I worked at Deaconess Hospital for 30 years.” Matte performed flawlessly, but Vic asked himself again, “Does McIntyre ask too much of her dancers?” When Vic asked Matte if the monologue in a Scottish accent wasn’t a bit much to ask of a dancer as opposed to an actor, she replied that she was fine with it.  We were reminded of Sally Banes’ observation that, since the 1980’s, the “omnicompetent” dancer has been considered a necessary complement to postmodern multimedia events.

Would that Friday’s concert could have included our very favorite Matte vehicle, Joshua L. Peugh’s Romeo and Juliet. An impossible wish to be sure – Romeo and Juliet is an evening length piece – but our wish nonetheless, for in Romeo and Juliet, Matte with Sikhumbuzo Hlahlini as Romeo repeatedly transfigured themselves in the service of the well known tragedy. Underneath Juliet’s balcony and later on their wedding night, they were to all appearances ardently infatuated with each other; no showy lifts to hide behind, just convincing emotion conveyed through their faces and bodies. (Verb’s Romeo and Juliet – Cleveland Concert Dance)

For more on Lieneke Matte, we highly recommend Steve Sucato’s article. (Verb, Ohio Contemporary Ballet Cain Park Program to Celebrate Retiring Dancer Lieneke Matte [PREVIEW] (artsair.art)) Notice how, at each decision point, Matte effectively played the cards she was dealt.

What will Matte do now that she is retired from dance? We hear that she plans to go back to school to pursue a Master’s degree in counseling from The University of Akron.  Like many dancers, she is retiring with surprisingly ambitious plans for a second career, the opposite of a Norma Desmond approach.  

One last question was on our mind as we watched the farewell concert. Why so many featured roles for Matte? She herself says in a recent interview. “I have had so many pieces set on me and danced so many leading roles.” Why is that? We asked a usually well-informed source who replied, “She does the choreography the way the choreographer gives it.” Another way of saying that she plays the cards she’s dealt.

So, yes, the concert ended with Bolero, but it wasn’t over. There were prolonged applause, many floral tributes, a dancer in tears, and a group hug. Bon voyage, Lieneke!

On Friday 6/23/2023 Verb Ohio Contemporary Ballet performed at Cain Park honoring the career of Lieneke Matte as she retired from the stage. The free concert was sponsored by David M. Dusek and James D. Graham, Leslie Kaufman and Scott Cowen.

Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas