Dance Review: Dante Puleio Dance Festival

 

Dante Puleio kicked off his festival with a refreshing approach; a minute long “mockumentary” on dance and dancers. He quickly moved into Untouched and the audience obliged anxiously awaiting the performance to come. 

Dante set the piece to music by The Veronica’s, which started with 80’s pop and transitioned into 80’s punk.  He created a piece on seven dancers who beautifully displayed Dante’s frequent use of circular arm gestures. The group began a little substandard, but they quickly pulled it together and showed off Dante’s vigorous choreography.   

Next to perform was Jonathon Fredrickson and six dancers in moments from The Edge of Some World.  Jonathon’s creation exuded an apprehensive exploration through space.  The dancers began in silence, while moving horizontally across stage.  The choreography developed and moved into a beautiful duet of codependence; a display of the desire to overcome.  

There was one more choreographer in the evening’s events and that was Phoebe Kelly.  Translate to Now was a duet with a beautiful live bass accompanist and recorded vocals.  This was a standard duet as the two dancers mirrored each other and progressed slowly.  However, the couple became intensely sensual and commanding, which agreeably brought the piece to a close.

Dante completed the festival with two more appealing works, Won’t Back Down and 7 Degrees of Separation.  Won’t Back Down was done with acoustic guitar and much like his other works he incorporates fluid movement with gestures of the arms and upper body.  Nonetheless, he created shapes and movement that kept the audience intrigued.  For 7 Degrees of Separation, Dante’s fluid style folded nicely into itself.  The music, strong and engaging, this piece’s execution overall was nice. 

Dante is one of New York’s emerging talents on the dance scene.  I would be curious to see more work from him as he grows and explores the rest of the body using his intriguing fluid arm movements he has established as his signature style.  All and all, the evening was delightful.  Kudos to all the dancers and choreographers who have participated in the Puleio Dance Festival.

Photos courtesy of Puleio Dance Festival

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by: Caroline Banks
Performance: Puleio Dance Festival
Choreographers:  Dante Puleio, Jonathon Fredrickson, Phoebe Kelly
Venue:  American Theater of Actors, Chernuchin Theater
Performance Date:  May 14, 2009
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