In a new program at Symphony Space     David Parker and Gina Gibney present an interwoven evening of works that show just how different and yet subtly reminiscent two very distinct contemporary works can be.  For the new series entitled “Short Form Weave,” Parker and Gibney are invited to make works to the music of composer, Ryan Lott that would, in presentation, vibe off the other’s kinesthetic energy.  The resulting dances are presented in delightful tandem, first a section of Parker’s Other Arrangements then a chunk of Gibney’s concrete mechanique and so on, four sections in total, with no intermission. The original sound score is performed live by Lott himself, sometimes appearing with a just a laptop, and sometimes with the music ensemble, yMusic, just behind an opaque scrim.

Watching dances in this format allows for a remarkable game of compare and contrast.  I am struck immediately by both choreographers’ attention to musicality.  Parker likes rhythm…  Like a concert with Bobby McFerrin, his dancers slap themselves and each other; they stamp the floor and interact accompanied by distorted voiceovers to create a mottled fabric of humanistic happenings.  On the other hand, Gibney works with the full ensemble of musicians playing cyclical and dramatic classical sounding music in which she wonderfully mimics each musical movement’s sensibility within her own choreographic structures.  When the ensemble plays arcs and rolling shifts, she gives us leaps and circling partner lifts in canon.  When the score shifts to staccato pulses, her dancers turn their heads sharply from side to side leaning forearms into the floor and flipping their bodies unison.

The resulting emotional life of each work are strikingly different in tone.  Parker has his dancers quickly come in and out of moods dancing wildly and hopping, flailing about but then walking slowly, pausing to look pointedly at one another.  Out of everyone in Parker’s more active section, my favorite is Amber Sloan; fully committed to every movement, Parker’s piece seems tailor-made for Sloan with her noticeably long limbs and perfectly awkward, perfectly weird quirks.  Love her….

In Parker’s final work of the evening, Parker is a delight.  He comes closest to theater when a duet, that begins as a slapping game, progresses into a fun vaudevillian rendition of “Tea for Two,” remarkably well sung by Jeffrey Kazin and Nic Petry.  Although the jokes here are predictable, I sincerely enjoy the rhythmic play in which each man tries to steal the other’s spotlight as well as enjoy the queer reading of the song.

In contrast, Gibney’s work gives emotionality as a starting point with tantalizing texture.  Her dancers, beautiful and very clean, have mastered the controlled, swooping feel of her movements (Joshua Palmer looks exceptionally “on” in his quick shifts between off balance turns and sharp, directed gestures).   At the very end of the second section of Gibney’s work, a long, angst-filled duet winds down into running and circular suspended lifts. The dancers twirl as the music plays elongated and slightly grating chords, and because here Gibney goes against the music’s overwhelming rhythm, the lights quickly fade on a gripping scene still fueled by a fiery disharmony.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Meghan Frederick
Performance:  Short Form Weave- The Bang Group and Gibney Dance
Choreography: David Parker and Gina Gibney
Venue:  Symphony Space
Show Date:  March 5, 2010
www.iDANZ.com

iDANZ Supports Doctors Without Borders
in their Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts.

MSF/Doctors Without Borders has been working in Haiti for 19 years, most recently operating three emergency hospitals in Port-au-Prince, and is mobilizing a large emergency response to the Haiti/earthquake disaster.

Can you please help them provide medicine, surgeons, nurses,
and supplies to victims in this crisis?
Click Here to Send a Direct Donation to Doctors Without Borders

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A refreshing variety of dances by emerging and experienced choreographers, Soaking WET brings downtown modern dance to the Upper West Side.

An ongoing series produced by David Parker and Jeffrey Kazin, Soaking WET presents shared-bill and single artist performances at the intimate West End Theater.  The current installment of Soaking WET showcases the work of Christopher Caines, Kelli Edwards, Marta Miller, Ainslinn Macmaster, Tiffany Mills, Kristi Spessard, and Katherine Longstreth, with special performances by Amber Sloan.

West End Theater, located on the second floor of the Church of St. Paul & St. Anthony, is the perfect size and space for the Soaking WET series.  The seating is limited to a few rows of raised pews, which offer a perfect view of formations and floor work.  Several columned archways serve as a dramatic backdrop to the curved stage area, and the walls extend a few stores high to a domed ceiling.  The program, curated by David Parker of David Parker and the Bang Group, reflects his company’s own sense of humor, musicality, and physicality.

Thursday night’s performance included the works Owe by Miller and MacMaster, LandFall by Mills, This is What We’re Doing Now by Edwards, and Suite from ARIAS by Caines.  The duet Owe, choreographed and performed by Marta Miller and Aislinn MacMaster, explores a complex and multi-faceted relationship between two women. Miller and MacMaster, who have been dancing together for over a decade, carefully craft vignettes that span a range of emotions and associations.  The dancers slow-dance, wrestle, embrace each other, and almost strangle each other, with precise movements and a strong sense of intent.

Tiffany Mills’ LandFall is a powerful solo performed by Petra van Noort, who balances small isolations of her torso and wrists with large sweeping motions.  LandFall is the least narrative of the works in the program, and Mills creates a psychological landscape in which van Noort searches for herself and possibly a way out.

Kelli Edwards’ This is What We’re Doing Now is a strikingly sincere modern dance piece in which a trio of dancers- Johan de Besche, Irene Lutts, and Edwards herself- travel along a clear and satisfying choreographic arc.  The piece, set to various Lieder by Schubert, opens with the dancers taking a moment to quickly prepare themselves in plain view of the audience.  As they briefly adjust their costumes and nod to each, they set the tone of the piece; the audience enters into the dancers’ world, experiences the movement empathetically, and feels involved in the dancers’ story.  The dancers then whisk through a whimsical and musically sophisticated series of phrases.  Edwards combines constantly changing formations and cannons fluently and with ease.  The piece then transitions into a number of duets, during which the third dancer sits to the side and observes.  These duets are intimate and grounded.  The dancers move each other’s limbs, use each other’s weight, and at times simply support each other.  Although the dynamics and relationships between the dancers in the duets change throughout these partnering sections, Edwards maintains gentleness and inquisitiveness in the task-based movements.

The evening concluded with Christopher Caines Dance Company performing Suites from ARIAS.  Set at a cocktail party, the piece opens with dancers greeting each other cordially and clinking champagne glasses.  Caines’ mixture of waltz steps and pedestrian gestures with darker elements (two dancers stepping over the sprawled body of a third dancer comes to mind) is a bit confusing.  The audience would be more inclined to journey into abstraction with Caines’ dancers if the piece returns to the cocktail party narrative throughout the work.  Nonetheless, dancer Wendy Joy Reinert’s stunning performance showcases Caines’ musical sensibility and graceful phrases.

Be sure to check out the next installment of Soaking WET, which returns to the West End Theater May 13-16^th with works by Deborah Lohse, Oan Spencer Bell, and Ben Munisteri. 

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Tze Chun
Performance:  Soaking WET
Venue:  West End Theater
Show Date:  January 21, 2010
www.iDANZ.com

iDANZ Supports Doctors Without Borders
in their Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts.

MSF/Doctors Without Borders has been working in Haiti for 19 years, most recently operating three emergency hospitals in Port-au-Prince, and is mobilizing a large emergency
response to the Haiti/earthquake disaster. 
Can you please help them provide medicine, surgeons, nurses,
and supplies to victims in this crisis?
Click Here to Send a Direct Donation to Doctors Without Borders

For every new person who signs-up to be a member of the
iDANZ Social Network, iDANZ will donate $1 to
Doctors Without Borders January 18 – 31.
Go to www.iDANZ.com To help save lives by 
Becoming a Member of iDANZ Today!

Have You Seen the iDANZ Social Network?

Click Here To Become a Member
of iDANZ.com Today!

The More Members We Have, The More We Can
Make a Difference.
It’s Free!
iDANZ – The Social Network Where Dancers Live!

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