Armitage Gone’s World Premiere of Three Theories at Cedar Lake on Thursday June 3rd undoubtedly proves their staying power.  Impetus for this work came from choreographer and artistic director Karol Armitage’s reading of Brian Green’s best selling book on theoretical physics, The Elegant Universe.  The book focuses on the conflict between Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics vs. the newest String Theory.  This piece, using dancers as physical icons for this conflict, breathes stunning clarity into otherwise less tangible concepts.  Had physics class been this intriguing in high school I would have been a far more apt student.  Armitage’s confident dancers have no limit to their physical prowess, and in moments of silence, hearing a pin drop would have echoed loudly in the packed space.  

Armitage describes the first piece Relativity as ‘twisting traditional vertical and horizontal lines of dance to expose the poetry of Einstein’s theory.’  Gorgeous strings pierce the echo of appreciation’s silence as Kristina Bethel-Blunt and Leonides D. Arpon ooze sensuality.  In their duet limbs intertwine with care so certain it’s as if they’re handling a time bomb.  This piece favors exposure of sinewy lines with the women donning black bikinis and the men black boxer briefs.  Concave shapes perforate the bulk of Armitage’s work in this piece.  When 10 of the 11 company members disperse into duets their undulating qualities lead into writhing that transfixes the audience.  When Bethel-Blunt and Arpon return to reprise their duet, their connectivity stands tall with Bethel-Blunts Amazon qualities and Arpon’s strong grounded command.  The piece ends with a unison section so mesmerizing I barely notice William Isaac’s downstage presence as he performs a solo over the undercurrent of the company.  A pre-cursor to his exemplary role in Quantum, the second piece, a second viewing would lead my eyes to his limbs immediately.

In Quantum, the time bomb Bethel-Blunt and Arpon handled so attentively explodes in a fashion that makes destruction seductive.  At the crux of this are Isaac and Emily Wagner in a duet thickly infused with sexuality and a ‘don’t you dare look away’ attitude that cannot be denied fruition. Wagner is a snake en pointe with piercing eyes, Princess Leia buns, impeccable technique and with her head permanently cocked forward on her spine, she has an uncanny ability to get as close to the audience as possible.  The duet comes down center at one point and Wagner nearly leaps onto the lap of a front row viewer – and not to his disappointment in the least.  Clifton Taylor’s lighting drowns them in fluorescent light only to switch to a blackout – and when the lights return the dancers are found in a new position across the stage as if controlled by a switch.   No detail goes forgotten as Wagner and Isaac’s ooze about the stage with acute sharpness and exaction.  Rhys Chatham’s original score features 100 drums and guitars whose cacophony give way to exclamatory extremities that gain momentum with every moment.  Best described as magical, the crazy orchestral crashes fuel the tenacious take-no-prisoners-prowess of every dancer.  Dubbed the "Punk Ballerina" by Vanity Fair, Armitage demands the same attitude of her dancers and each delivers.  Prim holds no bearing in this work that uses volatility like air to get their message to the masses.  Another highlight is watching Mei-Hua Wang being held in a straddle above Marlon Taylor-Wiles head only to be turned 360 degrees at a crescendo’s dictation.  Far outnumbered by the instruments that accompany them Armitage’s dancers evoke the strength of an army.

Perhaps because this theory is the youngest, the final piece derived from String Theory is the most lackluster.  Largely due to the intense impression Quantum leaves, String seems to wane in the memorable arena.  The stunning Megumi Eda serves as "the one dancer consumed by big volumes of geometry influencing the company" as Armitage states in her intro speech.  Enveloping subtle movement with sinewy limbs the company supports Eda with largely unison phrases.  Settling into submissive poses on the floor, the heat created throughout the eve leaves beads of sweat dripping and flying through the air.  Melting into mellowness, the dancers are bathed in warm light revealing each pulsating muscle in the final stage picture.  The company circles around Eda with outstretched arms yearning for her.

In one evening, Armitage cultivates envy in the eyes of each person at Cedar Lake.  Rising simultaneously to their feet, the audience applauds through several rounds of audience bows.  Go see Armitage Gone! to connect to physics with the same desperation and transformative energy Armitage conducts, so generously, with her audiences.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  Three Theories
Compay:  Armitage Gone!
Venue:  Cedar Lake
Show Date:  June 3, 2010
www.iDANZ.com

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!

Share on Facebook

Opening with 2005’s English Suite, a sextet clad in nude Grecian dresses and shiny tights leaps about with grandiose, virtuosic movements.  Like spritely nymphs in the forest, they wield their technique as if involved in a large scale show and tell.  Wearing eyes of constant wonderment as if part of their costume, I often wonder where their joy comes from, but I suppose the height of their jumps speaks for itself.  In five parts, this piece begins to expose Marshall’s penchant for either uplifted staccato movements paired with perma-grins or wilted weeping willows with arms and eyes full of sorrow.  No matter what way you look at it, this piece shows stunning sculpted legs taking flight.

In Marshall’s world premiere of A Gift, she dances at 7months pregnant in a snug green dress amidst cascading light.  After English Suite’s classical tonnage, Gabrielle Roth’s more visceral percussion showcases her endearment for the life growing within her and how that emanates into the life of her limbs.  Playing with the underbelly of the rhythm it seems to speak to the greater understanding of life a pregnancy yields.  When one heart beats next to another, it’s bound to expand your sense of musicality and Marshall does not shy away from this sensation.  She exits back-turned to the audience with her arms nestling her womb.  A true gift to everyone in the audience… 

To combat the ethereal quality of English Suite, the same cast comes out in glowing red costumes carving the air with aggressive arms and legs, matching the ferocity of The Jack Quartet’s strings.  Another world premiere, Riding the Purple Twilight alternates tricks like illusions with pendulum-esque lifts as Marshall sprints the line between showoff and showcase masterfully.  Her dancer’s seem to answer all calls of ‘is this possible?’ with yes, yes, yes! as they too understand that milking their strengths is not necessary given their abundance.  If you will, the Amy Marshall Company gives the notion of "bunheads" a new mystique.  As volatile vixens in red, the female cast members lead the men into airborne tangos on fire.

2000’s Askew continues to transmute my first impression of Marshall’s work with her chosen sextet in S&M-esque costumes dancing as intensely as their costumes dictate.  Sculpted arms slice through the air as they travel the space with the precision of a world class marching band.  A bird’s eye view would have revealed this piece as a true kaleidoscope of wonder – constantly turning under and over itself revealing new perspective.  Marshall works as an over caffeinated sculptor here with dancer’s ever so equipped.  The rivalry of men versus women makes it tough to pick sides.

In Excerpts from Two Duets and a Quartet, a technically proficient, albeit listless pairing in Laura Halzack and James Samson, graces the stage.  Halzack moves with grace but her impetus to move seems to rely on Samson, similar to a plastic ballerina’s movement that stems from the winding of a knob of a young girl’s the jewelry box.  Despite this, Halzack is the crown jewel in this piece, a romantic heroine with increasing charm through the hem of her gorgeous costume.  Unfortunately for Samson, his black tee-shirt and pants blend into the black box making him a "helping hand" with little more than that as an identity.  Towards the end, an intimate spooning moment transforms into a glorious lift – perhaps the place this piece should grow from to offer up both dancers more than the identity of "jewelry box gem" and "hired help."

In the world premiere of Going for the Gold, Olympic dreams accost the audience with a cast of 14 entering in swim caps in unitards.  Immediately garnering raucous laughter from the audience, this piece may not win the gold but does it’s damndest for the next ten minutes.  Layering phrase upon phrase of movement atop one another like constructing a thickly woven quilt, it reveals Marshall’s depth of vision.  Emulating the struggle to get the gold, the cast’s raw work spits out sweat through turns and leaps that earn several mid-piece catcalls and cheers.

Get to Ailey’s Citigroup to see the many characters Marshall can illuminate within her small cast and bring your booming cheering voice, you’ll need it!

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth 
Performance: Amy Marshall Dance Company
Choreography:  Amy Marshall
Venue: Citgroup Theater
Show Date: March 27, 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

The iDANZ Commitment
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 – May 1.
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!

Share on Facebook

In the elevator of the Baryshnikov Arts Center I am met with an exorbitant amount of energy. “I hope we’re not late late late! I want to see him sooo badly,” chirp the people crowded in with me. David Dorfman’s new work-in-progress is entitled The Prophets of Funk and my elevator mates are just as eager as I am to see this profound prophet of dance theater at APAP on Sunday January 9^th.

Entering as the newly incarnated piece begins, Dorfman stands in 60s duds and heeled clogs talking about the company’s plans for the piece’s development.  In between his musings, he intersperses lines from Sly and the Family Stone, “if you want me to staaay I’ll be around todaaaay to be available for you to seeeee.”  After mentioning that the final stages of this piece may * fingers crossed *involve performing with Sly and the Family Stone, the remaining company members join him on stage for a "band picture."

Dorfman kneels to take the picture as the red spandex, rainbow colored, bell-bottomed donning company member’s boogie into a tableau. One dancer begins subtle isolated movements while speaking about how prophets "take your mind to the future but your body’s still here." Her body control matches her control of her voice.  Never booming or startling but equally powerful, she wields them in a way that reeks of anything but newness.  The company’s history of delving deep into the worlds of both dance and theater to ignite emotional and physical responses from their audience pervade The Baryshnikov Arts Center now.  So while this piece may be new, it reflects merely an application of the company’s securely founded process.

The tableau disbands and before her melancholy message resonates, the company explodes into dance so perfectly full of life and vitality I laugh at how much MTV music videos lack.  Dorfman cheers the company on as the group works through unison, trios and duets.  With hugely experimental partnering and effortless weight shifts, I can’t imagine how this will develop over the next few months/year.  In one moment, the company stands in a straight line with a male company member professing a lengthy diatribe with the finesse of slam poetry.  As he approaches the line’s end, a particularly fetching female dancer brings his first stuttering.  Not immune to this choreographed distraction the pair begins circling each other like mates in a forest, sexual energy building with every moment.  As living, breathing playground pieces they crawl, roll and climb with a voracious appetite for movement and each other.

A very promising new piece, David Dorfman’s "work-in-progress," The Prophets of Funk, starts high out-of-the-gate, keeping Dorfman fans salivating for more…

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  APAP
Compay: David Dorfman Dance
Venue: Baryshnikov Arts Center
Show Date: January 9, 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?

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!

Share on Facebook

Though I’m about to see several very professional companies at the NY Skirball Center, the energy feels more like a dance competition than a performance.  There’s intensity, discussion in between pieces and altogether a "more real than nervous for the first day of kindergarten" tight-lipped thing happening.  Instantly Dance Gotham feels like a representation of how dance is formed – through communicating and vitality.  The following four companies stood out above the other four who performed…

John-Mark Owens’ Vespers, featuring Ramona Kelly and Adrian Silver, brings vitality and life into pointe work that seems void of actual "work."  The pair’s mesmerizing duet marries grace and athleticism in a world that seems free of sharp angles.  What begins as a classically diminutive female character at the whim of the hulking male character becomes a playground for push and pull between the pair.  Just as Kelly’s strength grows beyond a classical female ballet role, Silver’s grace grows beyond a classical male ballet role.  Offering one another’s bodies as landscapes, the piece exudes infinite sensitivity.  They achieve towering shapes regardless of Kelly’s treacherous toes.  Kelly eventually abandons Silver as he lays motionless on the stage.  Owens manages to take the achingly beautiful essence of ballet to a modern place where grace does not translate to a lack of strength. 

The Dash Ensemble’s Sundowning, with choreography by Gregory Dolbashian, is beautifully enlivened by Christopher Ralph and Alexandra Johnston.  Johnston takes the focus initially with movements similar to a teenage girl donning high heals for the first time. With mannequin-esque control of her torso, her feet seem immobilized by the stage teetering one half-inch above the marley.  This focus transcends the entire piece and allows the audience to know that work is happening, that the physical bodies on the stage must exert energy to please the eyes that have marched in looking for a reason to stay open.  This is not to say that the work feels forced.  The pairing soars and connects with subtlety that softens the garish contrast of their bright yellow and purple shirts.  Power shifts flow seamlessly as their awareness of their strength is matched by the quietude of their artistry.  Ralph romances his explosiveness with lingering moments of stillness.  He flows so easily between these extremes while wearing slippery socks that the rowdy room is void of even a whisper.

Ralph appears once more in Nicholas Andre Dance’s Until Blue with choreography by Nick Ross.  Joined by five other dancers Ralph athletic movement quality shines so brightly he’s easily recognizable from earlier in the evening.  The sextet proves that bike shorts can be made beautiful when donned by the right bodies.  With just four dancers on stage unison quickly breaks into dueling duets whose energy encourages the opposite pairing.  With the six performers on stage, the energy churns like a tornado that is worth watching without that threatening deathlike quality pervading.  They forge harmonies as opposed to dissonant chords.

Camille A. Brown’s Mary proves that words never need leave the body to communicate if that body has the head to toe dexterity of Brown.  Brown has the enigmatic ability to reach the entire audience while making you feel like an audience of one.  With her full body sign language, Brown is like a body of water oozing across the stage, navigating moments of current, riding the forces of restraint and rising beyond floods.  To watch her is to feel attached both physically and emotionally to her journey.  I feel my body shift in its seat as if I can become closer to Brown by doing so.  Truly possessive of a star quality the room seems to shine brighter because of her light.  As the true highlight of Dance Gotham Brown’s three minutes would have been reason enough to travel to the NYU Skirball Center.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  Dance Gotham
Venue: NYU Skirball Center
Show Date: January 8, 2010
www.iDANZ.com

iDANZ Supports Doctors Without Borders



in their Haiti 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?
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. 

Join Today. Make A Difference.  It’s FREE!

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!
Want to stay connected to iDANZ?  Join our network
using the following services:

Share on Facebook

The Peter Jay Sharp Theater houses the best dance party of the season, hands down.  Alive with birthday cakes, M.I.A. beats, Lady Gaga-esque costumes and cowboys, the New Dance Edition concert at Juilliard reminds me that I live in New York City.  Should Dorothy have landed in the theater she would have begun clicking her heels immediately.  Or would she?

The freshman piece, Unwrap These Flowers, reads as the opposite of fledgling.  From moment one, they prove their right to be in the school, in the theater, and in the professional dance world.  Vibrantly curving, athletic movement allows the moments of violence to read as intrinsic to the characters and not startling.  Their enigmatic quality of being both new and capable should keep upperclassmen on their toes.  Choreographer Andrea Miller would be wise to take a careful eye to fully sculpting the piece.  Occasionally it reads as a dance concert where the exits in and out of the wing need more preparation.  Given full continuity, this piece blows the seniors out of the water.

Boasting the best piece of the night, the sophomore class haunts a packed house with Un Denier Verre (A Last Drink).  Fabien Prioville’s Americation debut offers the audience a birthday party where the birthday girl will cry…or talk if she wants to.  Drawing on his background with dance theater choreographer Pina Bausch, Prioville makes the mistake of giving his dancers far too much text.  When devoted solely to the dance, they send chills up my spine, convincing me of the despair their words make me doubt.  The piece’s heroine, a fuchsia clad soloist, extends her torso like a snake shedding his skin, arms teaming with articulation, feet planted.  The remaining cast members execute flawless unison sections rife with tangible turmoil.  These moments seem to represent the emotional tightrope of her mind, giving physical representation to the words that might as well be axed.

Flinging the theater into a flirtatious, Friday night feel, Larry Keigwin’s Megalopolis borrows futuristic costumes from Lady Gaga, music from M.I.A., and builds on the energy that makes New York the city that never sleeps.  Two unitard-donning dancers open the piece with gyrating hips snugly held by shiny unitards with Working Girl shoulders.  Before this has a moment to get old, the stage is flooded with black and silver unitard encased dancers leaping, jogging and swirling with the precision of a marching band.  A bird’s eye view would have felt like…a night at a club where people could actually dance.  Keigwin’s greatest win is his ability to showcase talent and sexuality and acknowledge that having one doesn’t negate the ability to have the other.  Unlike Prioville, he recognizes his dancers versatility without presumptions about other artistic realms to which they can delve.

Closing the show is Aszure Barton’s Happy Little Things (Waiting On a Gruff Cloud of Wanting).  As I watch, I truly wish that Barton’s piece had more time to come into its own.  Nicole Pearce, the show’s set designer beautifully sets up a Western feel.  If Barton’s piece would have only seemed to have some connection to the West, I would be calling the pair a dream team.  Unfortunately for the seniors in this piece, it did little to honor their talent.  While their embodiment of Barton’s choreography fully shows their ability as dancers, the overall confusion of the disjointed sections, unflattering costumes, unutilized western flair, and sole dancer in cowboy boots never takes me into their "world," whatever it is.  Without a set or costumes, this piece could have engaged me fully as a work in progress.

Juilliard dancers have unlimited facility and talent, period.  When choreographers work with the very thing they were put on this earth to do, success emanates.  Uncomfortable text and poorly constructed aesthetics can only act as sequins on naturally bedazzled creatures.  Go to the Peter Sharp Theater to see the core of what Juilliard dancers do best – dance with guts, grace and abandonment.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  New Dances/Edition 2009
Choreographers:  Larry Keigwin, Aszure Barton, Fabien Prioville, Andrea Miller
Venue: Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Lincoln Center
Show Date: December 12, 2009
www.iDANZ.com

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!

Share on Facebook

While many people bemoan the dawning of the quarter century marker, choreographer Tze Chun nails it in stride…or flight.  The twenty-five year old’s Tze Chun Dance Company shows a work in progress, new work and a rep piece this weekend at The Tank. Having presented at numerous venues in the city and prepping for a tour of China, TCDC reflects a choreographer with an unwavering vision.  Each piece drowns the audience in thoughtful details, effortless movement, and intriguing stories that leave me wanting more.

The lights come up on several dancers in champagne hued vests, shorts and other meticulously detailed garments by Hannah Shaw and Chun.  Reflecting upper middle class people of the 1800’s, TCDC dancers toy with the notion of play…often flirting or cultivating all things competitive.  This work in progress, Parlour Games, fancies oranges as baseballs and lives the philosophy, “if you have a prop on stage, use it!”  These "baseballs" become the Siamese between the notion of twins, permanent extensions of fingers, and finally like anything that’s close by when angst has reach its ultimate height – purely something to throw.  Things get interesting when two dancers engage in an intimate duet front to front, cheek to cheek.  This closeness rivals the music that modulates from carnival Prozac-pumped beats to melancholy piano chords.  This searching quality, that drapes the duet, feels like the valley between hiking two mountains marked by the quest to win.  Never taking her dancer’s physicality for granted, Chun manages to honor their personalities as well.  Her detail-oriented approach to dance is echoed by her dancer’s acute articulation of the body.

In Phase Vidcoder v2.0, Chun takes the stage with Daniel Iglesia at the foot utilizing ‘cutting-edge technology to create multi-media performances using live video feed.’  Without the benefit of a visual on this apt description, it takes Chun’s precise movements and manipulates them then and there onto a screen like a magical video game or something at the Apple Store.  As her second iteration of this piece, first created in 2008, Chun sticks to one side of the stage bursting with movement and then stops to let Iglesia work.  At times multiple Chuns are projected, tracing the same movements like interesting dominoes. These moments entice me most – seeing several projections enliven the movements separated by one second.  The possibilities here seem endless and could easily help generate choreography.  Instead of wondering what it would look like to have three dancers create a phrase, this projection could create that vision without any additional sweat necessary!

My concern for this piece lies in its ability to constantly engage viewers.  Like a shiny new toy, it has intense seductive power; but, after seeing the major modulations the machine offers, after the dance of seduction wanes, I am still in a theater hoping for something intriguing.  Chun’s physicality, however, the rise and fall of her breath and the noise it makes for her to travel the stage, soar far above the silent images created by Iglesia.  I am confident in Chun’s ability to work with this machine that may prove to be the "dance of the future" with its choreographic capabilities and her ability to continue to bring the "blood, sweat, and tears" that never cease to enliven an audience.

The evening closes with a piece that walks the line between everyone’s worst nightmare and a typical Friday night.  Out and About explores ‘modern-day limits of inebriation, inhibition, and privacy.’  Essentially, there is dancing, there is alcohol, and there is an intense amount of American Apparel cloaking the stage. The five dancers take actual shots of alcohol onstage as the 26 minute piece unfolds.  Chun says that they rehearsed with alcohol only at night, giving them shots and timing how long it took to effect them – this dictated how many they were to have during the piece.  The choreography is set, and clean, and as a credit to the dancers, it does not seem to grow unsteady as alcohol is consumed.  This brings about the most enigmatic quality of the piece – the alcohol does not bring the obvious stumbles, but a deep emotional change as clear as anything. Interactions between dancers grow cold, aggressive and vengeful.  Chun says that on Friday, “the piece has a playful tone and tonight it went to a place I had hoped it would go, to an uncomfortable place.”  Watching Out and About is like sitting at a bar where everyone’s a few deep, rife with dance skills, and you’re sipping on seltzer.

Go see Tze Chun Dance Company’s latest work at The Tank to watch work that honors its concepts wholeheartedly, flirts with the future, and chooses to stumble in order to chart new ground.  … And, as an inspiration for all young dance pros out there, it’s a delight to see how 25 could turn out to be just lovely… if you’ve half the ambition as Chun.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  Tze Chun Dance Company
Venue: The Tank
Show Date: December 4, 2009
www.iDANZ.com
 

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!

Want to stay connected to iDANZ?  Join our network
using the following services:

Share on Facebook

In these troubled financial times it seems that everyone is looking for stability, strong foundations and a place to call home. Becky Radway intelligently explores this need in her full-length work, And They Built a Crooked House, at the Connelly Theater in the Lower East Side this weekend.

While this description may not seem like the most solid place to rest your head, being crooked and all, she beautifully channels the connectedness that makes a home a home through the raw materials of visceral connections, physical touch, comfort, and exploration of the body and mind played out by Radway and three other extraordinary dancers.  With no 2×4’s or blueprints to lead the way, the foursome develop that very stability on a stage amassed in boxes, suitcases and other found objects.  Like any journey, it is riddled with unfamiliarity that brings confusion, newness that brings excitement, and wonderment that breathes life into the supple spines of the quartet.  Together they prove that with what looks like nothing but rubble, something tangibly alive can thrive.

Beginning with Carlton Ward’s spine undulations against an audio backdrop of static percussion while surrounded by boxes, trunks, and a loft equally crowded, I can sense that this piece pulsates from a place of seeking.  The undulations soon take him to the floor silently, practiced, as if he’s been looking for something there for years. In spite of his remarkable physicality, his pedestrian attire and overarching connectedness to character do not make me think “extensively trained dancer from the School of Blah Blah Blah.”  To watch him is to feel intimately connected with movement that happens not because it is learned, and demanded, and executed for the needs of an audience, but extracted from his being because containing it would be too much, containing it would be like never exhaling.  Life exists in his movements in a way that makes me want to find the thing missing in his life and give it to him wrapped up in a bow no matter how obscure.  Luckily the three other dancers also breathe movement onto the stage the way that someone else breathes carbon dioxide and together they find something entirely enviable.

Soon Radway enters as a precocious pip eager to interrupt this hunt with satirical wrestling.  Composer Scott Radway’s music travels to a carnival-esque place and tensions increase between Ward and Radway as they face off in an engaging matter that is heavy with conflict and sincerity.  Their “match” soon gives way to a sequence so amazingly in unison I find lunges interesting for the first time in…maybe ever.  Descending to the floor as though it were a cloud on Care Bears, Jessi Patz joins them on stage.  Patz motions are swirling and give way to deep releases as the final member of the quartet, Mark Lindberg, comes out of the woodwork on the left side of the stage.  As Patz and Radway soar across the stage connected at the hip, Lindberg watches as a protective brother of guardian angel exuding a sense that he lives to protect her.  She swirls endlessly with no awareness of his presence.

The piece continues with duets, trios, solos and full cast vignettes but none seem arbitrary and not a moment exists without something profoundly interesting happening on the stage or in the loft space.  The moments I find to direct my focus away from the action happening on the main stage lead me to find every character fully immersed in their own sense of seeking, protecting or exploring. Radway describes this piece as a tale of four wanderers living in a dim world whose survival depends on the other.  Her message is communicated clearly through four enigmatic bodies rooted in something to which we can all connect – the need to not only survive but to survive with someone who makes that plight worth the crooked turns.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  And They Built A Crooked House
Becky Radway Dance Projects
Venue: Connelly Theater
Show Date: December 3, 2009

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!

Want to stay connected to iDANZ?  Join our network
using the following services:

Share on Facebook

Joined by the five other company members of Anna Halprin under the direction of performer, Anne Collod, I see six well-toned dancers stare at the audience with the looming intensity of a sunset in the desert and carefully unbutton their white oxfords and peel off their trouser socks, sport coats, slacks and undergarments until they wore nothing but a stare that made me feel more exposed than they looked.  As a dancer who has grown up watching dancers perform in various states of undress and nakedly prance about dressing rooms as though skin were an outfit donned on the red carpet, the nudity alone did not bother me nor seemingly anyone else in the audience.  It is their complete dedication to the task at hand, the undressing, and their subsequent focus that is making this accessible "dance move" strongly communicated to the audience.

Following this audience stare down, they undress a second time while gazing across the stage at one particular company member, and then undress a third time while staring with the same a partner creating three duets.  Even with my aforementioned proximity to nudity and with the focus taken away from my audience member role,, I feel quite vulnerable.  Why? 

In a normal situation, I would grant them the privacy of averting my eyes.  But, here they are, on a stage, performing, and as an audience member am I not supposed to fulfill my responsibilities and watch?  Life has taught me that when sitting in an audience at a show, you direct focus forward and dream of the moment when the enigmatic beings on stage may toss an accidental glance your way.  Performers often direct their focus outward and, while modern dance often jests at the concept of the fourth wall, pushing through the audience with their candor, at DTW these six performers obliterate even the most modern of these notions and invert my entire idea of performing.

Nothing about their disrobing causes me to think, “Man I wish I could take my sock off that luxuriously while articulating my left baby finger so eloquently. What charm, what finesse!”  The inversion lies in their ability to perform mundane tasks with a heightened sense of awareness – more Eastern than Western in its origins – no multitasking, no highlighting of seemingly impossible feats, just unabashed focus on what it is to do one thing.  Between my earlier struggle with wanting to seem like a normal person who could be social and converse with my seat mate and my desire to seem fully engaged by the inanimate objects in my lap, I become aware of how specific Halprin’s dancers must be.

So often, dance works to prove that the human body can do things far more extraordinary than perform the tasks necessary to get from morning until night.  Halprin, joined with desire to take these daily tasks and make them engaging by reducing them to their raw efforts and results, pushes the concept of "new work."  This particular aspect of Parades and Changes was initially highly controversial and often banned.  Its return to the stage speaks to its importance both in the 60’s and now when no one can dedicate their focus to rituals that link the universe.

The evening takes many other tasks – ripping butcher paper, stomping on small platforms, dressing each other in found objects, etc., and works to bestow upon each task the integrity of highly technical dance work (or what I’d gather a brain surgeon dedicates when operating on a premature baby).  Unwavering in their attention to each task or “cellblock,” they are augmented nightly by their pacing and staging.  No two shows are the same which breathes life into "choreography" that has been engrained in both company and audiences members for all of time.

Go to Dance Theater Workshop to check them out and if you’re lucky, you may just sit next to a man who will talk to you like a human and then perform a human task that makes him seem otherworldly.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  Parades and Changes
Venue: Dance Theater Workshop
Show Date: November 18, 2009
www.iDANZ.com

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!

Want to stay connected to iDANZ?  Join our network
using the following services:

Share on Facebook

60×60 is the dance equivalent of a crazy family reunion where everyone is inextricably linked by one thread, dance, but everyone has interpreted what that means differently.  Whether wielding eight foot dowels drowned in silk as modern shoulder pads, goggles, face paint and flippers to achieve that amphibious look certain music just calls for or throwing caution to the wind and busting out some old fashioned bowling pins for juggling because they match your favorite sequined onesie, 60×60 lets anything slide aside from full on nudity or sexual exploitations.  60 dancers/groups write the story in between these limitations against the backdrop of 60 second musical pieces by 60 different choreographers.

Housed at the World Financial Center, a venue with endless ceilings stuffed to the gills with palm trees and dancers in various states of costume milling through the audience, waiting in the pseudo wings or plopped in front of the 48 foot stage, it resembles a dance convention in Southern Florida.  Flanked by Starbucks and escalators and World Financial Center workers seemingly unscathed by the infiltration of stretchy men and women in their workplace, audience members can freely enjoy the show without stuffy etiquette procedures or ushers.  Two giant clocks face the audience ticking down the 60 seconds each group gets while the group on-deck-motifs create living, breathing sculptures on the stage.  This allows for seamless transitions despite the rapid turnover.  However, given the extreme costume choices of some groups I spend a lot of time wondering why and how certain dancers share the space.  I reiterate – 60×60 is the weirdest family gathering you’ve ever been to but in a farcical way.  If you will it’s a family talent show where you pull out your surprised face as Aunt Margaret touches her toes and Uncle Melvin reveals a harbored penchant for Butoh and break dancing.

Justin Hashimoto and Alicia Hill’s duet set to Pasquale Mainolfi’s piece oozes child wonderment as they scurry across the stage clutching an oversized present. Choreographed by Kathryn Luckstone and titled 1000msx60, the daring, explosive and curious nature of the piece conjures up images of Hansel and Gretel traipsing about the woods in search of the gingerbread house. Hashimoto says that they wanted to "use the juxtaposition of the tranquil music and its rrrrr sounds to create the movement."  Grounded in technique and interrupted by moments that scream "reboot" their bodies flail about teetering on the edge of control causing me to lean forward and take in every movement.  They chose to structure the piece around the idea of two children finding a present and their obsession with its contents.  Like many of the pieces, the ending causes me to wonder what happens next.

In a more adult sphere, the full company, Amalgamate, performs Uneven Motion set to HyeKyung’s music.  Choreographed by Artistic Director, Alanna Marie Urda, it features all eight company members and 3 apprentices in full cocktail attire "motifing" in postures that exude conflict with wrists cocked mid slap, feet grounded mid stomp or lips curled into readable grimaces even from 100 feet away.  As their music begins the conflicts come to life, and I feel like the women from Mad Men have come to the World Financial Center to state their business with no holds barred, fully aware that the clock is ticking.

Categorized as a contemporary or modern collaborative company, Urda tells me they aim to tell authentic stories with every piece they create.  For this piece company members selected relationships, real or fictional to create their physical connections ranging from piggybacking, throwing, and even the occasional spank.  It takes them less than 60 seconds to throw the cavernous space into a frenzied tizzy and then with a spin of their well-healed shoes, they abandon the playing space to make room for the next group.

Also on the program, Lea Fulton’s group performs Speak to Dwight Ashley’s string heavy quartet.  Wobbly careening in on a green bicycle, Sarah Sadie Newett is stopped by Heather N. Seagraves, and, with Katy Clancy and Fulton’s help, Newett stretches over the handlebars hand-standing to the ground.  Clothed in vintage dresses and suspendered trousers Fulton creates a whimsical, dreamy space in which the quartet carve the space with swirling movements punctuated with controlled moments of stillness and sharpness.

"The mysteriousness of Dwight Ashley’s musical composition inspired an image that was both playful and haunting as the basis for the one minute piece of choreography. It was a great exercise to work within such clear boundaries of time and music and attempt to create a piece that was transcendent," comments Fulton.

Not everyone wants to go to family reunions but at the end of the day you know it’s your duty, you are born into something to which you’ll be tied forever and not showing up is never an option.  60×60 applies the same concept: if you have in any way ever loved dance, or music or palm trees you owe it to yourself to check out 60×60 to see what a body can do to your mind in less than a minute or at least watch 60 groups try.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  60×60
Venue: The World Financial Center
Show Date: November 12, 2009
www.iDANZ.com

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!

Want to stay connected to iDANZ?  Join our network
using the following services:

Share on Facebook

Flirting with a multitude of performance mediums, including narrations by both dancers and Siegal, the company also lip syncs song lyrics opening with “Now you know this is what it feels like.”  The confrontational lyrics, joined with the full company’s caped bodies twisting, swirling through the dimly lit bar, sets the tone for audience members to say seated, watch, and learn what it feels like.  Their performance tells me, like most people at the gates of a new beginning, that they feel anxious, passionate, and filled with chaotic energy that’s ready to burn.

Koroni seems to stand by the quote in his biography, “So much of life carries the potential to shock and excite me and whether traditional or controversial, if it carries depth I find a reason to appreciate its beauty.”  Koroni wears the choreography like a supermodel wears a slightly imperfect dress.  He struts and shines despite its often poorly constructed seams while others wear these flaws more noticeably like a second draft marked with red ink.  The skeleton prevails but the skin; the details most readily available need revision.

The company finds its tightest synergy towards the end of the evening in a beautifully costumed piece, set to Gary Jules Mad World, by extracting their strengths and fusing them into a nonstop movement stream.  Building on a movement phrase where they collapse starting at the head, then shoulders, waist and hips like discombobulated dolls company members draw physically and emotionally closer to one another proving that a connection worth developing exists.  While much of the evening reeks of self-indulgence, these dancers grow beyond their individual capabilities when linked together through concept.

This brings me to my greatest concern for the company, which exists for companies both new and seasoned.  How does an evening length work come to be and why?  What must each aspect possess in order for each to be exponential in strength when joined together?  If the sum of a work’s parts do not surpass them individually what is the point?  Why collaborate with anyone if you have enough clout to do your own thing?  Camaraderie cannot be used in this instance because the number one offenders of this crime are the solos that resemble dancers at their final high school ballet recital.  However, Scarlet Fever’s don’t fxck with me attitude, gritty choreography, and visceral connections to their body of work more than make up for these confusingly short vignettes that look like So You Think You Can Dance Audition reels.

Proving that startups burst with fresh ideas, Scarlet Fever’s bows bring life to what often feels like a ritual organized by the army.  Left, left, left, right left – stand in the right spot, bow in a timely fashion, smile modestly until you’ve left the stage, ditch the costume and any markings that represent your role in the show, save all excitement and celebration for outside the stage door. Nooooo – Scarlet Fever honors the work that the dancers have done by brief freestyles as their names boom through the speakers.  Bringing dance to all aspects of their debut performance, this company proves they should be seen, heard and noticed. Check them out at www.ScarletFeverCo.com.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Eileen Elizabeth
Performance:  Scarlet Fever, Scarlet’s Nightmare Choreography:  Paige Manley and James Koroni
Venue:  BLVD Bar, New York City
Show Date:  October 25, 2009
www.iDANZ.com

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!

Want to stay connected to iDANZ? Join our network using the following services:

Share on Facebook