DanceMetros

Pennsylvania Ballet
Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet
Artistic director, Angel Corella
Staged by Julie Lincoln and Robert Tewsley
Academy of Music, Philadelphia
Oct. 11-21
http://www.paballet.org

Pennsylvania Ballet opened their 55th season with a strong production of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet. Scored to Serge Prokofiev’s brilliant ballet score, MacMillan created this version of R & J at the Royal Ballet in 1965 and it stands as a contemporary story ballet masterpiece. PABallet artistic director Angel Corella, in his fifth year running the company, makes this production a glittering showcase for his new roster of corps dancers, star principals and soloists. Corella ambitiously continues to rotate several casts in the lead and supporting roles. Playing those doomed lovers on opening night were Principals Sterling Baca and Lillian Di Piazza are in a word, luminous.

MacMillan’s choreography requires interpretive acting and consistence technical artistry, by all of the lead dancers. This vital level of performance is established from the first scenes in the opening night performance. Much credit goes to the detailed staging by Julie Lincoln and Robert Tewsley. There is, indeed, plenty of ballet classicism, but

MacMillan doesn’t implant rote balletics that can be virtually interchangeable (something Balanchine didn’t hesitate to do) in different story ballets.
The houses of Montague and Capulet are sworn enemies in Verona. During a bacchanalia in the town square they taunt each other things get out of hand, swords are drawn and bodies start to pile up. Jermel Johnson brings full gravitas to Exacalus, radiating displeasure at the warring families and gets them, to lay down their swords. Meanwhile, this scene has some of the most thrilling sword fight choreography you will see in any ballet.

Of course, the rivalry reignites when the three masked Montagues crash Juliet’s coming out party, where she and Romeo dance and instantly fall in love. Meanwhile, Lord Capulet has arranged for Juliet to marry Paris, a young nobleman.
In the key supporting roles, soloist Albert Gordon turns in a defining performance as Mercutio. He is the rakish leader of the Montagues, looking out for his best pals Romeo and Benvolio, who is equally charming as performed by corps de ballet member Jack Sprance.

Principal dancer Ian Hussey is the protective and brutish Tybalt, a nephew of the Capulets, ready to fight anyone in his path and tries to keep Romeo away from Juliet. Hussey’s steely performance is pitch perfect and so is his every move.

Later back in the town square, Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, to keep the peace, since he is now secretly married to Juliet. Mercutio, incensed at Tybalt’s taunts picks up the sword and challenges him. When Romeo tries to intervene, Mercutio is wounded. He staggers about, tries to make light of his injury and before he collapses points to the rival families and dances the equivalent of “A plague on both your houses.”

Di Piazza is perfection both as the dutiful young daughter, clutching her doll and hiding behind the skirts of her nurse, but she grows up fast after falling in love and can’t abide being away from Romeo. Company apprentice dancer Pau Poul makes the most of what can always be an invisible role as the spurned Paris. Also making the most of gestural character roles are PAB’s ballet master Charles Askegard and corps dancer Marjorie Feiring as Lord and Lady Capulet

MacMillan keeps the corps dancers animated with dance and character business in and the ensemble dances are top-notch in every act, from the noble court dance processional to the ensemble of six ballerinas, Juliet’s friend, in their elegant precision ensemble configurations. Their counterparts, the ensemble of men with mandolins, are equally charming.

There is comic relief along the way, drinking games and bawdy seductions by the town Harlots and at one point the gents are hidden in shredded ribbon outfits twirling like fire dancers, led by a hot acrobatic aerial solo danced by Peter Weil.

Of course, the center of the ballet is the doomed love story enacted by Baca and Di Piazza, and rising and falling on their partnering chemistry and combined artistry. Baca’s tours en ‘air have command and ballone (and the occasional ragged exit) and most importantly he is always the most attentive partner, never hydraulic in his lifts, for instance. These qualities are crucial within MacMillan’s aesthetic which requires equal lyricism and expression from both dancers. On top of her thrilling pointe work, and diamond hard arabesques, Di Piazza’s Juliet captivates from start to finish. At one point she drapes herself over Baca’s back in a precarious inverted position and is just held there, just one of the breathtaking moments in this couple’s performance.

The opulent sets and costumes by Paul Andrews, is so gorgeously suited for Philadelphia’s historic Academy of Music. This production also marks maestro Beatrice Jona Affron’s 25th season as PAB’s musical director and it is cause for celebration just to hear her masterful interpretation of Prokofiev’s brilliant ballet score. Affron brings full dimension to this score, from Prokofiev’s blazing horn heralds, and at the other end of the sonic spectrum, the aching, tender violin passages performed by soloist Luigi Mazzocchi.

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DanceMetro

Dancefusion&Sokolow Theater/Dance Ensemble at FringeArts

 

(photo courtesy of Dancefusion)

For three decades Gwendolyn Bye, artistic director-choreographer-founder of  Dancefusion has staged reconstruction and revivals of specialized from influential and underrecognized contemporary choreographers, specifically a 20th century modern master Anna Sokolow. Bye’s revivals assuring important choreographic works remain are part of a living repertoire for this generation of dancers.  For Dancefusion’s 9th presentation at the Philly Fringe at the Performance Garage,  Bye partnered with  Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble for a substantive program of Sokolow repertory and Dancefusion premieres.

Opening with Sokolow’s still stunning “Moods” (1975)  scored to music by Gygori Ligeti in a flawless restaging by Nora Naslund, gorgeously performed  by dancers from both companies. “Moods”  entrances with Sokolow’s flowing ensemble lyricism, and more abstract duets and trios mise-en-scenes. The cast included both Dancefusion and Sokolow dancers, with stunning clarity and esprit de corps.

Then three works by Dancefusion choreographer dancers-

“The Space Where You Were” by Jennifer Yackel, suggest a woman looking back on her younger self, or, as a mother/daughter narrative. Danced by Janet Pilla Marini and Kate Lombardi with original music by Philadelphia based composer Cory Neal. The imagery suggests everyday activities moving around in rooms of a house (by way of square spotlights) and when the dancers partner, expressing emotional bonds or conflicts issues coming between them. Both Marini and Lombardi dance with dramatic intensity and unfussy technical artistry.

– “Diaries” by University of the Arts dancer-choreographer Omar-Frederick Pratt with a mix of music by Pratt (& Richter, Zimmer, Winston)and and choreographed for ten dancers in the opening tableau on the floor strewn with rose petals writing on the stage or in the air. Pratt unleashes them in high velocity ensemble movement.

Then Pratt thrilling adagio solo danced by Zaki Marshall that was packed with  technical artistry.  Then followed by an athletic duet with Lamar Rogers, laced with intricate lifts and expressive narrative .  Pratt himself enters the scene in  a mach speed pirouette sequence, turning it into a trio.  The full cast returns for a series of duets, within the group configurations.  Some of the full group passages look choreographically rote- lots of rushing on and off stage, for instance- this is a strong narrative work from Pratt.

“Three Parts Human” choreographed by Camille Halsey, also a  talented University of the Arts dancer-choreographer.  contemporary ballet piece with for five women (in  Athena tunics) and one male dancer.  Halsey also uses some conventional ensemble unison, and some of the duet had a middle draft feel. Still, Halsey’s overall stage composition and ensemble esprit carries the piece..

The second half of the program began with short works by Sokolow from 1984 titled “As I Remember” early work by Sokolow that she  reworked in 1984.  In this revival directed by Jim May, Sokolow’s company co-director and founder of Sokolow Theater ST/DE.

‘Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter’ (1941) Janet Pilla Marini dressed in a black satin gown with a red drop panel that she teased out like bullring cape, a lethal gaze and altogether smoldering precision in this dance of death.

Camille Halsey’s dances ‘Ballad in a Popular Style’ (1936) to music by Chick Corea (which Sokolow changed from the original by Alex North) is a jaunty, skippy free dance, with perhaps some shade to Graham, and anticipating Paul Taylor’s witty approach to postmodern movement.

‘Kaddish’ (1945) from the music by Ravel, with Kate Lombardi, Melissa Sobel and Elissa Schreiber in dramatic black dresses with black piping coiled on one arm, seemed like a beautifully danced parody of a Graham knock-off.

“The Unanswered Question” (1971), scored to music by Charles Ives, it is a meditative group sculptural piece with both the Dancefusion and Sokolow dancers face down on the floor and their bodies slowly lifting  skyward.  The symbolism of universal human struggle and ultimate shared hope, both earthy and ethereal.  This collaborative concert a reminder that Dancefusion remains one of Philadelphia’s most diverse and vital repertory companies.

Cristal Palace glitters on Schuylkill River

Transe Express
CRISTAL PALACE
Philadelphia International Festival of the ArtsI
June 1-10
Schuylkill River, East River Drive

 

The 100 ft. arm of a crane loomed on a pristine bank of the Schuylkill River, ready to hoist the giant chandelier of for French troupe Transe Express PIFA musical spectacale the Cristal Palace a centerpiece 10-day performance that took place each night of the 10 day Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

The chandelier was actually a flying bandstand for the brass and string musicians who sat perched in metal nests at the end of the its ornate branches. on stage below them other musicians as well as a roaming cast of dancers, aerialists, singers and street performers portraying a gallery of characters.

The show opened with the Nobuntu, a capella quintet from Zimbabwe,  transported with a set of joyous and inspiring harmony and folkloric vocalizations. At twilight, the Palace chandelier was in motion over the stage and the musicians’ playing unfazed as they were careening around on the chandelier in tight musical medleys with the rhythm, string and keyboard musicians on the ground

Their playlist was an era transporting musical journey with everything from psychedelic gypsy rock, funkadelic and they saved the most muscle for some extended jazz journeys to cap things off, echoes of birth of the cool. When the big-band swing came in with a nod from the drummer to Glen Miller’s Sing, Sing, Sing, the crowd was on its happy feet. At one point the keyboardist  busted out his accordion and cued a  Klezmer waltz that led to a scene of music and visual European bohemian magic.

Meanwhile the cast of Comedia d’elle arte street performers from move thought the crowd. Mimes and dancers in various costumes, engaging the crowd, a chorus line of Alpine folk dancers, a glitter-bodice Moulin Rouge courtesan, a musty travesti clown, a glitter queen with frizzy hair. Dance mise-en-scenes ala Moulin Rouge from Can-Can gender fluid kick-lines, to sousey physical comedy as the bands, aloft and on the ground stage strung together street serenades, gypsy fiddling, brassy chandelier fanfares. A bit of a flyby of French social and folkloric dance history with Alpine polkas, Moulin Rouge Can-Can kick lines, Paris tango as well as Americana renditions of the Charleston, Lindy and  flashdance,

Vituouso trombonist Ernest Stewart came on in the finale with a ‘Soul Train’ theme intro, then the rest of the band burst out with funkadelia ala Isaac Hayes, the dance line in full soul diva & divo mode. As much as anything Cristal Palace broke out in a bacchanal dance party.

So infectious the esprit that toddlers and kids were the first ones to run around and dance, some mimicking the street performers, others who just naturally have the moves. At first glance Cristal Palace may have looked like a gimmicky PIFA spectacale, but by the middle of the performance it became a bona-fide happening in Fairmount Park

~BalletMetros~

PABallet’s Court Dances
Pennsylvania Ballet
Grace and Grandeur
Merriam Theater, Philadelphia
April 5, 2018
The Pennsylvania Ballet was a near sell-out at the Merriam Theater for their Grace and Grandeur program, artistic director Angel Corella’s showcase for classical court dance lineage laced through Marius Petipa’s Paquita which premiered at the Bolshoi in 1847, George Balanchine’s Theme and Variation 1947 first staged at Ballet Theatre in New York, and even laced though moments of Christopher Wheeldon’s 2006 virtuosic male quartet in For Four.

As old as Paquita is, it bypasses being a brittle period divertessment through the effervescent of Ludwig Minkus’ ballet music.  Even though conductor Nathan Fifield and Ballet Orchestra brought out all of its musical elan, the corps de ballet women, uncharacteristically, struggled up front with ensemble unison, wayward pointe work and scrambled pacing in the transitional steps. In contrast, featured dancers Nayara Lopez, Yuka Iseda, Oksana Maslova and Alexandra Hughes followed with their solo variations, all performing with glittering technique.  Kudos also to exquisite harp solos by Mindy Cutcher.  In the concluding ensemble scenes, the corps de ballet returned with more cohesive focus, especially sharp on Minkus’ showdance prestos.

Of course, most of the focus is on Principals Mayara Pineiro and Arian Molina Soca exuded so much charm, their technical artistry and chemistry conveying virtuosic command. The Merriam stage seemed to confining for Soca in his thrilling jetes around the perimeter. And huge scissoring battement and stag leaps, and signature saute de basque sequences. An extended turn sequences did fall apart in its final rotations, but by then the audience was already dazzled for good reason. Pineiro’s fiery artistry and deportment is breathtaking. Pineiro nailing over 30 fouettes (many with lashing double turns) like a spinning diamond.

Mayara Pineiro & Arian Molina Soca with PABallet corps de ballet in Paquita

(All photos: Rosalie O’Connor)

 

For Four is a dazzling showcase for a quartet of men dancing abstractly to
Schubert’s String Quartet. The score’s taut string interlocks fuel Wheeldon’s neoballetic/postmodern phrases, that he punctuates with court jester bows, stag leaps, bows, tornadic pirouettes and darting arrow jetes ala Paul Taylor.

(l-r) Peter Weill, Sterling Baca, Zecheng Laing & Jermel Johnson~For Four

Sterling Baca is stoic and steely in his technical artistry.  Zecheng Laing a most lyrical dancer as his body arcs to the side, then he bolts over the stage in razor sharp allegro steps. Jermel Johnson in graceful command with unfussy and floaty jetes and entrechats. Peter Weill’s at ease phrasing the definition of  fleet and assured technique.

This piece was built for modern danseurs, and Corella was in the original, but when it is stars outdoing each other it doesn’t come alive, but this foursome was as ‘connected’ as the strings in Schubert’s score, led by the master violinist Luigi Mazzocchi.

Theme and Variations is one of Balanchine’s more inventive ballets in its distillation of Russian Imperial Ballet classicism. Balanchine is straightforward in showcasing the dancers without tangling them up as he does in many of his larger works. But the quick tempo classicism does require clean and sustained technique is a glittering showcase for both the corps de ballet women and men. Throughout the Balanchine’s morphing ensemble geometrics, the unison lines, pointe work and group port de bra, the corps de ballet women on top of their game in Theme and Variations. The full mens corps also near perfection in their unison jumps and deportment in the ballroom partnering sequences.

Dayesa Torriente & Sterling Baca and corps de ballet~ Theme and Variations

Baca was back, most impressively and his partner Dayesa Torriente deepened their onstage chemistry after their dazzling performances Siegfried and Odette/Odile last month in Swan Lake.

Corella’s range of updated classical repertory has been paying off artistically and commercially. Just a month after his streamlined version of Swan Lake, a retro-update styled after Petipa/Ivanov definitive version, was a near sell-out even with questionable edits to the score.  Next month he mounts Jewels, George Balanchine’s three ballet opus with its penultimate distillation of Imperial Ballet Classicism in Diamonds.

 

PhillyDanceMetros

BalletX dances for Spring

It still might be cold outside but BalletX dancers are already burning the floor at the Wilma Theater in an otherwise chilly Philly. Where else but BalletX can you hear the sizzling mambo of Tito Puente, Marvin Gaye’s ultimate 70s dance groove “Got to Give It Up” and the classical fire of live musicians from the Curtis Institute performing onstage with the dancers.

Opening the concert is choreographer Darrell Grande Moultrie ‘Vivir’ scored to Latin jazz and salsa music that he loved hearing growing up in Spanish Harlem. From the driving acoustic guitar of Rodrigo y Gabriela to the sultriest orchestrals by Tito Puente, Grand Moultrie fusion of ballet pointe work and salsa.

(All photos by Bill Hebert)

Gary W. Jeter in Gran Moultrie’s ‘Vivir’

Dancers fly on and offstage, joining each other in pulsing ensemble configurations, trio and duets. Gary Jeter remains onstage and dancing a soul searching solo to Bebo B. Cigala’s bittersweet ballade Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar. Gary Jeter and Francesca Forcella frequent partners lead the sensual, fluid motion duets

Matt Neenan’s premiered ‘Increasing’ in 2014 at Vail International Dance Festival with the company joined by New York City Ballet guest stars Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild. The ballet looks just as good in its Philadelphia premier with the BX roster dancing those solo sections and joined by the stellar musicians from the Curtis Institute of Music on stage with them performing Schubert’s String Quintet C Major.

In flamenco it is called duende and the synergy when dancers are in the direct zone of live musicians, and the ballet is exemplar of the potential of that dynamic as well.  Neenan’s choreography so inspired by the propulsion and introspection of Schubert’s chamber music, more than any implied narrative. The ensemble in quicksilver configurations that flock and scatter. Neenan punctuating with aerial variations and liberated pointe work.

Jenny Winton & Zachary Kapeluck  Neenan’s ‘Increasing’

Caili Quan’s mach speed pirouette entrance with her arms sculpted close to her sides. Quan and Skyler Lubin in a jaunty balletic unison duet and Richard Walters and Roderick Phifer in their own mirroring duet. The push-pulls of the violin interplays of Eunic Kim and Piotr Filochowski as hypnotic as the dancing. And this is a Neenan signature to keep the music an equal element on the dance stage.

Flash dance partnering spring from the taut string dialogue between the violins, then another dancer may fly on and pick up the undercurrent bassline by cellists Glenn Fischbach and Branson Yeast, or the counterpoint of violist Yoshihika Nakano. Kudos to former Pennsylvania Ballet II and Joffrey dancer Jenny Winton for subbing for company member Chloe Perkes who is recovering from an injury.

Roderick Phifer in McIntyre’s ‘Boogeyman’

Trey McIntire scored a huge hit “Big Ones” set to a song cycle by the late R&B singer Amy Winehouse, but as cleverly idiosyncratic his choreography was, it didn’t emotionally connect to the music in key ways. McIntyre’s “Boogeyman” does. There is an esprit, wit and a floating narrative of a young man expressing himself via the music to 70s pop hits. Roderick Phifer is alone in his bedroom plugged into his bulky headphones (I know, who would have guessed that they would be back) that turns into a witty, joyous, bittersweet drama of a breakup between enacted by dancers Roderick Phifer and Andrea Yorka.
Phifer has period headphones on hunched over and start some unhooked moves to one of the club megahits starting with Gaye’s ‘Got to Give it Up.

‘Boogeyman’ BXers

Phifer explodes into full on funk moves punctuated with vaults and somersaults over his bed. A quartet of partiers saunter on, they are dressed in 70s show drag and McIntyre revives Soul Train dance line moves with witty samplings of proto-break, robotic and wave choreo and who can forget those deep plié gyrations. As they funk down the line, Andrea Yorita and Phifer circle a phonebooth that might be the scene of their breakup. off and Andrea Yorita is in a state of catatonia in the bed but starts to express the angst sung out by Leo Sayer’s heartbreaker ‘Alone Again Naturally.’ Later Phifer and Yorita dance their fated lover’s tale to Stevie Wonder’s soul search lovers’ ballade ‘Never Dreamed You’d Leave Me In Summer.’ Earth, Wind and Fire’s ‘September’ party on luster  is McIntyre’s liberated dancing that soars in the bodies of this ensemble.

 

LGBTQ=+PridePoetries

endlessly, from last night

   fr Right Before I Met Vincent

the pulse
blue echo

the concussive
murmurings earlier
spying my belly button
in a drawer between
with shredded  biker socks

still molting at 7:42

rusty gaze

as marble sinews pulse
from vodka/quaalude
vision

geometric ink

butterfly on your left shoulder

(that you don’t remember getting when

you were stationed in San Diego

the day you burned your dress blues)

danced the night away out of our minds
lusting off
to eternity
this trail of

whispers
ending in a
glitteringly butch
shadows
dreamt only once before now hover in
diamond movement
tattoo

à l’après-midi d’un faune
Angling over a
busted wall
-when did you
share me
with candy-
from the other club last night
it is time to go out to dance, no?
is it still 3:20

1972 drenched
In sex forgotten in a flash with  all the
beautiful ones inhabiting the
Atlantis galleria
busted open

in the rumbling
strata of debris or the glorious
basilica liberated from any former crime
in faith knowing we
we are giving our bodies to each
other

resplendent sweated mighty

unlost

human havoc

sane all the same
sounds of falling onyx
& crystals
dripping
cracks below
Leaves scrapping  branches
of blue mercury

running through
Fingers onto
the temples
we hear
sonic psalms
La la la Sacre du Printemps
to escape the sound
Of the blood pulsing together

of the blood of ancestors

of the blood of ideas

of the blood of body

the blood of mind

the blood of soul

witness to live

inside a
Coldest room
waiting for scarred
voices down here

behind
Flamingotangerinefucshia
Dahliadarling ascendent
souls’ blood dancing

from the  indigo  sea

Andy-was-here-once&
Paul&Assotto
Larry&Timmy&
Keith&Ted&Pearl&SarahVaughan&Joey&Christopher
Georgio&Alberto&Michael&Marcel&Menage

&PeterMiguelJimmy&Sylverster&JohnAnthony=et. fuckin’ al. baby
nobody walked away
empty hearted
the corners
of the rooms folded up
not inside shadow
on bluer shadow
pulsing resonance
concussive dissonance
as the body starburst

endlessly through that smashed atom
still dancing with Shiva we dance for you&we dance for with you perpetuo molto

on ink-night beholden to our rainbow warriors
                                                                                                                          so mighty real

for Sylvester & all warriors

DanceMetros

This month, Dance Affiliates, Philadelphia’s longtime presenter of international contemporary dance finished their 33-year run at the Annenberg Center on the University of Pennsylvania campus in West Philadelphia and will be changing venues to the Prince Music Theater in Center City Philadelphia going into the 2015-16 season aptly dubbed NextMove- Two favorite troupes – RUBBERBANDance Group and Pilobolus – capped off the final season at the Annenberg.

RUBBERBANDance Group
Apr. 16-18
Empirical Quotient (ph Michael Stobodian)

Every time out, RUBBERBANDance Group taps their growing filling fan base game for the adventurous choreographic mixes by artistic director-choreographer Victor Quijada. Quijada’s troupe of six dancers, from various contemporary dance disciplines, are currently touring Empirical Quotient- winner of Dance Magazine’s 2014 best Choreography award.

Quijada continues to develop and refine his movement styles and has won multiple awards along the way, including the prestigious Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship and he is emerging as a prolific film choreographer and director.

Empirical Quotient is a long-form narrative with unexpected mise-en-scenes that flow into each other, hinting at stories without resolution. Less literal than Quijada’s previous lengthier work. Composer Jasper Gahunia, a frequent RBDG collaborator scores with the piece with a stream of electronica of staccato echoes, ghost train arias swooping in and strings with pings and bent notes inspire Quijada’s technique, reflected in the bowing bodies and precarious torques.

The opening scene has Anne Plamondon (co-artistic director) Lavinia Vago and Lea Ved in a series of intimate duets and trios. They gesture or tap another dancer, which sends a snakey ripple through their bodies, a standard hip-hop combination, but Quijada’s variants to such trendy movement makes it more compelling.

Then the men join them and establishes a series of interlocking phrases to build the ballet’s singular vocabulary, that freeze (stop frame) and underlines Quijada’s refined transitional phrases. There are a series of arresting reverse phrases, for instance and body puzzles that unlock in ways that only Houdini could explain.

Later, Ved entangled, almost threateningly, during an intense duet with James Gregg who has her bent backward off his body, she flips out of it and her pointed foot is on his neck. There are working something that lands him on all fours begging her and she just shakes her head. Later, Ved sculpts Gregg, Franklin Luy and Zachary Tang into a pile-up and they scamper like a centipede at her comic command.

Tang dazzled in fully pointed pirouettes with his arm over his head like a matador, for instance, adding to the laundry list of signature group moves with back vaults, inverted torso twisters, for instance, slowed up to mid-tempos and adagio movement. They may be less flashy, but impressively, aren’t leaning on movement velocity and are just as much about the critical transitional phrasing. All of the skills at points incorporating Quijada’s aesthetic as he continues to define a technique that careens to undiscovered country in its physicality.

The epilogue to the piece came in the street dance tradition of solo curtain call flash dances and this ensemble shows they have even more juice after over an hour of perpetual motion.

PILOBOLUS
May 7-11

Metaphysical anatomy
(photo:Grant_Halverson)
Pilobolus Dance Theater, the perennial favorite at Dance Celebration proved a fitting closer for the last Annenberg dance, with something for everyone, even if it was jarringly disjointed.

Full disclosure here, it was hard to come out of a dance stupor after seeing Pilobolus’ 2014 piece ‘On the Nature of Things’ which opened the concert. It is without doubt among their finest works, almost in a category by itself. It is a creation of the whole troupe, for one and a manifest artistic statement. One of those dance works that points up that at its best choreography is a language of its own & you can only approximate the real meaning translating the experience in words.

Three dancers on a small metal pedestal, in dance-belts, evoke images from Caravaggio and Michelangelo but rather than friezes, they were in melting motion, that metaphysical artistic component that lives in those paintings. The trio engages mostly with adagio movement, inversions, lifts, precarious falls, coupling that looks past any sexual intimacy, maybe a suggestion of a creator experimenting or giving way to the study of the human anatomy in motion. This flowing together in a powerful theatrical arc. The piece was danced with spellbinding artistry and skill by Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, Jordan Kriston and Mike Tyus.

So interesting, first off, that Pilobolus that amoeba-esque dance troupe, inspired by fungus that morphs all manner of terrestrial other than human, has composed one of their most profound works displaying the complete majesty and mystery of the human body, mind & certainly dance spirit.

The marquee draw piece by magicians Penn and Teller called (esc) was cloying in the extreme. A woman duck taped to a chair with a plastic bag over her head, leather fetishista pole danseurs, pad-locked crates, Houdini escape magic or no, a little went a long way and P & T were nowhere in sight, most likely counting their money in Vegas.

Automation also had a violent edge of torrential action scenes involving a horror film doorway, wind tunnel movement and dancers throwing each other around. Physically very impressive, but stuck on repeat sequence.

The closer, ‘Day Two’<a created by Moses Pendleton in 1980 still has great power and early signatures- meditative strength moves and body sculptures, for instance. By now the length of it gives it a more dated look, but danced with renewed conviction by the always phantasmagorias muscled company.

DanceMetros

Jessica Lang Dance triumphal at Dance Celebration

Lang’s architecture in ‘Lines Cubed’

Choreographer Jessica Lang grew up in Doylestown PA, and got her start as a dancer-choreographer in Philadelphia. For the last 16 years, she has choreographed more than 80 works for companies all over the world, and has received many awards, including the 2013 Bessie. Lang started Jessica Lang Dance in 2011 and this month, brought them to Philly for their first appearance Dance Celebration at the Annenberg Center.

The troupe’s appearance proved a highlight in an altogether electric season programmed by Dance Celebration artistic director Randy Swartz, which has featured mainly international companies.

At the opening of a four performance run March 19, Lang was introduced by Swartz and she told the audience how appreciative she was for the reception to her company that it indeed, felt like a homecoming for her. Her troupe of ten dancers showcased Lang’s expansive artistic dance template and her salient stage composition with a sampler of six works; you get the sense that this is just a preview of a very prolific choreographic master.

‘Lines Cubed’ builds out of dancers as architectural body studies set to an industrial score by John Metcalf and Thomas Metcalfe, which engulfs the action like a soundtrack to a thriller. The dancers seem to recalibrate their positions with the repeated sound of a piano wires being hammered.

The dancers are grouped in red, yellow, blue or black outfits signal disparate choreographic moods. The ensemble locks in squared or sharply angled shapes get more dizzying and in the process, Lang delineates clean balletic lines -classic, progressive and deconstructed- evolving in her striking stage visual of morphing accordion piping, like a geometric schematic.

The end section strikes as ponderous in the arc of the long form piece. But, the ideas and attack of these dancers with this material makes it a stunner.  

‘Mendelssohn/Incomplete’ for six dancers, indeed does look like a middle draft of a larger work. It is set to the Tranquillo movement, performed by Gould Piano Trio of Mendelssohn’s Concerto No. 1 inspiring lyrical expressionism by Lang, but is also curiously choreographically spare. The couples chasse and petit jumps are pretty, but don’t go anywhere. Lang starts to mix it up with some group configurations, but only briefly.

In contrast, ‘Among the Stars’ with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto is a riveting duet danced by Laura Mead and Clifton Brown. Mead in a drop-dead structured raw silk dress with a train that unspools as she piques across the stage, while Brown holds the other end. It becomes an allegory for their relationship as they leap over its borders, gather it around them or release it in the air, their story punctuated by Lang’s unique lift patterns and releases that flow naturally, danced with precision and subtlety.

Fabric also figures in ‘The Calling’ a solo scored to the ariatic elegies of Trio Mediaeval. Kana Kimora is dressed in a form fitting off white gown that fans out on a wide circle. At points she seemed both free and trapped in it, or disintegrating (she seems to sink into the floor at one point) or in gorgeous sculptural torso-scapes that suddenly become pained. 

‘White: a dance on film’ by Lang and director of photography Shinichi Maruyama has the ensemble projected on screen and moving sometimes in slow motion on turns and jumps showing Lang’s and the dancers polish, but they are just as wily in funny gestures the speeded up section is hilarious Buster Keaton meets modern ballet

‘I.N.K’ at first seemed connected to the dance on film, as a dancer dressed in black togs is suddenly crouched before the blank screen as huge splash of ink starts to be projected on across it. The liquidly soundtrack cues other dancers to enter the scene, some in a scuttling crouch march, others moving with slithery and rippling bodies. The piece just pulses with abstract movement, of the phrasing looking like reverse dance combinations and again Lang creating sculptural shapes in motion. A male-female duet breaks out downstage that seems to be floating an intense relationship, but ultimately, this is decidedly cryptic mis-en-scene.

Lang seems to have some false ending and like Cubed Line, the arc of the piece seems less in focus than the back half. Still, Lang’s edginess and whimsy, side by side, goes a long way in building its own dynamic dance-scape.

The audience’s lusty applause for the conviction and esprit of these dancers sent the clear message that they hope to see them back on this stage again soon.

DanceMetros

‘Risky Business’ quintessential Philadanco

Perelman Theater, Philadelphia
Dec.11

Philadanco has had a very tough year financially and for their fall series at the Kimmel Center titled Risky Business by artistic director Joan Myers Brown, might have more than one meaning. Brown was definitely referring to a program packed with risky, athletic moves. The legendary Brown, has piloted the company for 45 years and her school for 55. Winner of every arts accolade along the way, Danco does Philadelphia proud on tour all over the world, but the city doesn’t return that love with financial support.

But, despite these hardships, Danco opened its 45th home season with a theatrically thrilling, choreographically exciting program of five works. Pulse by Daniel Ezralow, has dancers sliding across the stage with precarious velocity, dressing in bluish iridescent dance togs and socks hydro foiling in and out of dramatic pools of light. The deceptively simple work is Ezralow‘s visual representation of spacey electronica music by David Lang, that builds to a sonic matrix as the dancers pulse together in floaty ensemble configurations and just as fast in breakaway solos. Jah’Meek D. Williams is suddenly the center, in mach speed spins and later Victor Lewis, Jr. locks into a plie with a spellbinding hand dance like he was trying to capture atoms.

‘White Dragon’ choreographed by Elisa Monte for six dancers has a modern-primitive feel, with the dancers are costume in colorful skimpy outfits that could be part of a cultural rite, moving in agitated angular patterns. The music, by Glen Branca gets more 80s clubby and the ensemble sections are more fluid in the back half of the piece with ramped up athleticism and double-tempo phrases. A central duet entrances with sculptural and acrobatic intensity, danced with stunning precision by Rosita Adamo and Joe Gonzalez.

Ray Mercer‘s ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ features a 5 foot standing table that dance on and dive off of, and otherwise use as a relationship cliff. Mercer’s dynamic movement ideas beautifully anchored to couples’ figuring it all out. Like Pulse, this full ensemble piece, shows more refinement every time out and is much more than its dazzling dance effects. Elyse Browning in a scorching solo on top and underneath the table. Roxanne Lyst, always with gorgeous athleticism, is in fearless flight vaulting in breathtaking lateral splits. In one of the sizzling duets, the towering Adrian Moorefield and Janine Beckles have such steeled litheness and intimacy in their partnering.

‘Ghettoscape with Ladder’ is classic by Talley Beatty, set to Natalie Cole’s rendition of Good Morning Heartache. Four men carry in an eight foot ladder and on it is former former Danco and Ailey star Deborah Manning St. Charles (who now teaches at Danco). She reprises her role from 15 years ago, dancing Beatty’s precarious precision with as much theatrical power and balletic grace than ever.

The premiere piece ‘Latched’ by Christopher Huggins, set to Sohn, a pulsing Brit electronica band. Huggins has the dancers in black tops and tights, it is choreographically it is Huggins at his most witty and mysterious. The theme of couples coming together only to be pulled apart, it is a simple physical play on the push-pull of relationships. Huggins’ flowing choreography also technically demanding with low to the ground lift combinations, for instance, that displays Danco’s dazzling athleticism and Huggins’ vivid musicality.

‘Risky Business’ has such artistic depth and technical magic that, in fact, they are more relevant than ever. Brown is about to take embark on a six week European tour with their smash production ‘James Brown: Get on the Good Foot‘ that premiered last year at the Apollo in New York, was given a dicey reception by critics, but played to sold-out houses in New York and L.A. Danco dances on without fail.

DanceMetros

Parsons Dance’s jazzy return to Philly

Miguel Quinones about to take permanent flight in the transcendent Parsons’ dance CAUGHT (photo B. Docktor)

The Dance Celebration series at the Annenberg Center is presenting one of the most diverse and stellar line-ups of companies for their 2014-15 season. The dance series has been struggling to maintain funding in its commitment to present all styles of dance from around the world. They kicked off with Britain’s BalletBoyz, Israel’s Kibbutz Contemporary Dance, Spain’s Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca, all attracting enthusiastic audiences, but still not enough to fill Annenberg’s spacious Zellerbach Theater.

The first week in December, the popular New York based troupe Parsons’ Dance returns with a mixed program of old and new repertoire.. Choreographer David Parsons is not only known for his athletic, sensual and diverse choreographies, but showing vastly different content each time out. His current tour is highlighted by his newest piece Whirlaway and dance-works by out choreographer Trey McIntyre and former Parsons dancer-choreographer Natalie Lomonte.

Whirlaway is scored to a song-cycle by jazz composer Allen Toussaint’s and had its premiere in New Orleans last spring in a sold out performance in a 2500 seat theater. “Everybody’s jaw dropped that we sold out,” Parsons said in a phone interview last week from the company’s studios in New York.

“Allen Toussaint is one of the most legendary singer-composers in the US. He played ‘Whirlaway’ live onstage behind us with a 12-piece band,” Parsons said. The choreographer collaborated directly with Toussaint “we sat around the studio and came up with the tracks for it and he was so great to work with. This is a fantastic piece closer for this Philly program. The music is more jazz-funk and it brings audiences together at the end. You feel like you are in New Orleans celebrating dance and beautiful bodies and music.

As he has done with other song suites, notably ’In the End’ scored to tracks from the Dave Matthews Band, Parsons often choreographs to popular music, usually with a cohesive narrative line. “There is always a thread that I like to communicate. I hate when people sit in a dance concert and have a question mark as to what it’s about. I like to bring something that has to do with their lives. “

Jazz scoring to contemporary dance is a rarity, but it is a standard method that Parsons is always experimenting with. His 2001 piece ’Kind of Blue’ set to Miles Davis’ ’So What’ (also on the Philly program) he describes as “improv based, there are segments where the dancers can go off, I don’t care. You know I like to have fun and I like them to have fun,” he assures. the dancers don’t have to stick to every choreographed move,” Parsons explains. “when we have time off on tour for instance, I get bored. So I would do these jazz improvs.”

Also in Philly, in sharp contrast, the troupe will dance Parsons’ ‘Bachiana’ (1993) scored to J.S.Bach’s Orchestral Suite no. 1, as you would expect is ” very balletic, Air on a G String section is the anchoring duet,“ Parsons describes, “it was first done on a French company and we‘ve danced it all over the world. . Now many other companies have danced it too.”

In addition to choreographing an average of two new pieces a year, David Parsons nurtures other dancer-choreographers with his creative support through Generation NOW Commission. On the current tour, he will be presenting former Parsons dancer-choreographer Natalie Lomonte’s preview of work in development. Lomonte teaches dance at Fordham University and also performs, most recently she dance captain and in the cast of “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark.” Parsons said that he likes to “stay inside the family as much as we can. New choreographers need a place to show their work. Natalie knows the company and understands the physicality of our dancers.”

At every performance in Philly audiences have come to expect a performance of Parsons most dazzling signature piece ‘Caught‘ a solo work he created in 1982 that never looses its mystique or theatrical punch. Scored to trippy electronica music by Robert Fripp it is a tour de dance force that has been performed by both male and female members of the company. One of its amazing elements is the dancer’s breathtaking synchronization with a strobe light that gives the illusion of the dancer suspended in mid-air.

After Philly, the troupe is performing in Utah, then at the Joyce Theater in New York (Jan.21-Feb.1) before they embark on a six-week European tour.

Parsons Dance Dec. 4-6 at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA | http://www.annenbergcenter.org | 215.898.3900
http://www.parsonsdance.org