The Latest Reviews

H. Art Chaos

Between Death and Rebirth: H. Art Chaos performs at 2009 American Dance Festival
Sometimes there's a fine line between dream and nightmare. Japan's H. Art Chaos, an all-female company founded by choreographer Sakiko Oshima and dancer Naoko Shirakawa, drew from both sides of that divide in their performance at the Reynolds Industries Theater (June 29, 30, July 1).

"Flowers of the Bones," a brief new work commissioned by the American Dance Festival (ADF) that included a musical contribution by Alan Terricciano and the participation of three ADF dancers, introduced Ms. Oshima's visually striking aesthetic and the physicality of the dancers. Haunting the mysterious space between life and the oblivion of death, soloist Shino Kido floated and hung, writhed and gasped amidst visions and spirits. The lighting was fabulous and eerie, filtering through the mist that fills the stage, illuminating at first a woman (Ms. Kido) suspended in the air. She lay flat as if dead, but slowly began to move, arms and legs awakening, swimming through this new air. Before long she flung her body around, struggling against the power that suspended her.

Anne Morris MFA Candidate
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Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cut and Paste

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Presents Ohad Naharin's "Decadance" at ADF
Promoted as a collage of reconstructed moments of past works, Ohad Naharin's "Decadance" provided a conspicuous departure from formality and structure for ADF audiences June 25th-27th at the Durham Performing Arts Center. The dancers of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet declared the stage emphatically theirs in an unapologetic, fierce foray into Naharin's assortment of work that spans two decades in this piece alone. While the dancers exuded cool confidence and some aspects of the work were wonderfully entertaining, the piece as a whole was fractioned and confusing, more closely resembling a dinner theatre review rather than a work to be shown at the American Dance Festival.

Silence permeated the space as a large group of dancers in black and white stared out, shifting suddenly in perfect unison. Violent solos and vocal outbursts punctuated the stillness with anger. Suddenly the group exited and a woman entered backing away from her domineering partner who seemed to want to devour her. Unforgiving and cruel, they pounded on each other, control switching back and forth throughout. As the accompanying operatic score came to a close, and shirtless men in African inspired pants entered, it became clear that the work was no more than a series of vignettes, not particularly interrelated. This ritualistic, primal quintet of men were then interrupted by a woman on stilts dressed in feathers and a sequined thong randomly strutting across the stage, followed by a line of sultry women in suits, hips swaying and hands dangling. A larger group of suited dancers appeared and coerced audience members to join them in some ballroom inspired movement onstage. Then a quintet of women in navy skirts and polo shirts danced an accumulated phrase to an accumulated score of text, quickly becoming as predictable as "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Ali Duffy, MFA
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Emmanuel Gat Dance

Embracing the tension of the middle ground: Emmanuel Gat opens the ADF Israeli Festival
"Artmaking is about contrast," choreographer Emanuel Gat offered at the post-performance discussion following the world premiere performance of Winter Variations at the Reynolds Industries Theater (June 22-24, 2009). From the first image, Gat revealed the contrasts at the heart of the work, balancing the tension between darkness and light, sound and silence, movement and stillness. The duet, created and performed by Gat and Roy Assaf, opened with an electronic hum, growing gradually louder. The lights blinked on, revealing large squares of faint light on the stage, separated by margins of shadow. Gat and Assaf, sometimes alone, sometimes weaving in and out of unison, moved with precision into and between the lighted areas, freezing for long, measured pauses before continuing. Filled with specific but baffling gestures - an arm outstretched like an elephant's trunk, a hand cupped under the chin - the full-body movement skimmed the surface of the stage with a smooth, unhurried lightness. Arms and elbows fanned and pierced the air, framing and passing over the face and around the head. The idiosyncratic movement remained compelling throughout the work, as it grew in intensity or pulled back, connected the two men or propelled them apart.

According to the program notes, space emerged as a primary element in the creation of the duet, so that the stage itself became almost a "third actor." Both the lighting design and the use of the vast stage by the dancers - in their proximity to or distance from each other or in their exploration of the farthest corners - brought the space alive. Negative space was made clearly visible and significant as the dancers played in the spaces between elbow and ribs, between the knees, within the shadowy margins of the light.

Anne Morris MFA Candidate
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Shen Wei

Re-tracing In Three Steps
Shen Wei Dance Arts kicks off the 76th American Dance Festival June 18th

Shen Wei, known worldwide for his 2008 work in the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies, launched the 2009 season of the American Dance Festival with the world premiere of "Re- (Part III)" on June 18th at the Durham Performing Arts Center. A statement of the contrasting cultures and social constructs of Beijing and New York City, the large group work re-imagined sociopolitical trends. Set to a haunting violin score by David Lang, the dance portrayed an unforgiving urban landscape with oppressive consequences. Costumed in moss green leggings and loose tanks, the group marched with crystal clear precision through the space, stopping on a dime and changing direction, back and forth, forward and back. Effortful duets emerged from the larger group, dancers locked together at the shoulder as if animals head-to-head in epic battle. As the tension became overwhelming, the duets collapsed together on the floor in defeat.

Ali Duffy
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Louder Than Words

Louder Than Words Explodes Into The Byron Theater
"Tensegrity" is a concert of three innovative, new works developed when Louder Than Words Dance Company "reversed" its creative process and let composers, costume, set, and lighting designers drive it, rather than the more usual way of establishing choreography and then letting designers help in its presentation. The result of that "reversal" is three strong works featuring music composed by Austin Feagin and Matt Morgan, costumes designed by Chris Harris and Nancy Harris, Lacy Erb, and Whit Harris Ryan, lighting designs by Erb, set designs by what is called "The Design Team," and choreography by Chris Harris, her dancers, and Jane Wasson, as inspired by those designs. And the works are presented in a way that uses the University of Denver's Byron Theater's flexibility to the maximum. All seating risers are removed from the space with audience seated in three tiers (floors) all around the performance area, including around the actual Marley covered dance floor. That gives the choreographers a huge space to work in, allows entrances and exits in 360 degrees, and gives audience - which is advised to move to whatever level they want during two ten minute intermissions - varying perspectives that range from looking down on the performances, to looking up at them. That space allows as many as one to fourteen dancers in it at any one time, along with large props they can manipulate. The overall effect can best be described as striking, with surprises throughout.

"String Theory" - as inspired by music and sound - features a sculpture of shining wires and plastic spreaders that stretches from high on one side of the circular performance space to low down on the opposite side. That sculpture is minimally involved in the dance, but clearly defines a space in which Chris Harris sets choreography that shows audience just how innovative she can be in using that space and a new music composition by Austin Feagin. The choreography varies from long lines within which minimalist phrasing occurs, and from which space gobbling solos and duets emerge. There are huge ensemble sections set with various group phrasings nested within them, and unison phrases that prove oh-so-satisfying simply because they are infrequent.

Donald K. Atwood MFA, Ph.D. atwood@worlddancereviews.com
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Photo by Steve Clarke

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