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Keigwin + Company
2009-09-26

Keigwin + Company - Natural Selection in Colorado's Environment

Keigwin + Company presented three works in the company's repertory - "Natural Selection," "Love Songs," and "Tryptych," plus a delightful community work set to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" - at the University of Denver's Newman Center Gates Concert Hall on Saturday September 26, 2009. The evening was presented in cooperation with Denver's School of the Arts (DSA) Dance Program - as run by Michael O'Banion and Alicia Karzcewski - and Boulder's "ECOARTS" as founded and directed by Marda Kirn.

The concert opened with "Natural Selection", set on a bare stage without back drop or legs, using three men and three women in phrasing that varied from virtuoso, to pedestrian, to combative and/or sensual duets, much of that on the floor. At times dancers simply sat upstage waiting for cues, or groups were built against the unadorned back wall of the stage, often developing into "ladders" that allowed one dancer to "walk" or "crawl" along that wall. Such groups, walks, and crawls were often repeated - perhaps too often. No relation to the title was apparent, at least not to an intuitive eye. This dance is dense choreography set to an often dense music score by Michael Gordon, and literally exhausts an audience - save in this case a cheering throng of DSA students.

In contrast "Love Songs" read well. Following a trend perhaps established by the success of Twyla Tharp's "Movin' Out" and "Nine Sinatra Songs," the work consisted of a series of dances - all duets - set to familiar songs by Roy Orbison, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone. The intention seemingly being that the familiarity of the songs will draw audience in. It does - and the duets were well executed combinations of mime and dance that this audience loved.

"Tryptych" is a choreographic gem in - guess what - three parts. In this work Keigwin used the virtuosity resident in the Company's dancers well to create a lovely work that has staying power. Of note was the final section, which used a female-female duet set mostly as dependent on arms, hands and facings as a core of the dance, around and within which Keigwin built phrasing that incorporates up to seven dancers. At times the dance was wide open and athletic, at times a series of multiple crossings that gobbled up space in relatively simple glides as arms took various positions. Keigwin satisfyingly bookended the work with a down stage left duet and ensemble.

"Bolero Colorado" was a well crafted community work, incorporating some 50 dancers. Those dancers included former Rocky Mountain News dance critic Marc Shugold, Frequent Flyers stalwarts Valerie Claymore and Danielle Hendricks, our very own Melanie Milow, and a delightful "about four years old" lady with a plastic bag. Opening on a dark stage with flashlights inside a tent the work progressed through continuing environmental messages as participants sampled all of Colorado's recreational opportunities, fouled its environment, cleaned that environment up, and returned to a darkened stage and their flashlights as Ravel's "Bolero" dynamic reached crescendo. It ended as the flashlights "bumped out." Just maybe this work has established "Bolero" as an environmental anthem.

Donald K. Atwood MFA, Ph.D.

© Copyright World Dance Reviews 2009

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