"Double Vision" - Double Value but Really One Brand

Two Northern Colorado dance companies, Judy Bejarano's "Impact Dance" and Kim Lang's "High Performance," combined forces to present ten works from their repertories at Fort Collins, Colorado's Lincoln Center Mini Theater the past two weekends (October 2 through 10, 2009). The result was a just-right-in-length and varied concert that kept audiences entertained way, way past just watching friends dance. What was most interesting in this concert was the contrast in the choreographic approaches of Lang and Bejarano, with Lang's dances pretty much set with "stock" phrasing to agree totally with the music of popular songs, whereas Bejarano used more eclectic sound scores, which her dances only agreed with when she saw that as a tool she wanted to use to make movement statements in form and/or narrative. Only two of the dances were new, and reviews of some of the older Bejarano dances are elsewhere on this site, i.e., in a review of an "Impact" concert at Bas Bleu in March 2008 (www.worlddancereviews.com/dance/archive.php?page=reviews_archives&id=142'). Those dances read as well in this concert as then. Admittedly some of those works are now stand alone excerpts from larger works, re-staged with new premier dates, but, like "Ordinary Girl," are much the same and just as charming.

One example is Bejarano's "A Small Difference of Opinion" (2006), which has been presented in numerous art galleries, etc. from Ft. Collins to Denver as a female/female duet in evening length works. But, its reincarnation here as a duet set on Elena Estanol and Michael Ferrara was fresh and new. That was in part due to the amazing movement abilities resident in Estanol and Ferrara, but as much due to Bejarano's movement choices, that varied from minimalist fingers to space gobbling, whole body phrasing. A short work, "Crossing," opened with a monologue about dancing across the state spoken by Lisa Dysleski in a way that totally captured her audience, and "Three Trips to the Moon" varied from comedic to poignant to exuberant, with a delightful bass background ensemble and a Sharon Wilson solo in front of it.

Lang's five works struggled in comparison. That was perhaps due to their almost always taking on the aspect of music visualization of popular songs. That is a modality that Twyla Tharp has exploited successfully with "Movin' Out" and "Nine Sinatra Songs," but it takes more that stock phrasing set to all aspects of the music to make that "work," no matter how good the dancers are. Lang's dancers are good. Lang came closest to success in "Fear," however that work was prejudiced from the start by a long, sophomoric monologue about the difficulties of change that not even Matthew Clark's presence and resonant voice could save.

Bejarano has developed a company of delightful dancers that provide a wonderful kaleidoscope of youth and maturity. All her dancers embody her choreography well, and Bejarano knows just how to use them. There seems no doubt Lang will get there as well - eventually.

Donald K. Atwood MFA, Ph.D.

© Copyright World Dance Reviews 2009