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40 Women Over 40
2009-11-07

Cranbourne And Her 40 Plus 40 Women Delight Audiences

Nancy Cranbourne's "40 Women Over 40" concerts build lots of audience anticipation, tend to sell out as a result, and her audiences are seldom disappointed. That is clearly the case in her/their current production, "feels like falling," in the Boulder Colorado's Dairy Center for the Arts Performance Space this weekend (November 6, 7, and 8, 2009) and next. The concert presents four works choreographed by Cranbourne, and one each by guest choreographers Gabe Masson, Katie Elliott, and Wade Madsen, plus a stunning cast of at least 40 women all over 40 - some way over - and I do mean stunning. It is as if Cranbourne's trust in those women has vitalized each and every one of them into finding talent, dance, and beauty maybe even they themselves did not know is there within them. The totally different approaches in the four choreographers, and Cranbourne's own choreographic versatility, provide an evening of significant variations in dance. Some with huge - I mean really huge - and well rehearsed ensembles that somehow find perfect unison even when the only sound is the dancers' own breath, with canons that propagate in linear and circuitous ways, and groupings that dissolve and reform so that space is used in delightful waves.

Of special note is Gabe Masson's "As Water Speaks" with movement phrasing coexisting with a David Willey sound track of rain and music played on wine glasses by Elaine diFalco. Masson uses nine accomplished dancers well known to Front Range Colorado audiences in modalities from solos to groups, that at times are totally still. In "Sad Happy" Wade Madsen turns some of those well known dancers - Cranbourne, Nina Coleman, Katie Elliott, Tonya Goodwin, Mary Wohl Haan, and Peg Posnick - into six "intermittent crones" that struggle through the space, and with an imaginary dog, in comical groupings, only to suddenly break out into almost virtuoso solos and duets that move through all of vertical space. The women find props hidden in a bench, use them to make a mess of the stage, and Madsen gleefully forces them to clean up after themselves. Cranbourne's "Valentine" uses every member of the huge cast in an ensemble that moves with the only sound being the dancer's breaths, with delightful unison and canon phrasing.

Costume change transitions for the concert are "filled in" with entertaining video skits, in which Cranbourne assumes the personae of various "health" care providers trying to solve her problems - perceived and real - with age and libido. There is also a short solo by her that sort of gets lost in the melee of larger works, and a relatively short and charming work - "Winter" - choreographed by Elliott. A live skit performed by Madsen, Cranbourne and Patti Dobrowolski would be funnier if Dobrowolski's text could be better understood throughout the theater.

If you go to see this show you might look at the Saturday and Sunday matinees. The evening concerts will surely sell out. If you can find a ticket you will definitely enjoy the show. If you do not enjoy it World Dance Reviews will refund your ticket price. Just let us know through the "Contact Us" option on this site. We will need your ticket stub.

Donald K. Atwood MFA, Ph,D.

© Copyright World Dance Reviews 2009

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