Posts from — January 2012

Peridance Contemporary Dance Company
Preview Performance
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Salvatore Capezio Theater

Peridance Contemporary Dance Company has been on hiatus since 2007 as the Peridance Capezio Center went through a transition, moving to new quarters with its own in-house theater.  In Fall 2011, the company re-emerged.  The concert that I saw at the Capezio Theater was a preview performance, leading up to a formal season this coming May.  The company offered a nicely varied program which showcased a group of gorgeous charismatic dancers and imaginative choreographers.

The program opened with an excerpt from Igal Perry’s Constructs for 4, beautifully danced by Shay Bares, Nikki Holck, Zach Thomas and Andrew Trego to the music of J.S. Bach.  As with much of Perry’s choreography, classical ballet is at the core, but the movement is very much contemporary.   Balanchine’s influence seems present during certain passages of this quartet, but Perry’s elegant formations speak in an updated voice with atmospheres that are more modern.  I especially loved the lifts, which seemed so effortless.  I was also taken by the way that the movement seems to open up so beautifully at moments when the strings reach the end of a phrase.  Perry’s choreography and this group of dancers are extremely musical.

Leading from Behind, choreographed by Greg Dolbashian, received its World Premiere.  It’s a modern piece set to electronic industrial music by Loscil.  The music is quite menacing and tension is building as the dance opens with one man standing apart from a group of five women.  The women line up shoulder to shoulder.  The line becomes a motif that reappears throughout the dance, and much of the featured movement stands apart from the line.  I especially liked one section in which the movement seems to spin off from or move through the line.  One or two dancers will work apart from the line and as the dance goes on, it seems as if a series of battles of the will ensue.  The choreography is clever and unpredictable.  This piece was performed by Peridance’s Youth Ensemble, a group of strong, confident and well trained students who show great promise.

Kristin Sudeikis’s jazzy I am you was also given its World Premiere.  The dancers all wear black pants, but the men are bare chested and the women are wearing nude colored tops.  The dancers seem stripped down to explore issues of identity and influence, and the piece even includes Chorus Line type sections in which the dancers face the audience and speak to describe themselves, or perhaps to describe aspects of the human condition.  The piece had an uplifting Broadway feel and the audience responded with great enthusiasm.

Igal Perry’s El Amor Brujo, set to the gorgeous score by Manuel da Falla, is a moving piece with a flamenco flavor.  It is touching, bittersweet and packed with emotion.  In the original libretto by Gregorio Martinez, the young gypsy woman Candela has lost her husband Jose, but Jose’s spirit continues to haunt Candela and won’t release her to her lover Carmelo.  Perry tells the story with a slight twist – he sees Candela and Jose as being divorced rather than separated by death.  Jose isn’t a ghostly spirit, but a physical presence in the story.

Nikki Holck’s Candela made my heart ache as she passes from her lover Carmelo (played by Attila Csiki) to her husband Jose (played by Andrew Trego).  With quiet gestures and Perry’s imaginative choreography, she clearly expresses two different kinds of love.  Though Candela and Jose are no longer together and have to move on, they embrace as if to respect the love they once had, even though they are now resigned to love each other from a distance.

Jose is a proud and masculine character, but beneath the surface he’s wounded.  I was really taken by the way that Trego’s movement revealed Jose’s vulnerability.  Joanna DeFelice is the very image of quiet strength as she dances the role of Lucia, the woman with whom Jose falls in love, allowing him to loosen his grip on Candela and let her go.  Attila Csiki moves with such elegance and he expresses such tenderness as the romantic hero Carmelo.  Some of my favorite passages in the dance are the ones in which the four characters move together at close quarters, with Candela weaving through the formation from one man to the other.

The ensemble delivers a very strong and stirring performance that really touched my heart.  What affected me most about this dance was the subtlety with which the story is told.  Perry and his dancers trust the audience and allow us to experience the emotion of the story without the use of cliched characterizations.  The choreography never travels in the predictable direction. The dance truly does do all the talking and the story unfolds in a beautiful quiet fashion.  I also appreciated the details.  When the focus turns to the main characters, the company fills out the composition with lovely movement on the sidelines.  Subtle lighting is used to strong affect too, in conjunction with projections along the back wall of the stage.

This is a wonderful dance that I’m looking forward to seeing again.

The Peridance Contemporary Dance Company will present its major New York City season this May, featuring works by Igal Perry, Kristin Sudeikis and Sidra Bell.  Be sure to see one of their shows at the Salvatore Capezio Theater.  Dates are May 5 and 6, 12 and 13, 2012.  Visit their web site  for further details.

Tags: El Amor Brujo, Greg Dolbashian, Igal Perry, Kristin Sudeikis, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company

to link to: Peridance Contemporary Dance Company – Preview Performance.
 

APAP Showcases at Peridance – Program A
January 8, 2012

The APAP Showcases at Peridance were nothing short of a beautiful dream which introduced me to several companies whom I’m looking forward to following in the future.

Program A opened with In Dividing, a moody modern piece with earthy sepia tones, presented by the Mettin Movement Collective.  Throughout a series of vignettes, one individual stands apart from the rest of the dancers, who seem to comprise a tribe.  I was surprised to read that choreographer Sarah Mettin is a 2011 graduate of the Conservatory at Purchase.  Her artistic voice and the dancers who make up her company seemed quite mature. I especially liked the beautiful formations and counterpoint of the choreography, and the wonderful assortment of dancers who make up the company.  This is one to watch.

Kate Thomas’s Ballet Neo presented The Appalachian Suites Project, a lovely lyrical contemporary pointe piece which opens with four women dressed in black.  Their movement is expansive, with long extensions and arms that reach.  There was the temptation for me to read things literally and to wonder if these women were mining wives or even widows.  Their movement at times is reserved and the lighting is moody, yet their faces are not pained and their spirits seem very sisterly.  As the dance progresses, two men join the group for a stirring series of partnering sections.  Just beautiful.  Ballet Neo also presented a gorgeous pointe piece called  Measurement and Caution, danced by RJ Johnston and Bethany Lange.  The dance was elegant and full of effusive movement.  There was such strong chemistry between the partners.

Things became light hearted as Nathan Trice Rituals presented Chim Chim Cheree, accompanied live by a jazz trio and danced by four couples.  In this theatrical piece, the women sang skat as they danced.  The dance was a great and organic blend of Broadway and Trice’s signature, often quirky modern style.  So entertaining and very appealing.

Jacoby & Pronk presented two solos.  Prince Credell danced an Alonzo King piece titled Door, to ancient shofar sounds and Hebrew chants.  I loved the primal feel conjured by the raw honesty and muscularity of the movement, the ancient music and the earthy costume.  Drew Jacoby delivered an electrifying performance of Emery LeCrone’s contemporary ballet Aria.  Jacoby has such an enormous presence on the floor and always manages to seamlessly blend fierce feminine strength with deep emotion and ballerina grace.

I was especially moved by Tomoko Imanaka’s Okuni performed by Tomoko Dance Art Company, a piece that seems steeped in traditional Japanese forms.  The women make their entrance dressed in the black and white outfits and straw hats that we’ve seen in artwork of Japanese rice paddy farmers.  Much of the dance travels in a circle.  Much of it is performed in unison with a ritualistic feel.  A woman in a gorgeous colorful silk kimono joins them.  I think that she is Okuni, a temple dancer who founded Kabuki art forms.  As the dancers shed their hats and white vests, they remain dressed in black as they perform a magnificent dance with the very colorful and glamourous  Okuni at the center, mixing modern forms with traditional Japanese images.

Peridance Contemporary Dance Company performed an excerpt from Igal Perry’s El Amor Brujo, an elegant and dramatic piece which seems to explore the unseen forces that play with romance.  At one point, a man and woman sit opposite each other and tentatively rise and move toward one another.  They hesitate at first and never quite make it.  When the four women and four men of the piece do dance together, they continually change partners.  A pas de deux becomes a pas de trois.  At one point one partner seems drawn away by a magnet or blown away by the wind.  I really liked Perry’s unique take on this theme and I’m looking forward to seeing the full length piece later this month.

Olivier Wevers’ Flower Festival was performed by Seattle based Whim W’Him, a company who is completely new to me and who absolutely knocked me out with an amazing comic performance.  Two men in business suits sit at opposite corners of the floor, having removed their black dress shoes.  One at a time the men approach each other.  They are teasing and challenging as they gradually strip away their clothing, one article at a time.  The dance also contained a few partnering sections that were great parodies, in which standard ballet passages were blown up to the point of camp, or one partner wound up dragging the other around by his collar.  There was even a brief game of salugi.  Amazing performances were given by Andrew Bartee and Lucien Postlewaite.  Great costumes by Mark Zappone.  I hope to see this company in New York City again.

Charlotta Ofverhom ponders matters of food, both literally and metaphorically in Pas de Deux Sans Toi, a piece that could be both somber and comic, most of which she danced with a heart of lettuce in her mouth.  When her partner joins her, he seems to devour her, and when he leaves her she consults the audience about her fears and matters of the heart.  She did a good job of dramatizing how vulnerable we can feel within relationships, and how sometimes there is nothing left to do but to laugh about the folly of it all.

Noesis-Kinetics presented a quartet titled Recognition.docx, choreographed by Calen Kurka.  Really good dancing, compelling choreography and sharp movement with a mechanical industrial vibe performed to a noisy accompaniment.

Lydia Johnson Dance’s beautiful untitled excerpt had a Greek classical feel with influences from Graham and Sokolow.  The women wear floor length skirts and they dance in a line.  They seem like sisters or women within a close knit community.  They tend to one another, supporting and soothing one another.  The dancing at times travels along the perimeter of a wide circle.  There was also a wonderful series of trios.  The choral music gives the piece an ancient atmosphere and so much of the movement reminds me of images from classical Greek artworks.  I especially liked this piece and I look forward to seeing its full length version.

Ballet Next delivered a dazzling performance of Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux to accompaniment by a live chamber orchestra.  Confident and fearless, happy and carefree, Michele Wiles absolutely sparkled and looked as if she was having so much fun.  I can’t recall the last time I saw a ballerina looking so light hearted and it really lifted my spirit.  Charles Askegard, as usual, made the superb partner.  Ballet Next’s second offering was Mauro Bigonzetti’s La Follia, danced by Wiles and Drew Jacoby.   Their presence, their attacks and their movement made a sharp contrast that worked so well.  The piece is energetic and sensual, full of interesting hand and arm movement.  Just breathtaking.

Dana Foglia Dance brought the house down with their closing number, Stilhed/Rock On, an exuberant fusion of hip hop and modern dance performed by a youthful and very stylish cast.  The dance was so entertaining and won a rousing response from the audience, closing out a great series of performances on a very high note.

You never know what you’re going to find when you attend APAP Showcases.  In the past, I’ve usually found APAP series to contain a few strong dances bolstered by several that just aren’t yet ready for the stage.  But this APAP Showcase at Peridance was just out of this world.  Both my guest and I were just stunned by the consistently amazing quality and variety of dance that we saw.

Tags: APAP Showcases, Ballet Neo, Ballet Next, Charlotta Ofverholm, Dana Foglia Dance, Jacoby & Pronk, Lydia Johnson Dance, Mettin Movement Collective, Nathan Trice Rituals, Noesis:Kinetics, Peridance, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Tomoko Dance Art Company, Whim W'Him

to link to: APAP Showcases at Peridance.
 

photos by Karen Shapiro

to link to: Make Me Laugh.