Fall For Dance: Matt’s mystery guest comes forth!
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JUSTIN PECK |
Hey Readers! Alright, so I guess most of you know that I was Matt’s “mystery” guest at Fall for Dance last night (Wingers of the world, UNITE!). So yeah, we have a fun time watching the variety of dance that the festival had to offer. Also, they totally opened up the nose-bleed seats at City Center (which was where we sat)! I’ve never seen that happen before.
Matt and I—maybe a step up from the ‘Golden Girls’ photoshoot from Matt’s post (Maaaatt! You told me that if I dressed up as a 70-year-old woman, you would keep those photos private!)
One thing that I noticed was the immense support the audience seemed to have for all of the acts throughout the evening. I’m not sure if it was because of the tickets being just $10, or maybe because the entire audience truly loved every piece (somehow unlikely), but either way I think its great that there was such unconditional support from the audience. From a performer’s point of view, it really does make a huge difference and gives off a satisfying feeling of accomplishment.
Anyway, enough chatty-talk, here’s my recollection/review of the evening:
An Evening of Dance Tapas, for just $10
By Justin Peck
October 5, 2007
Each Fall For Dance performance at City Center showcases several dance companies back-to-back over the course of one evening. At yesterday’s performance, the Festival continued to present an exciting, wide-ranging variety of high with the low, sweet versus spicy, and even downright fresh as opposed to dieing-on-the-vine.
The evening began with Ligeti Essays, which was danced by the Armitage Gone! Dance Troupe. It was a series of modern dances set to Gyorgy Ligeti’s music that had poetry spoken along with it. The setting was an empty white stage with a blank, white tree mounted off-center, all of which conveyed a “Waiting for Godot”, existential type mood. The choreography, which includes a series of typically contemporary solos and pas de duex, was oriented towards expansive movement, but very often fell short of reaching its potential.
Following Legeti Essays, Inventing Pookie Jenkins, a solo danced and choreographed by Kyle Abraham, was performed. The solo was danced to rap music by Dizzee Rascal. The choreography combined an eclectic mix of hip-hop, ballet, and street dance. It began in silence with an adagio variation and progressed towards wholehearted movement involving Abraham’s entire body and soul. Although Abraham has some interesting conceptual ideas involving the fusion of multiple dance forms, the piece itself lacked the essential structure necessary for a dance act to be wholly effective.
If the first two pieces of the evening had any sort of main purpose in relation to the evening, it was to frame and accentuate the final dance of the first act. After the Rain, performed by Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company (Christopher Wheeldon’s new company, which is independent of New York City Ballet), was powerful and memorable. The piece consists of a contemporary pas de duex set to a serene adagio by Arvo Pärt.
Craig Hall and Wendy Whelan floated through the pas de duex with a true viscous quality. Although Jock Soto cannot be replaced (it was choreographed by Wheeldon specifically with him in mind), Craig Hall performed well as a tender partner and provided grounded support for Whelan at all the right moments. The only shortcoming was that the entire first half of After the Rain (the “rain” section) was excluded, thereby eliminating the significant, chaotic set-up prior to the tranquil pas de duex.
Act II began with Spanish Dance by the Trisha Brown Dance Company. It is set to a Bob Dylan rendition of “Early Morning Rain” by Gordon Lightfoot. Five girls stand in front of the lowered stage curtain swaying back-and-forth to this Bob Dylan song until they reach the right stage wing. The piece itself was light, breezy, and simple, although it didn’t convey much of an idea with respect to exactly what the strengths and overall style of this company is. I would have preferred Trisha Brown selecting a piece that more compellingly showcased her company.
The final dance of the evening was by the Noche Flamenca & Soledad Barrio. The piece, titled Martinete y Solea, was a sensual flamenco dance that took the audience on a journey through Spanish culture. These flamenco dancers were gushing with talent and could easily give Savion Glover a run for his money. The music, accompanied by Miguel Perez on the guitar and vocals, was very much fiery and alive. Adam Gabel provided effective lighting that made the entire venue feel more like a Spanish night club then an Opera House. Martinete y Solea was a perfect closing performance for the evening’s very much mixed smorgasbord of dance.
