"Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare"
Mark Morris Dance Group
The Rose Theater
New York, NY
May 17, 2009
copyright © 2009 by Lisa Rinehart
Let's get something straight -- there are no soaring lifts in Mark Morris' "Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare," no stage loads of sword clanking nobles, no fat bumbling nurse. There's not even a tragic ending. But bring fresh eyes to this elegantly spare production of everyone's favorite love story and you won't be disappointed.
"The Golden Legend"
Christopher Williams
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY
May 12, 2009
by Lisa Rinehart
copyright © 2009 by Lisa Rinehart
Christopher Williams' animation of the generally miserable lives of seventeen of Christianity's most beloved male saints is rough going. But imaginative costuming, clever puppets, period music and performances by some of New York's best downtown dancers make it worth the effort.
And it is an effort. Williams' inspiration for "The Golden Legend" is the Legenda Aurea Sanctorum (or, "The Golden Legend of the Saints"), a veritable laundry list of torture techniques used on unfortunate saints-to-be. Written in the 1200's by Jacobus de Voragine, it was second only to the Bible in popularity more than 200 years later and is still in print today. In medieval times, clergy and scholars couldn't get enough of the grisly stories.
Nor can Christopher Williams.
Williams' fascination with medieval Gitmo tactics translates into three hours of moaning, grunting and flailing as martyrs are, in random order: grilled, whipped, beaten, stoned, flayed, pierced with arrows, scraped with sharp shells, beheaded and thrown into the woods, the sea, or the latrines. Williams, gleefully, it seems, explores every horror with graphic, fleshy rawness.
Fortunately, positives rise from the miasma. With a scholarly appreciation for medieval art and music and a personal identification with the passion of these stories, Williams suggests that each saint, perhaps because he was gay, or ascetic, or possibly simply insane, suffered because he was different. Images pulled from illuminated manuscripts, stained glass windows and sculpted cathedral stones draw us into a world where such delicate souls are torn apart by ignorance and fear.
It's hard to say if being tortured will get you martyrdom today, but Williams can make a nice vignette for you. David Parker, Paul Singh, Jonah Bokaer, Julian Barnett, Glen Rumsey, Rommel Salveron, Chris Elam, Reid Bartelme, Stuart Singer, Chris M. Green and Gus Solomons Jr. are just a few of the talents Williams uses to bring these tragic tales to life. They do the best they can with Williams' limited solo vocabulary, but some appearances are particularly choice. John Kelly, with his slight physique and wan visage, is convincingly preternatural as the monastic Saint Anthony Abbot. Luke Miller frolics gamely in the nude as the libertine Saint Laurence and David Neumann shows off his comic timing as a pre-Father Christmas Saint Nicholas.
Along with a formidable design and construction team, Williams uses his talents as a costume and puppet designer to enrich the imagery. When Saint Anthony is tormented by demons, they are nasty little horned puppets protruding from the abdomens of five cloaked operators in a creepy display worthy of a horror flick. Saint Giles is suckled by a marionette that's a ringer for Bambi's mom and Saint Jerome pulls a thorn from the paw of a fuzzy marionette lion. More poetic is the flock of hand operated birds settling on the shoulders of Charley Scott as Saint Francis of Assisi, courtesy of muslin-cloaked nuns in floaty winged headdresses.
An ensemble of eleven musicians and singers round out the pictures with ethereal early music painstakingly selected by Williams and Susan Hellauer.
Two years in the making, "The Golden Legend" is epic in every way except, perhaps, in the depth of its final impact. It has a one-note quality that is deadening. When one saint cries out, "No, no! Stop, please stop," we recoil in sickening recognition of how cruel we can be to one another. When it happens again, we are less disturbed. When Saint Laurence shows us his parted buttocks for the third time up close and personal, we don't really care why he's doing it, we've seen enough. Williams is so passionate about shoving every indignity into our faces, we get a little too much of the "ick" factor and tune out.
That's a shame because under the grit and gore, the shimmering detail of "The Golden Legend" glows with a smoldering intensity that is more than fantastical costumes and cool puppets. We see it in solidly choreographed moments such as when the saints' tormentors -- a bare chested, ape-ish ensemble of men stomping and grunting in often comic tribal unity -- weave witty patterns into the mix. Or, when Williams has the female ensemble balance Aaron Mattocks as Saint James the More on the tops of their upended feet, then has him melt down amongst their legs like a log sinking into reeds. Or when Brian Brooks as Saint Stephen in a celestial crown of circling planets leads all the saints in a weirdly uplifting sort of hosanna to martyrdom. Such glints of the sacred help us watch longer and care more.
Williams' clearly celebrates the one-who-is-special, but with his obvious intelligence and astute visual instincts, I'd love to see him create more ensemble work. Even a saint might admit that martyrdom can be lonely and that the thinnest shaft of light can turn gloom to gold.
copyright © 2009 by Lisa Rinehart
Photos by Yi-Chun Wu
Top: Jonah Bokaer with Bryan Campbell, Sydney Skybetter, Brandin Steffensen, Philip Montana & Clay Drinko
Bottom: Brian Brooks with full cast
"Maverick Strain," "Wonderboy"
The Joe Goode Performance Group
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
April 24, 2009
by Lisa Rinehart
copyright 2009 by Lisa Rinehart
Joe Goode's newest piece, "Wonderboy," could be subtitled "the fear to be queer," but that would ignore the work's appeal to anyone who's ever felt lonely and misunderstood -- and that would be most of us, right?
Goode often draws from his own experiences of growing up gay in an intolerant world and has long created works piecing together text, song and expansive wrestling-like movement. But in "Wonderboy" Goode collaborates with renowned puppet maker, Basil Twist, and makes the play's central character a puppet. It's this choice that lets us connect our own vulnerabilities with the fears of a fragile boy who happens to be gay.
Resembling an elfin prep-schooler, Wonderboy is animated by Goode's dancers in the Bunraku style -- meaning they are onstage and fully visible as they make Wonderboy move.
But Goode pushes beyond traditional boundaries. The six dancers change roles continuously, shifting nimbly from speaking to puppeteering and even singing as Wonderboy tells his story. At one point, in an amazing display of dexterity and teamwork, he dances a jazzy duet with a human partner. This requires a fast and furious troika of dancers whipping around different little puppet parts to match the moves of Wonderboy's human partner.
The text isn't as lithe as the puppetry. In fact, it's often florid, but it's one of theater's great mysteries that puppets can express heightened emotion and pathos without seeming maudlin. We can forgive Wonderboy's "I ache. I ache for the beauty of the world" as he watches from the safety of his window. And coming from a puppet discovering love, the phrase "can this really be happening... I never thought I'd really touch you," somehow plays more sweet than sappy. By the time the dancers lift Wonderboy up on thin rods and float him out into the house, it's like watching the first tender shoots of spring unfold into the cool air. We hope for his survival as though it is our own and perhaps, metaphorically it is.
The delicacy of "Wonderboy" is preceded by the campy humor of "Maverick Strain," Goode's deconstruction of Arthur Miller's screenplay for "The Misfits." Dressed like Roy Rogers in a fringed shirt and chaps bushy enough to hide a jumbo-sized can of baked beans, Goode serenades us with some expertly paced cowboy tunes. In between the musical numbers six dancers do gender bending bits that pit ballsy women against dreamy fay men. John Wayne is mentioned and allusions are made to the sexual orientation of Montgomery Clift, but other than enjoying the irony of cowboys trying to out macho one another in tight hot pants and sequins, I didn't really get it. To his credit, Goode edits the material tightly and it never gets boring.
Goode has a knack for punctuating text with witty movement including cantilevered lifts and surprising body positions that use arms like legs. "A woman's gotta be strong when she stops bein' purdy" ends with an abrupt foot flex from two women flipped upside down as though they're bicycling on a ceiling. "They were both ready to be apologetic" is said with a downward tilted head while forming a soft sideways "O" with the arms. Goode finds his groove in these small moments.
The completely excellent cast was Felipe Barrueto-Cabello, Melecio Estrella, Jessica Swanson, Andrew Ward, Patricia West and Alexander Zendzian. They are also credited as co-creators of "Wonderboy."
"Images," "Offenbach Overtures,"Beloved Renegade"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
New York City Center
New York, NY
February 25, 2009
by Lisa Rinehart
copyright 2009 by Lisa Rinehart
The Paul Taylor Dance Company's opening night program at City Center is a diorama of the mountains and valleys in Taylor's long and prolific career. "Images," a gloriously formal work from 1977, is mature Taylor; all swooping arms and bounding jumps constrained by unabashedly decorative poses. Fast forward twenty years to "Offenbach Overtures" and we have a search for inspiration in silliness -- not a comfortable fit for Taylor. Finally, the New York premier of "Beloved Renegade" walks us along the shimmering line between life's sweet engagements and the lure of eternal rest. It is elegiac Taylor at his most honest and introspective, and a telling premier for the winter season.
“28
Variations on a Theme by Paganini,” “Without” by
Lisa Rinehart
Benjamin
Millepied Danses Concertantes
The
Joyce Theater
New
York, NY
December
9, 2008
copyright
© 2008 by Lisa Rinehart
Benjamin Millepied's 2005 ballet, "28 Variations on a Theme by Paganini" and his newest work, "Without" are no doubt a joy to dance. With the breathless quality of youth itself, they are athletic, musical and technically challenging -- heaven for a young dancer to wrap some muscle around. It is Millepied’s gift that he knows what to do with well-trained instruments. But he is too easily seduced by what his dancers can do and often tips the balance to favor style over substance. This is not harsh criticism in ballet -- an art from built upon nuances of style -- but one senses that Millepied is looking to do more.
“Hunger”
Eiko & Koma
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 25, 2008
by Lisa Rinehart
copyright ©2008 by Lisa
Rinehart
Anyone who’s wondered, even for the tiniest moment, what life is all about, should see Eiko & Koma in performance. Allow me a quote from William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence,”
To see a world in a grain of sand,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Or, perhaps, in eighty minutes, the running time of Eiko & Koma’s newest offering, “Hunger.” “Hunger” pulls from earlier works “Grain” (1983), and “Rust” (1988), but adds material from “Cambodian Stories: An Offering Of Painting and Dance” (2006) including two beautiful young painters turned performers, Charian and Peace. The sections are loosely bound together by the notion of rice as sustenance, as well as by Joko Sutrisno’s delicate vocals and gamelan, but “Hunger” is really about desire; the aching desire that gnaws at our stomachs, our hearts, and our minds. As Eiko & Koma put it, “At any age we are all hungry, not only for food, but also for knowledge, intimacy and life.”
Dance@DMAC
Julian Barnett, Alex Escalante, Keely Garfield, Maria Hassabi,
Anna Sperber
Duo Multicultural Arts Center
62 East 4th Street
New York, NY
October 9, 2008
Lisa Rinehart © 2008
The Duo Theater’s first Dance@DMAC festival heralds the arrival of a new venue for dance in the east village. Artistic Director, Michelangelo Alasa, hosted the premier of Aszure Barton’s “Traveling Show” six months ago, and discovered his 65-seat jewel box theater was suited to more than cabaret musicals and film festivals. Barton’s dance captured the perfume of Duo’s down-at-the-heels glamour, and convinced Alasa that his tiny proscenium stage works for dance. Alasa, with co-curators Jodi Melnick, Donna Uchizono, and Eva Yaa Asantewaa, commissioned fifteen-minute pieces from five choreographers, gave them six weeks, and imposed no restrictions outside of those of the space itself. The results range from I-want-to-see-more successful to checking-the-watch tedious.
“Sounddance,” “Awassa Astrige/Ostrich,” “The Leaves Are Fading, “Lone Epic,” “Tap Into Peace”
Merce Cunningham Dance Company/ Dayton Contemporary Dance Company/ American Ballet Theater/ Louise Lecavalier/ Ayodele Casel, Sarah Savelli & Dancers
New York City Center
New York, NY
September 19, 2008
by Lisa Rinehart
© 2008 by Lisa Rinehart
Let's keep it short and sweet, shall we, since that's the theme of New York City Center's "Fall for Dance" series. This ten day series of bundled excerpts at $10 a pop grows more popular every year as dance enthusiasts flock to see 28 companies (this year's total) in new and revived works by choreographers known and obscure. It’s easy to get frustrated with the choreographic nibbles offered at “Fall for Dance” so making these line-ups work is a challenge. Program 3, however, is a well-balanced plate of tapas ranging from the sophisticated to the straight-up funny.
“Circus Polka,” “Moves,” “The Cage,” “Four Bagatelles,” “Fanfare”
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
June 10, 2008
by Lisa Rinehart
© Lisa Rinehart 2008
Numerous adjectives accurately describe Jerome Robbins' choreographic legacy, but mediocre is not generally one of them. Sadly, this adjective comes to mind when sitting through New York City Ballet’s “Generation Next” program; an unlikely collection of pieces lumped together apparently to showcase students at the School of American Ballet. Plenty could be said about NYCB’s current marketing scheme of packaging ballets in cutely themed evenings (“French Cuisine,” “Russian Roots,” “Then and There”), but suffice it to say that wrapping two fine ballets in the trappings of a dance recital isn’t the best way to celebrate a man’s work.
