“Fräulein Maria”
Doug Elkins & Friends
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY
December 10, 2009
By Lisa Rinehart
Copyright ©2009 by Lisa Rinehart
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? Ask Doug Elkins. He’s managed to do just that with his delightful “Fräulein Maria,” a loving romp through the schmaltz of Rodgers & Hammersteins’ classic, “The Sound of Music.” Set to Julie Andrews’ crystalline renditions of just about every song from the movie, Elkins avoids silliness or parody with an arsenal of choreographic ideas ranging from ballet to basketball. Canon, counterpoint, mime, slap-stick, clowning, breaking, petit allegro and post-modern ennui all surface in wickedly clever vignettes capturing Maria’s journey from dreamy nunnery novice to matriarch of the Von Trapp Family Singers. It’s a story many of us know and love, but Elkins adds a 21st century twist that makes “Fräulein Maria” a whole new kind of schnitzel.
Doug Elkins & Friends
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY
December 10, 2009
By Lisa Rinehart
Copyright ©2009 by Lisa Rinehart
“Fräulein Maria” was commissioned in 2006 for the DanceNOW[NYC] series and premiered on the tiny stage of Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. At DTW Elkins has expanded the work to include fifteen excellent dancers, three of whom share the role of Maria. Yes, Elkins solves the problem of Maria by divvying up the role between the bright-faced Donnell Oakley, the sweet-faced Cindy Chung Camins and the bubbly Kevin Fitzgerald Ferguson who happens to be male and black. The three trade off, but often overlap, so that Maria dances with herself in a choreographic crazy quilt that captures the sugared pluck and determination of Andrews’ vocal Maria in delightfully unexpected ways.
Nuns in black hoodies and cropped modern dance pants show off Elkins’ facility with pattern and form. They’re funny, but also seriously Graham-esque as they link arms in an angelic ripple of female unity. And when Amber Sloan as the Abbess crosses herself and drops into a full backward tilt, it’s worthy of Clytemnestra. In “Something Good,” the movie’s reassuringly sappy love duet, Elkins reverses partnering roles so that Oakley catches her Captain Von Trapp (Jeffrey Kazin) in mid love leap and cradles him in the fine tradition of a balletic pas de deux. And a blushing, size large David Parker is a more demure Liesl than any teenage girl could be while Scott Lowe shows off his masculine charms in “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” Everything’s upside down and it couldn’t be sweeter.
Elkins has been more or less out of sight since disbanding his company in 2002, but “Fräulein Maria” is evidence that he has plenty of craft left to share. See it if you can – it’ll be your best holiday gift to yourself.
Copyright ©2009 by Lisa Rinehart
Top: Cindy Gamins Chung & Donnell Oakley; photo by Steven Schreiber
Middle: Amber Sloan (front); photo by Yi Chun-Wu
Bottom: David Parker & Scott Lowe; photo by Yi Chun-Wu