Miccolis and Benedikt’s Evening for Humanity
“Rights”, “Growth”
Millennium Stage North
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
July 22, 2014
by George Jackson
copyright 2014 by George Jackson
Mimmo Miccolis from Italy and Gloria Benedikt from Austria met in a Washington, DC ballet class last fall and started talking, especially about their beliefs. For this program they spoke to the audience about engaged art and presented two examples. A winning, Children of Paradise innocence emenated from the two speakers. From the examples one could tell that they had done much work as producers. Five local dancers had been engaged in addition to themselves. Commissioned music, some of it live, was involved. Video supplemented the stage action during the second piece. Technically, the production clicked except for the video projection of video. How convincing, though, were Miccolis and Benedikt as choreographers?
The first example, Miccolis’s “Rights”, was a tableaux that looked much like the earnest symbolic ballet numbers that used to be added to vaudeville shows and circuses. Five dancers pretended, at first, to be savages. Their bodies pulsed, they planted themselves in ready poses, and they sprang into acrobatic action. Then their movement morphed, becoming more sculptural and pliant before mimicking other characteristics. In one scene the action was faintly reminiscent of Gertrud Bodenwieser’s demonic machine dance of the 1920s. In another section, hints appeared of the artificial extensions of human anatomy that Alwin Nikolais devised post World War 2. There were eight scenes in all, each labeled with a human right: the right to protest, the right to eat, the right not to be executed, etc. These themes, supposedly being spelled out in the movement, were more apparent in the printed program than on stage. The cast of three men and two women wore sexily tight, tan bathing suits with occasional ornaments – depending on the scene. One set of ornaments were toe shoes, which one of the women deployed with emphasis on the stylization they impart. In the Freedom finale, a man sprouted wings like Marie Taglioni’s 19th Century butterfly being. Yes, Miccolis was exerting his right to be trite. The dancers (Washington Ballet’s Rachel Jones, Corey Landolt and Daniel Roberge; Company E’s Vanessa Owen; Richmond Ballet’s Gavin Stewart) gave their all. This was the work’s American premiere. It had originally been given in a longer version two years ago in London. Its music, by Francesco Germini, sounded like a background score.
“Growth”, brand new, had more substance but those watching the venue’s big overhead screen rather than the stage got to see only a dim version of Morgan Marinoni’s videography. The dancing in “Growth” is a duet for and by supple Benedikt and staunch Miccolis. In its video portions we see bodies emerging from the sea and passing through evolved environments such as the Library of Congress and Wall Street. What intrigued was the interaction of two individuals, female and male. Clad in utilitarian black, the dancers stretched, balanced, flexed, maneuvered lifts and see sawed. Sometimes a spontaneity of impulse predominated, at other times it was the deliberate intent of poses: the alternation of states had a distinct dynamic. Together, the pair achieved aspects, meanings for the concept of growth they could not have attained alone. Musically, too, this dance’s Germini score deserved attention. Moreover, its solo violin passages for Caterina Vannucci, who traversed the audience to mount the stage, gave the idea of growth a still other dimension. At the conclusion, though, there was again a sprouting of clichés – a couple of gauzy wings.
What’s next for Miccolis and Benedikt? During the post-performance discussion moderated by Kennedy Center’s Margaret Booth, the two dancer-choreographer newcomers to Washington indicated that they now need some rest, but will likely continue working together while they remain in town.