ODC/Dance
"Going Solo," "I look vacantly at the Pacific...though regret," "Walk Back the Cat"
"Giant," "Dead Reckoning"
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
March 17 and 24, 2016
by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2016
Change is in the air midway towards ODC/Dance's fiftieth decade though the company is still in the hands of founding artists Brenda Way, KT Nelson and Kimi Okada. All three had a piece on this year's two programs. Yet of the three world premieres one of them was by Kate Weare, the first time ODC has presented a work from outside its ranks. Private Freeman returned after a seven year hiatus; Corey Brady is leaving after twelve seasons, and half of the company joined within the last two years. In a pre-performance interview Way talked about trying for an endowment that would ensure the health of the institutions -- both ODC Commons and ODC Theater-- that have become integral to the Bay Area's dance environment. What was as expected--excellent performances of fine choreography--did not disappoint. ODC is vibrantly alive -- whatever changes are in the air.
ODC/Dance in "Walk Back the Cat." Photo © Amy Thompson
If you wanted to be picky, the sections in Way's new, intricately structured "Walk Back the Cat" should really be reversed since, apparently, the process involves looking back on a finished process to find out how the result came about. Never mind which way you want to look at Way's trajectory, this piece is imaginatively conceived, clearly realized and beautifully finished. "Walk" is also inspired by an ingenious idea: what might be called an American version of the baroque in the paintings of Thomas Hart Benton.
"Walk" has three major three sections, one growing out of a previous one, suggesting an opening vista. At first we see the dancers as black silhouettes against the back wall. Their two-dimensionality seems to pique the performers on stage, and they begin to try out moves with and on each other. The phrases are short and abrupt, with strutting toes, churning elbows, articulate hands and hips, and kicks, hops and slides. Fingers take on a life of their own. The choreography seems to be all about the joints.
Dressed in drab blacks and grays, these are hard working individuals until they return in fancy party attire (excellent costumes by Gabriel Brandon-Hanson). Work-a-week efforts have become Saturday night's party time. It's difficult to think that all those buoyant yet ever so detailed interactions between couples and groups grew out of those black silhouettes. Among the newcomers, Jeremy Bannon-Neches stood out for his elegant gad-about-town legs; Tegan Schwab for her whip-lashing turns, and Freeman for the slyness with which he watches a quintet of women. Paul Dresher's vivid score, which included a live trumpeter and violinist, could have come out of the choreography.
Resident Choreographer Weare is not a newcomer to ODC. The Bay Area native has set some of her work on ODC dancers; her company has performed for the ODC/Theater season; and in 2013 Weare co-choreographed "Triangulating Euclid" with Way and Nelson. "Giant" exhibits many of ODC's qualities -- a rejoicing in the body's expressive physicality, an embracing sense of humanity, and a wide-ranging questioning spirit. Still, with "Giant," Weare brings her own voice to ODC. Attacks are sharp and decisive though phrases often soften. Close to body interactions can look combative but, perhaps, are simply assertive. There is a staccato quality to the work whether dancers fall, embrace or intrude into each other's space.
The piece opens on ceremonial note as Jeremy Smith and Josie G.Sadan step out of a gate and move forcefully in unison but in different directions which accentuates differences between them. As the dancers stream in, their interactions are rapid and fragmentary. Encounters quickly evaporate. They may nuzzle each other or crawl on fours together. Limbs interlock only to be yanked apart. Dennis Adams lands on the floor with Alec Guthrie covering him. The duet evolves into a quartet with Bannon-Neches and Smith with overhead lifts and head down dives. At times, they move like robots, or you glimpse them as cartoon characters. I thought I saw a boxing match and a martial arts encounter. Sadan and Smith reunite to ceremonially step over spread out bodies. Death becomes a presence long before Smith is hoisted onto shoulders and carried off a "corpse."
It was a pleasure to watch Nelson's 2015 "Dead Reckoning" again. With a largely new cast, the excellent realization was both polished and yet always on the edge of danger. "Dead" is a piece in which Nelson takes a gloomy view about the way we take care of our world. The choreography, though highly structured, is full of turbulent encounters, slashing limbs and dancers who look as if they are about to be torn apart. The falling confetti -- snow, leaves or shredded promises -- seems to have grown in the past year but it still is a potent idea.
The only piece which disappointed this season was Okada's 2011 "I look vacantly at the Pacific...though regret," an amusing, at times quite clever look at the way cultural differences make communication if not impossible, rather awkward. The performance looked wooden and perfunctory; it deserved a lot better. Okada has a fine touch for the comedic in our lives; the dancers could learn from her.