Person to Person

“Who Let the Dogs Out?”, “Dirge”, 

“Didi and Gogo”, “Air” -

Generations: Poland

Company E

Family Theater

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 

Washington, DC

March 17,2016

 

by George Jackson

© 2016 by George Jackson

 

Poland has the bad luck of being situated between some of the world’s great powers, as historian Jan Karski details not without irony in his 1985 tome*. Company E’s Polish program had the bad luck of coinciding, first, with the huge January snowfall which closed down much of the Washington area and then being rescheduled for March 16 and 17, performances that took place despite the metro train shutdown on March 16 resulting in a half-empty house. The Family Theater was full on Thursday evening, March 17, for the four scheduled “Polish” dance works and for presentations of Washington Performing Arts’ recent “Polas” -- dance awards named for the late dancer/choreographer/teacher, Polish born Pola Nirenska who was Karski’s wife. What the program’s examples of choreography shared other than their national label was, arguably, a fascination with relationships – person to person but instances, too, of feelings connecting individuals and the group.  

 

DIRGE by Pola Nirenska. Image by Paul Gordon Emerson

Pictured: Alicia Canterna, Tara Ashley Compton, Rima Faber, Abby Leithart, Kathryn Sydell Pilkington, Kyoko Ruch 

 The first piece on Thursday could have put a damper on the entire proceedings. Lidia Wos’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?” went on interminably without revealing anything about human behavior or about its three female and two male dancers that wasn’t clear in five minutes. The choreographer used the bodies of the cast in an almost naturalistic way. They walked, they stretched and twisted, they sat expressionless or stared attentively like ordinary people might -- except that we seemed to be watching them as if they were insects under a magnifying glass. Motion was slightly enlarged. The five figures articulated their bodies’ joints emphatically. Some individual actions, such as sitting at a table or exercising, seemed commonplace. Other behavior appeared mildly surreal, such as wearing transparent neck-guards to no purpose, pulling a typewriter around on a leash, putting one’s head into a satchel and wielding a fly swatter as if it were a scepter. Every once in a while activity ceased, the five dancers regrouped in a patterned way and then started all over again at a somewhat different rhythm, speed or force. The differences didn’t seem to matter. Moments occured, as in an intertwined trio for the women that hinted at truly developed dance but Wos scrupulously abstained from providing anything satisfying. Chime peals or pulse soundings by Marcin Brycki accompanied much of the piece’s duration.  The summary feeling was of people with useless freedom living repetitious lives in a somewhat depressed state. OK if that is Wos’s critique of the world, but haven’t there been inventive artists able to conjure boredom without boring the audience? 

 

“Didi and Gogo” sounds silly but explores the turbulent relationship of two very different men. Gavin Stewart was the taller, more streamlined, rather confident one. Robert J. Priore has a boxy body, squatted more and his character seemed at odds with itself. Both were dressed simply in turtleneck tops (yellow for Stewart, red for Priore), longish black shorts and socks. Much of the motion that choreographer Robert Bondara gives the men as they express themselves or interact is gymnastic, sportive, fitful. Bondara’s portrait of his male pair is subtle. This is a volatile relationship. The characters are wary of one another, they are also tempted to dally, yet there are situations in which they clearly come to depend on each other. Finally, their positions are as at first: Stewart standing and Priore squatting, facing away. The choreographer’s attentive use of movement and pose did not make me very aware of Pawel Szymanski’s music. 

 

“Dirge”, a dance of death by Nirenska, is not shy about its topic nor about being highly stylized. Its motion content encompasses a group processional. Bodies constantly are stretched and taut, taking sculptural shapes. Arms and eyes seek companionship. Expressing individual pain is never done at the price of diminishing dignity. I had remembered “Dirge” from its premiere in 1981 and performances during the subsequent decade as being longer. On the Family Theater stage it certainly looked spatially compact and the cast consisted of a corps of four women plus two semisoloists –- the figures of a mother and a girl child. Embodying the breadth of embrace, the gravity of concern and a singular blend of fury and resignation that characterize the Mother, was Rima Faber. She poured herself into the part, yet it was a performance of utter economy. Abby Leithart was the child who couldn’t help wanting life’s joy as she, too, is marched into oblivion. 

 

“Air”, the program’s concluding and newest dance, was the collaborative work of Company E. Had the dancers and directors of the group looked at the three other pieces and used themes from them as trampolines for their own thoughts? Bodies group together. Groups divide. Individuals try to clamber skyward. Falls are cushioned by the cohesion of companions. The dancers –- Alicia Canterna, Vanessa Owen, Kathryn Sydell Pilkington, Priore and Stewart –- moved back and forth declaratively in front of a staunch and stable group of singers. Human purpose and feelings were inherent in this tableau. 

 

One of the ideas of Generations: Poland was to show a palette over time. The choreography of Nirenska’s “Dirge” has its roots in the modern dance culture of Central Europe between World Wars 1 and 2, but its reason is the horror of the Holocaust. For music, Nirenska relied mostly on an instrumental work by the international Ernst Bloch and added drum drones for the processional portion. Faber, also the original Mother in 1981, revived “Dirge” with Carrie Wilcox’s help. Long after Nirenska had left Poland, Lidia Wos grew up there in the post-WW 2, Russian satellite nation but resettled in liberal Sweden, as did her composer.  A presence in current Poland is Bondara. Despite the non-ballet look of “Didi and Gogo”, Bondara is a ballet dancer there and he turned to fellow Pole, Szymanski, for music. The founding director of the Washington based Company E, Paul Gordon Emerson, has made a habit of traveling the world to collect choreography. Emerson and Pilkington (Company E’s co-director) chose vocal music by Poland’s best known post-WW2 composer, Henryk Gorecki for “Air” and invited Washington Performing Arts’ Children of the Gospel Choir to be the singers with Mark Francis as guest director and Michele Fowlin as soprano soloist. Gavin Stewart (the dancer) arranged the Gorecki score. Much work was done on this program. Will there be further chances to see these Generations: Poland pieces –- including “Dogs”?           

 

   *The Great Powers & Poland, 1919 –1945 by Jan Karski. University Press of America; Lanham, MD, USA. 1985.

 

Photo below:

DIDI AND GOGO by Robert Bondara

Pictured: Gavin Stewart and Robert J. Priore