“Opal Loop,” Groove and Countermove,” “L’Amour au théàtre”
Trisha Brown Dance Company
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Beckett, MA
Saturday, August 19, 2018
by Gay Morris
copyright© 2017 Gay Morris
The Trisha Brown Dance Company’s performances at Jacob’s Pillow last weekend were a reminder of just how important a choreo- grapher Brown was and how much of a void her death in March has left in the dance world. Brown was among the great first generation of postmodern choreographers, along with dancers such as Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer and David Gordon. She began her career in rebellion from the theatricalized expressionism of Martha Graham and ended it with a formalized dance that was as complex as it was beautiful.
Photo: Trisha Brown Dance Company in "Opal Loop." Photo by Christopher Duggan.
The Jacob’s Pillow program offered a taste of that range in three dances from 1980 to 2009. It did not include any of the early experimental pieces, which were not created for a proscenium stage but for lofts, and for streets, roofs and other public spaces.
The earliest dance on the program was “Opal Loop” (1980), which like Brown’s work for most of the first two decades of her career, was created without music. It should have been accompanied by Fujiko Nakaya’s “fog sculpture,” but for some reason this was eliminated, which was unfortunate since it was part of the dance’s original conception and would have added another atmospheric, visual layer to it. Nevertheless, “Opal Loop” offered an example of the kind of intellectual rigor that Brown brought to her dances, here integrating improvisation into the process of dance making, then setting that improvisation in choreography. The result is an appearance of casual dancing that can be repeated more or less exactly. The sense of informality is enhanced by Brown’s use of release technique, which she developed into a highly personal movement language. Its arching swings, flowing twists, and loose-limbed jumps look easy-going but in Brown’s complex choreography the technique is extremely demanding.
The Jacob’s Pillow performances of “Opal Loop” were enhanced by the fact that its four dancers were all Brown alumni, returning as guest artists. Each brought a distinct individuality to the work. Eva Karczag was fluid and elegant, with large, swooping movements, while Lance Gries worked with slightly more tension in the body. Shelley Senter is small and her movement looked quick and flickering, while Keith Thompson was less flexible, which gave his dancing a firmness that was different from the others.
“Groove and Countermove” (2000), showed Brown’s work as she was moving into the use of music, here a jazz score by Dave Douglas. The piece was performed by the nine young company members, most of whom never danced under Brown’s personal direction (the company has been headed since 2013 by former Brown dancers Carolyn Lucas and Diane Madden). Still, their technical training has been thorough, and they danced as if they had been with the company for a decade. The costumes for “Groove and Countermove” are brightly colored pants and tops, with each of the performers in a different color. The dance images are sharp and clear, aided by Jennifer Tipton’s expert lighting. This suits Douglas’s score, which has its own bright clarity, and Brown was sensitive to it, creating movement that reflects or comments on the music as it changes moods through its various phases.
Brown’s wit and the task orientation of her choreography are apparent throughout “Groove and Counter- move.” There are, for example, moments when a dancer barely enters the stage then immediately leaves, or crosses the stage once and doesn’t appear again until much later. Lines form front to back with the dancers executing identical movement, which then leads to each one doing different but related gestures and steps as the line slowly breaks up. Bodies are built into architectonic structures and dismantled, movement problems established and solved. In all of this, the viewer’s interest never wavers, for just at the moment when the eye fully absorbs one phrase or sequence, another takes over. Brown seemed to know instinctively when that moment would occur.
The final work was “L’Amour au théàtre” (2009), representing the late phase of Brown’s career when she turned to classical music and opera. It is set to excerpts from Rameau’s “Hippolyte et Aricie,” recorded by William Christie and his estimable Les Arts Florissants. Costumes by Elizabeth Cannon were pants and tops in apricot, grey, and ivory. “L’Amour au théàtre” was performed in front of an image of one of Brown’s abstract drawings, which are collected by numerous museums.
“Love of the theater,” could hardly be a better title; it is a gorgeous piece, full of joy. In it, Brown incorporated many lifts, some of them slow windmill affairs in which the women are lifted and turned in slow cartwheels above the men’s heads, and others in which the women push off from one foot then swing up onto their partner’s shoulder. But it's not only women who are lifted, men are too, sometimes by other men, sometimes by women. There are also slow, supported handstands and a good deal of movement on the floor. There are dances for couples, trios and quartets, as formalized as a ballet. Formal, too, is the extensive use of unison movement, in which dancers execute the same steps together for extended periods, or perform repeated themes and variations. Finally, there are several fantastic images that conjure Baroque royal spectacles, such as one that has the dancers assembled like the prow of a ship, breaking through the waves, and another of a hunting party with one of the hunters shooting off an arrow atop her steed and cantering away. All this Baroque fantasy is achieved through Brown’s release technique, which would seem at odds with such formality, but somehow perfectly encapsulates it.
At this stage, it is difficult to know exactly what will happen to the Trisha Brown Dance Company, now that Brown is gone. This is the dilemma that faces all modern dance groups founded on a single choreographer’s work and vision. All I can say is, see the company as soon as possible, while Brown’s dances and vision are still fresh in the minds of those who lead the company and perform in it.
Photos:
Trisha Brown Dance Company in "Groove and Countermove." Photo by Christopher Duggan.