EMERGE III
EMERGE III, Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, La Jolla, CA, 9-9-06
I attended EMERGE III last night, subtitled “A Showcase of San Diego’s Emerging Contemporary Dance Choreographers”. EMERGE III was presented by the San Diego Dance Alliance.
EMERGE III presented works by six choreographers, and featured a good eclectic mix. The evening included works by Daniel Marshall, Jillian Chu, and Rebecca Bryant.
Daniel Marshall, Artistic Director of LaDiego Dance Theater, presented “Unbreakable” and “Bach to Ballet”, two terrifically entertaining and enjoyable modern ballets. My sense of these dances was “ballet to a beat”.
“Unbreakable” opens with a dancer dashing diagonally across the stage, coming to a dead stop downstage right and arriving in a frozen tendu. Her foot beautifully pointed, energy surging down her leg and out through her toes, she posed regally, vibrating gently. All I could think was, “This is the kind of dance I came to see, the kind of dance that makes me want to jump up on stage, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
What happened next was a super mix of ballet and rhythm. Daniel’s dancers flowed back-and-forth across the stage, crossing diagonally up and diagonally down, fully filling all three spatial dimensions with gorgeous, complicated ballet combinations.
I haven’t seen anything this good for a long time. The LaDiego dancers’ technique was excellent. The arm placement and movement of several of the ballerinas reminded me of Natalia Makarova’s beautiful flowing and expressive arms. Excellent extensions, long lines, and dynamic jumps all combined with joyous, uplifting stage presence.
The LaDiego dancers were at once refined and commanding, powerful and graceful. And, Daniel’s choreography was both lyrical and highly syncopated, and very well executed.
I’m reminded of “jazz ballet”, Jerome Robbins-like, and that’s a heck of a comparison. I’m still thinking about these two dances, and that says it all.
Jillian Chu is the Founding Director of BOUNDcontemporaryDance. Jillian presented “Plane Perspective”, a piece created in collaboration with two of her BOUND colleagues. At its conclusion, my neighbor offered this spontaneous review — “I liked the aesthetics and it was well-crafted.” I totally agreed.
“Plane Perspective” was a deep, thoughtful, expressive contemplation of dance-for-dance’s-sake. The choreography had no hooks, and no particular rhythmic sequence. Neither was technique a key element, although an informed viewer could recognize the dancers’ strong technical backgrounds that made the work possible.
The set design was composed of three blue rectangular lucite shapes, which were spaced on a diagonal. Their subtle movement and reflections contributed to the Zen-like power of “Plane Perspectives”. I was strongly reminded of Isamu Noguchi’s legendary sets for Martha Graham.
I was also strongly reminded of Piet Mondrian and Ellsworth Kelly. These artists use color sparingly, usually with limited palettes, and yet their paintings shimmer with movement. Similarly, Jillian’s spare choreography allowed the audience to fill in the spaces, and follow along in their own inner visions. “Plane Perspectives” was warmly received with much appreciative applause.
Rebecca Bryant’s “in search of gray”, created in collaboration with Don Nichols, was a Performance work of the highest order. The program notes list Rebecca’s and Don’s company as the past)(modern performance duo.
This was a terrific piece. I’ve been noticing that I’m much more appreciative of performance art in general, and much better at getting the overall aesthetic, than when I was younger and working as a dancer in New York City. “in search of gray” opens to reveal two men seated downstage, facing upstage, and two dancers upstage, costumed in taupe sacks and lying on the floor. I’m thinking, “typical performance piece”.
Not! The men, who turned out to be performance percussionists, began to drop various quantities of pebble-like objects onto a free-form white abstract slab, which was a wireless microphone/transducer in disguise. These rain-like, gravelly percussive sounds streamed from the house speakers, washing over the audience like primeval surf.
The dancers stirred themselves, writhing and cavorting in an alternating pattern of deep anguish and fractured joy. “in search of gray” became big and bold, one of the dancers flinging the pebbles in a fireworks-like arc which paralleled the curving, slashing movements of her arms. This was both stunning and mind-boggling.
“in search of gray” appeared to me as visual percussion. Very much like what a virtual reality (or psychedelic) experience might be. This full-sensory-load performance piece faded to black with yet one more beautiful surprise, as cataracts of the pebbles poured down from the flies. It was overwhelming, in a very good way.
Congratulations to the San Diego Dance Alliance and all the choreographers and dancers, and everyone involved in the production, of this terrific evening of the future of dance.
Add comment September 10th, 2006