Dallas McMurray leads "Message to Michael" in Mark Morris Dance Group's "The Look of Love," a love letter to Burt Bacharach. (Photo by Christopher Duggan) Burt Bacharach fans must make their way to Jacob’s Pillow this week for the Mark Morris Dance Group’s colorful and quite literal tribute to the composer's songbook.
I don’t think it’s Morris’ best work, but “The Look of Love” elevates Bacharach's wonderful music in a love letter to the pop composer whose prolific skills defined love songs for a generation of Americans. Moreover, it unleashes Morris's playful side. This most musical of choreographers stands fully in not just the song's rhythms, as one would expect, but also in its lyrics, mirroring every word. The piece features 14 songs including the title song along with “Always Something There to Remind You,” “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and “I Say a Little Prayer” as sung soulfully live by Marcy Harriel who was accompanied by backup vocals, piano, trumpet, bass and drums. Watching the dance for 10 sends one back to the late 1960s. It starts with a quiet piano rendering of “Alfie” before the curtain opens to five folding chairs that reflected the flamboyant colors of the costumes – yellow, orange and pink, with splashes of purple, red and green. The chairs, with matching, movable cushions, become part of this swirling cauldron in which dancers animate the songs by miming falling tears, breaking hearts, prayerful pleads and pouring rain. The dancers begin with a circle dance to “What the World Needs Now,” an anthem and antidote to societal troubles. With the dancers holding hands and rotating as one inside the circle of chairs, there is a sense that all could be well. Each song was a jewel that Morris dancers honored. “Message to Michael,” led by Dallas McMurray as a priest like figure, sent a prayer to a beloved faraway friend. “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” bustled like a city street and “Walk on By” criss-crossed with dancers walking – simply walking – in a beautiful kaleidoscope of intersecting lines. The surprise was the music from movie “The Blob.” With dancers in silhouette their shadows stalked to the edge of the stage with clawed hands – one to reveal – when the lights came up that the fear was imaginary. The title song wrought the most emotion with a couple, Karlie Budge and Noah Vinson, in a push-pull to surrender to their tender feelings that ending in a loving embrace. This is a dance for the masses that celebrates the songs and doesn’t force one to overthink what’s happening on the stage. There is no need to ponder, just enjoy and hum along.
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Jessica Ferretti and ensemble in Paul Taylor's "Piazzolla Caldera," which was performed at PS21 Chatham on Friday night. (Photo by Ron Thiele) Paul Taylor Dance Company is a national treasure. And for the past few years, PS21 Chatham has been lucky enough to share in its riches, creating a bond between audiences and dancers that has galvanized some of the company’s most inspired shows.
Friday night’s was no exception. Obviously, the dancers are at home on this stage in a dormant apple orchard in Columbia County. The mutual affection stimulates a go-for-it attitude and everyone on both sides of the theater benefits. The evening opened with Taylor’s rollicking “Mercuric Tidings,” where every move at the top of Franz Schubert’s symphony excerpts felt like a “ta-da.” The dancers streamed across the stage in a wave, first tightly with their arms and legs shooting and rolling over heads as they swiftly angled forward. Then they tilted apart, galloping in circles, strutting and leaping in lines across the stage as their arms wheel them around in a tumbling, tossing gambol. Like so many of Taylor’s pieces, there were tidbits to savor. The tiny hops to the side, the straight up sautes and the clasp of the air as if the dancers are embracing a beach ball. In the end, they reassembled into a tight tableau, one body exhausted but satisfied with this ambrosia feast. “Mercuric Tidings” also underscored Taylor’s musical sensibility. He, like ballet’s George Balanchine, rode the music, helping the audience see and thus appreciate it. And his musical sensibilities extended to all genres – from classical to pop and everything in between. His “Piazzolla Caldera” was another fine example of his ability to not only ride but savor music. Set to Astor Piazzolla’s accordion laced tango music, one could feel the sexual heat. It radiated off the dancers in the opening sequence – faced on opposite ends of the stage, the men suggestively thrusted out their hips while the women whirled their legs around or circled their heeled feet on the floor as if drawing a imaginary line they were daring them to cross. Out in front of the men was Lee Duveneck, a commanding dancer who dared the viewer not to watch. Also compelling was Alex Clayton and John Harnage in the drunken duet of dominance; as was Jessica Ferretti who danced the lone, rejected woman who flopped to the floor at the end. The evening was completed with Taylor’s ode to the hippies in “A Field of Grass,” at first happily rolling around in a marijuana haze that turns to a shuttering addiction. Of course, like all Taylor pieces, there was a blissful, skipping finale with Harry Nilsson’s “The Puppy Song.” The summer has just begun, however, and there is much more dance to come at PS21 Chatham including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival hit "Cirk La Putyka" and Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni’s “Save the Last Dance For Me. New Jersey Ballet performs Harrison Ball's "Purcell Suite" on Sunday at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park. What’s missing when a group of people are oppressed? The answer is unknowable. But what is certain is something has gone missing. Something is lost.
That’s what choreographer Roderick George, or kNonAme Artist, was driving at in his “The Missing Fruit,” a work presented by his contemporary ensemble on Sunday afternoon at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park’s spring festival. The forceful piece with intriguing vocal and electronic music by the duet Slowdanger, played live onstage, reflects how, despite one’s effort to rise, there is always someone to push one back down – especially if that one is Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color. The dancers began their journey with a slow walk, like a sleepwalker, and then fell to the floor -- dormant but active. As a few stood, they were met with a figure in a white skirt who challenged them. He swung his legs over their ducking heads and assertively lorded over them with his wide stand and hands on his hips. Despite their pushback, he stood firm. Between moments of aggression, the dancers walked with tiny step, as if to tip toe silently into the rightful place in life. George’s told this story with quiet explosions that turned combative – mixing ballet, marital arts with African rhythms that included swinging lifts that whirl dancers around their partners shoulders. While there was no resolution to the problem George posed, aside from mass exodus, the work definitely piqued my interest in his work. I hope a longer program of his pieces will return to the region. He’s an artist with a message, an artist for our time. I’m also interested in watching the evolution of New Jersey Ballet, which was also part of Sunday’s program. Under the director of former New York City Ballet superstar Maria Kowroski, the company will likely grow in both artistry and stature. As artistic director, Kowroski already brought in newly retired City Ballet colleague Harrison Ball. He created “Purcell Suite” from music from Purcell’s heart-breaking opera “Dido and Aeneas,” the company’s offering to the program. At first, I thought the piece, danced in slippers, not pointe shoes, was a darker version of George Balanchine’s “Serenade” as similarities were obvious. For example, Ball designed loads of port de bras and swells of 12 female dancers who assembled and dispersed, with the simplicity and beauty of Balanchine's first American ballet. The work was pleasant and the dancers seemly lovely. But I'm sure Kowroski will elevate everything about this now minor ballet company. Finally, the afternoon featured a duet from Trisha Brown Dance Company. “Rogues,” with music to Alvin Curran, was classic Brown – an accumulation of pedestrian movement that hit with a weighty, fluid swing. As danced by Patrick Needham and Jennifer Payan, the piece exuded a purposeful laborer’s feel – physical work done with craftsmanship precision. “Rogues” showed off both choreographer and dancer's skills. While this was a satisfying program, Kaatsbaan remains a challenging venue. Last week, the audience got soaked with rain. This week, they were semi-blinded by the sun. So if you go, wear a hat and sunglasses. Gemma Bond's "The Go Between" was danced by Kyra Coco and Finnian Carmeci at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park. (Photo by Rosalie O'Connor) wI’m a dance critic. I review dance, not the venues they are presented in.
But I can’t contemplate the marvelous Limon Dance Company who performed a challenging program with American Ballet Theatre Studio Company on Saturday night, until I put down my distressing thoughts on Kaatsbaan Cultural Park. The venue, a decades-old incubator devoted to dance, has changed. It’s changed a lot. And not for the better. Sometime during the early months of 2020, its co-founders, Greg Cary and his late husband Bentley Roton, who made the then Kaatbaan International Dance Center, their lives’ work, were ousted by the board. The reason is unclear. But since then, not only has the name of the venue changed but so too in how it presents dance -- outside only – a baffling move as Cary and Roton built an intimate 160-seat, well-equipped black-box theater. Being outside was a problem on Saturday night as the Hudson Valley temperatures hovered in the low 60s and upper 50s. And it was raining. It was no night to sit outside in an open meadow. It was no night for dancers to be performing on an open-air stage. Now a lot of venues are outdoors, which is usually lovely in the summer months. Think Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Jacob’s Pillow. In Saratoga, the show can go on in the rain and patrons who bought lawn tickets to dance and classical music performances are often invited inside the amphitheater. At Jacob’s Pillow, they cancel shows when it rains on their outdoor stage. Then there are places like PS/21 in Chatham. For years, dancers performed under a tent, similar to the one now at Kaatsbaan. But patrons were also under the tent, which help stopped some of the rain from inundating the stage. Moreover, at both Jacob’s Pillow and PS/21, seats are provided. Not at Kaatsbaan. Audiences must bring their own chairs or blankets, which they must haul about a half mile to the stage. There are golf carts that can give ticket holders, many who are seniors, a bumpy ride down to the stage located in one of the meadows within its 153-acre complex. Once there, ticket holders can’t just plop down their chairs. They are divided into premium payers, $65 on Saturday night, or $45 general admission patrons who sit farther back. The only amenities for the audience are sales of Millbrook wine, snacks and Kaatsbaan swag. That’s fine, but they could consider some comforts. For example, PS/21 always supplied its patrons blankets on chilly nights. In the fine weather, I’m sure it is grand. But on Saturday night, it was miserable for all. There was a delay to the start to towel down the stage. Once the dancers finally took to the boards, there was another delay after a rained heavily during George Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.” Audiences scrambled as the dancers kept going in this technically taxing ballet, to their own detriment as it’s dangerous to dance on a wet stage. The program also had to be cut because darkness was approaching and there is no lighting to guide audiences along the paths back to the parking lot. This is all a shame as both the Limon Dance and the ABT Studio Company, a feeder to the main American Ballet Theatre, are wonderful. For example, the versatile Savannah Spratt was commanding in company Artistic Director Jose Limon’s “Chaconne” to Bach and delicate and vulnerable as the Moor’s wife in his “The Moor’s Pavane,” the night’s highlight. Based on Shakespeare's "Othello," the dance, to music by Henry Purcell, centers on the deception and betrayal that ends in death. Eric Parra as the Moor and Joey Columbus as his conniving friend oozed a toxic intensity that cut through the surrounding misty air. The cold air was fitting. The Studio Company’s highlight was a divine rendering of Kenneth McMillian’s gentle “Concerto” pas de deux with dancers Kyra Coco and Finnian Carmeci. Unlike many young dancers who are concerned about getting the steps right, they emoted a connection underneath the slow, simmering dance to Shostakovich that was beautiful. They deserve better and so do Kaatsbaan audiences. |
Wendy
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