At 35, Sinopoli still taking risks to elevate form

Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company is on its 35th anniversary tour of free shows this fall. (Photo by Gary Gold)

The scenario was not ideal for a dance concert. People were milling around, sipping cocktails, chatting and waiting for theater doors to open on The Great American SOULBook.
 
But Ellen Sinopoli knew that; and the choreographer took a chance. If her one of her six vivacious dancers in her Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company caught the eye of one concert goer, then maybe a new audience member would be born.
 
While a long shot, especially near the bar at Universal Preservation Hall on a Friday night, it is worth the risk. And it is one that she will be taking 35 times this fall to mark the company’s 35th anniversary in arenas, like at UPH, where the audience, and probably the dancers, could barely hear the music.
 
In “Putting Out the Welcome Mat,” Sinopoli and her band of modern dancers are performing four short pieces that reflect a sliver the dancer maker’s output of more than 100 works. Aside from their full-out take no prisoners effort, what connects them all is the mat.
 
The dancers, as seen in the first run of 35, entered to jaunty music to create a stage with interlocking foam squares. Their methodical process creating the stage, in this instance cordoned off by four pillars, is a dance in itself. Fleet and efficient they create the center square and on and off pathways as invisible wings that lead back to the revelers.
 
And then, in a flash, they start to dance. The 30-minute show begins with the lively “Brink” to music by jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas. Five dancers hit Douglas’ high notes and noodling with a flashy kicks and torso swirls that kept, for those paying attention, watching.
 
The evening also featured the spirited tango excerpt from “Sandungera,” a duet, “Slipping Through,” with music by Don Byron for dancers Emily Gunter and Kyra Paulsen; and a trio “To Sing, Laugh, Play,” with music from John Adams’ John’s Book of Alleged Dances.” It was all animated, just like the people who surrounded the stage.
 
As a serious devotee of dance, I was not thrilled with the format. But I definitely see the value in taking dance where the people are. The art form has always suffered as the Cinderella – the ignored workhorse -- and bringing its sparkle to the ball might just be the trick to pull it out of its dusty obscurity.
 
I applaud the effort – even if the music was hard to hear.