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CityDance Ensemble 'Catalyst' (A mixed repertoire program)
March 14, 2010 -- Harman Center for the Performing Arts, Lansburgh Theatre, Washington, DC CityDance’s March 2010 program “Catalyst” provided an opportunity to preview the company’s newest work “+1/-1” by resident choreographer Christopher K. Morgan. The work will premiere on April 19, 2010, at the gala opening night of the Fifth Annual Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival in Ramallah, The Palestinian Territories. It will be performed jointly with Sareyyet Ramallah, a Palestinian dance troupe. According to program notes, Morgan’s piece is about “the challenges, beauty, and inherent metaphors involved when adding or subtracting a dancer from movement.” A single dancer opened “+1/-1,” setting up the choreographic premise having to do with what happens to the relationships among the dancers during the addition and subtraction of others on stage. The soloist was wearing a dark navy blue long-sleeved leotard with a high neck, a huge cutout in the back, and a boyish cut at the thigh, sort of like a gymnast’s outfit. We heard the sound of rain (the moody musical accompaniment, appropriately, was “Weather One” by Michael Gordon). Soon the stage became a bustling sea of arms and a storm of spins and turns. Dancers hopped forward. Their feet shuddered as, in small scoots, their legs drew closer together. They wore angry/fearful expressions. Immediately, the work felt intense, menacing. The number of dancers on stage kept changing, and interesting spatial configurations emerged. In a trio, one dancer at the back of the stage was missing her partner, making her more of a participant in a thwarted duet. She parroted the same movement as the female in front of her, but without the benefit of a male partner’s support. In a different section, with the stage full (there were eight dancers total), dancers, in pairs, took turns moving and being still. One, via touch, animated the other, then held motionless, and the pattern repeated, except that eventually the immobile dancer failed to rest. Throughout “+1/-1” there were sharp lines, lunges, and fast walk/runs. There were also plenty of highly theatrical gestures, like pointing, counting on one’s hands, covering one’s mouth, and madly scribbling math on an invisible chalkboard. Additionally, dancers dragged themselves onward like zombies. Each dancer’s arms stretched around the neck of an obviously absent dancer. The work came full circle when the last dancer shrank into a squat, alone again.
“Entangled,” a sassy duet choreographed by Emerson in 2009 and performed by Elizabeth Gahl and Maleek Mahkail Washington, was nearly overshadowed by the charismatic live performance of Christylez Bacon, a 2010 Grammy nominee who describes himself on his website as a “progressive hip hop artist.” Bacon, sputtering in his unique style, came from the back of the theater through an aisle before stopping at the foot of the stage. I’m not sure that his musical style actually complimented the dance, but his mouth acrobatics sure got everyone’s attention. Bacon was joined on Sunday by Brian Settles on saxophone and Mychael Pollard on piano, playing the jazz standard “Take Five.” Gahl danced loosely, with a huge smile, and Washington gracefully partnered her, looking at her longingly, like he was trying to win her heart. The two pieces that really grabbed the audience, though, were the Paul Taylor works “Last Look” from 1985 and “Images” from 1977. What a coup for CityDance Ensemble to have acquired these works, and even more amazing, to have performed them so incredibly well. “Last Look” is a creepy, jolting dance that seems to speak to corporate excess and emptiness. The women, in neon colored silk lounging robes and sparkling jewels, stumbled around, as did the men, in crayon green prison-like uniforms. They all looked as if they’d just realized the wrongs of their profligate ways, crawling at least as often as they stood and avoiding, for the most part, confrontations with the presumably painful images thrown at them from the full length mirrors surrounding the stage. When not in a heap or otherwise stuck to the floor, the dancers’ bodies shook with crazy tremors. Their arms flung, their legs flopped, and they appeared to be in the midst of drug withdrawal. In “Last Look,” CityDance’s William Smith was perhaps most riveting. Alternately fascinated and horrified by his reflection, he jumped back and forth like a trapped animal. “Images,” a strikingly different Taylor work, performed to the music of Claude Debussy, closed the program. Like “Last Look,” this was skillfully staged by former Taylor dancer Patrick Corbin. Kristina Lucka and Julie Ana Dobo, respectively, recreated the costumes and lighting design. The women wore colorful tiered patchwork skirts, and the men were bare-chested, wearing only black briefs decorated with wide yellow tubing. This same tubing also adorned the women’s low-cut tops. All of the dancers had on a gold headdress of some sort. The crowns the men wore looked as if they had large bolts around them. “Images” somehow evoked religious ritual. The work began with a group of dancers clustered together. The women stood with their arms crossed and bent over their foreheads, their hands limply hanging down and their fingers forming fringe over their faces. From this clump, the dancers’ arms simultaneously opened expansively above their heads. One could see some Graham influence, even traditional ballet, in Taylor’s clean, modern movement. The dancers made very composed shapes with their bodies and regularly moved in flat lines. An arm curved in front and one in back, a dancer stood on one leg with the other bent beautifully behind her, in a kind of artful running man pose. At one point, the women, all in a line, brushed their feet backward like horses, and later they all sat in a row bouncing on their knees. To end the work, the dancers created a sunburst effect, with dancers in a circle, the ones in the front lower than those in the back, all with arms extended. CityDance’s revival of “Last Look” and “Images” imparted a spectacular and worthwhile view of modern dance history. Neither work looked dusty or timeworn. To the contrary, the dancers performed the pair of Taylor works ably, with gusto.
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by Carmel Morgan
Prior to the first intermission, besides the preview of “+1/-1,” the company performed two short pieces: “Little Adorations” and “Entangled.” “Little Adorations,” an athletic trio choreographed in 2010 by Director Paul Gordon Emerson with company member Giselle Alvarez to the music of Radiohead, served as a lively and engaging appetizer. Three dancers (Alvarez, Jason Garcia Ignacio, and Kathryn Pilkington) entered in silence, then began to strut with electricity. Ignacio gave a ride on his shoulders, then on the rear of his hips. A repeated gesture was a hand held, palm facing toward the face, parallel to one ear. Two dancers dove toward the floor, traveling slowly and displaying impressive arm strength. Overall, it was a fun-filled threesome.