Friday July 22, 2011 – Last week we watched a rehearsal of works being created by choreographer Jessica Lang during her Joyce Residency. Tonight we went back to Joyce SoHo where Jessica presented the new creations for an invited audience. The evening also served as the official debut of her own Company: Jessica Lang Dance. The choreographer’s eye for exciting dance personalities matches her creative spirit as a dancemaker. The result was an auspicious event which brought an already-impressive choreographic ‘voice’ into her next stage of artistic development. Above: Jessica and her dancers take a bow; photo by Kokyat.
The evening opened with a perfect union of music and movement with an Untitled work-in-progress set to the andante of Mendelssohn’s piano trio in D-minor. Having already commended Jessica at the studio rehearsal for using this beloved score, I was particularly looking forward to seeing the piece lit and costumed. The dancers, who had all looked fine at the rehearsal, positively bloomed in performance mode: their personalities began to make strong individual impressions. Long-haired Thomas Garrett, tallest of the men, showed a combination of powerful dancing and a spirituality of expression that was quite unique. Technically polished Kirk Henning has a clear vitality of style, while Clifton Brown’s experience as an Alvin Ailey dancer shines thru in his handsome presence, total ease onstage and his accomplished partnering skills. From Korea and Japan respectively, Julie Fiorenza and Kana Kimura each have that mixture of delicacy and strength makes them so appealing to watch. Claudia MacPherson, who has a long list of Mark Morris credits, is technically secure and has the gift of drawing the viewer to her in ensemble passages.
These dancers moved seamlessly thru Jessica’s choreographic passages all of which stemmed naturally and gracefully from the flow of this poignantly expressive music. Jessica stated again that she hopes to develop another movement from the Mendelssohn trio in future; tonight’s free-standing andante certainly served as a very impressive calling card.
This was followed by a film, WHITE made in collaboration with Shinichi Maruyama. To music by Edward Grieg, dancers were filmed both in slow motion and in real time and then the clips were juxtaposed, creating unusual ghostly images that ebb and flow thru the dance. Flashes of humour (as when certain passages are sped up giving a ‘silent movie’ feeling) alternate with more resonant images where the dancers appear to be moving thru a dreamscape. Jessica stated that the films were still in a work-in-progress state but to me they seemed quite intriguing just as they are.
Artist Shinichi Maruyama’s KUSHO series (photo above) was a source of inspiration for the final work on this evening’s programme: i.n.k. Danced before a backdrop of slow-motion projections of Maruyama’s colliding splashes or falling drops of paint and water, each section of i.n.k. had a strong individual flavour despite the unifying element of the projected images. Composer Jakub Ciupinski offers a variety of tempi and sonic colours to set the dancers in motion, creating a Diaghilevian union of music, art and dance.
Central to i.n.k. is a radiant adagio danced by Kana Kimura and Clifton Brown (Kokyat’s rehearsal image above); this duet was originally performed under the title DROPLET by NYC Ballet’s Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall. This evening, Kana and Clifton etched the slow movement with quiet intensity, matching both the liquid beauty of Mr. Ciupinski’s score and the climactic burst of the Maruyama film where Kana executes a luxuriant backbend while poised in a lift.
For i.n.k. the dancers were joined by Company apprentice Jesse Dunham. Throughout the performance, the excellent lighting by Nicole Pearce and the attractive and unfussy costuming by Elena Comendador made the dancers look their best.
In sum, this was an impressive evening with an excellent range of musical choices, the use of film to enhance but never overwhelm the choreography, and imaginatively structured works danced with clarity and personal expression. Jessica Lang Dance are off to a beautiful start.
Oberon's Glade 
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