Tuesday June 16th, 2015 – A triumvirate of distinguished female choreographers presenting their work at New York Live Arts: Jennifer Muller, Elisa Monte, and Jacqulyn Buglisi drew together to offer an impressive evening of dance, and each had the benefit of the excellence of her dancers.
Sacred Landscapes – Episode 1 (Buglisi/World Premiere) This dreamlike dancework is set to an evocative score by Paola Prestini, performed live by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and vocalist Helga Davis. As the lights come up, the dancers – clad in diaphanous garments – stride towards us in slow motion as fog billows about them. A sombre theme from the cello sets the mood. Among the many danced highlights, solos by Ari Mayzick and the ever-ravishing Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch stood out. There are demanding partnering motifs, including some wafting high lifts.
Ms. Davis’s voice is first heard in whispered parlando; she will later sustain some other-worldly high notes. The cellist meanwhile veers from dreamy to profound. The dancing is ritualistic and the dancers evoke an atmosphere that is both spiritual and the sensuous. Ms. Ellmore-Tallitsch gave an enthralling performance: her simple act of crossing the stage near the end of the piece took on a depth of resonance thanks to this dancer’s particular mystique. Lovely to re-encounter Lauren Jaeger (such expressive hands) and Darion Smith – all the dancing, in fact, took on a fine lustre.
Hurricane Deck (Monte) begins with a quirky announcement: “A blow to the head…I’ve never been unconscious before!” and from there Elisa Monte’s eight dancers zip about the space against a sky-blue background, the choreography witty and active. Clymene Baugher, Maria Ambrose, Mindy Lai and JoVonna Parks swirl about in swift, playful combinations while the bare-chested boys – Malik Kitchen, Justin Lynch, Alrick Thomas and Thomas Varvaro – pursue and partner them: the movement is fun and eclectic.
David Lang’s score is a lively setting for all this activity, with odd rhythms, stuttering brass, and a sense of whirring at one point as the dancers switch partners. The backdrop has gone black as the dancers stand in a row, each stepping forward in an agitated danced narrative. They hit the floor only to bob up again. “Say it!…end it!” says the unseen narrator, and as the dancers embrace, silence falls and we hear their breathing. The piece seems to be over.
But instead, clanging sounds rouse them; the music turns rather ominous as they perform a sort of darkish coda to heavy brass. The atmosphere takes on a cloying tinge and the work moves slowly to an un-premeditative end. The dancers sustained this longish final section strongly, though I think the work might have benefited by stopping earlier, with the words “End it.”
Alchemy (Jennifer Muller/World Premiere): I had an opportunity to see this work in rehearsal a week before the performance. At that time, Jennifer mentioned there would be ‘projections’ but the production was in fact quite elaborate, with a scrim having been installed during intermission. Across the backdrop and scrim, thought-bytes appear in swift succession: “…a deluge of information…” and “…accumulating none-essentials…” are but two timely references. Later, catch-phrases from pop culture and Yahoo!-style headlines flash across the screens, making me chuckle. Eventually, single words come flying at us. The four-elements inspiration for Alchemy brings us a firestorm; projections of the scorched Earth finally give way to the blessed, cleansing effects of rain. Kudos to Mark Bolotin, who devised the video design.
All these visual effects might have tended to dwarf dancers of lesser power than Jennifer’s; but the Muller troupe – and Jennifer’s choreography – assured that the dancing held forth and remained central to the production. We first find Caroline Kehoe alone onstage, a feminine presence of alluring line; Seiko Fujita appears, striking a sustained arabesque. They are joined by Shiho Tanaka, Michelle Tara Lynch, and Sonja Chung: even thru the scrim, their personalities read clearly.
Gen Hashimoto, Michael Tomlinson, and Malik Warlick appear in stylized, slow-motion phrases; Benjamin Freedman will later complete the impressive male quartet. The dance becomes more active; the dancers rush about as if searching for something. Lightning flashes; threatened by Nature, Caroline and Malik dance an entwined, restless pas de deux.
Having been cast down upon the blasted terrain, Gen struggles back to the land of the living; as Seiko also revives, they dance a tender, earth-bound duet. Sonja and Michael are beautifully matched in their duet. A feeling of desolation creeps in. In the dim light, Shiho’s poetic hands evoke the rain…which finally falls, bringing a glimmer of hope and renewal.
Sand (Buglisi) is performed to a luscious Philip Glass score which continually put me in mind of Debussy’s L”après–midi d’un faune. Beautifully lit (by Clifton Taylor), this exotic pas de six calls for both lyrical movement and powerful elements of partnering. The three couples – So Young An with Juan Rodriguez, Stephanie van Dooren-Eshkenazi with Ari Mayzick, and Anne O’Donnell with Darion Smith – met all the demands of the piece whilst creating a sultry atmosphere, induced by the swaying sensuousness of the Glass score.
Oberon's Glade 