Sunday August 18, 2013 – One of my few opportunities to try a new dance company, since their performance happened to fall on one of my rare free days: Abarakus Contemporary Dance Company gave two performances at MMAC this weekend where they were joined by the hip-hop company vivake.
vivake opened the show, dancing Scar. The Company, led by Vivake Khamsingsavath, is made up of sexy boys and beautful girls, and they danced up a sultry summer storm in this darkly alluring piece. All clad in black, and illuminated by the fine lighting design by David Opara, the dancers exuded sensuous energy. Vivake himself is an ultra-charismatic personage, a dancer who put me very much in mind of such super-smooth Gotham movers as Bennyroyce Royon and Norbert de la Cruz. I look forward to seeing this dynamic group again.
I loved looking at the cast listings this evening and finding familiar names: Lizzy Zevallos dancing with vivake and Guang-Lei Hui dancing with ABARUKAS. I really enjoyed seeing both of them again.
ABARUKAS offered Yoshito Sakuraba’s “Lullaby to Mr. Adam“; this note from the choreographer had me expectng a narrative dancework:
“Lullaby
to Mr. Adam emerges from from an idea of a complete separation from
reality, imagining myself returning to the past. I imagine myself
walking to my home where I lived and loved when I was little. The
moment I start imagining that, I continue to recall a letter from the
first girl I fell in love with, the barbershop I used to go to, streets
where I’d bicycle to school, a sky where there were fireworks in the
summer, friends I played basketball with, and my grandma, whom I loved
but never expressed that to her. I’ve lived through everything and
everyone’s memory. And they lived through mine. I still have the
letters from the girl.”
But the choreographer is not a literalist; the piece is abstract and opens with a ritualistic passage in which we meet the dancers one by one. As with vivake, ABARUKAS is a Company loaded with talent. As individuals and as an ensemble, they danced with vivid commitment. Plenty of solo opportunities were afforded as the dancework unfolded. The choreography is gestural, scupltural, and – again – excellently lit by Mr. Opara.
Adan Jiminez Aguillar, a tall and stage-commanding presence, had a central role in the piece commencing with a passage in which he shoots – and then revives – his fellow dancers. He’s cast as a rather tyrannical type, though in the end he manages somehow to redeem himself. Guang-Lei Hui is a very fluid mover and a strong partner, and Shawn Rawls showed some remarkable break-dancing skills in his solo. Adan has a sustained, powerfully lyrical solo danced to the evening’s most poignant musical theme. The women – Caitlin Cantrell, Erin Dillon, Rebecca Quintrell, and Tsai-Hsi Hung – danced beautifully and allowed their individual personalities to emerge as the work surged forward.
The denouement of the piece comes as each dancer steps forward to slap Adan’s face – he endures this, and expects the same from Guang-Lei who instead gently lays his hand on Adan’s shoulder. A perfect final image as the light fades.
But no – there’s more to come. Another ensemble passages melds into a spacious duet for the striking Erin Dillon and Adan which ends with yet another ideal final tableau. But no – the work continues on. It’s all well-crafted and very finely executed, but after two false endings things seem to be stretching on a bit too long; a judicious paring down and some re-arranging of the various segments could produce a more cohesive and impressive overall effect. Nevertheless, the performances of the dancers overcame any slight misgivings about the structure of the piece.
Oberon's Glade 