January 29-February 4, 2004

art

Culture Vultures

Babel on: Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre mixes biblical themes with political satire in their piece, Babel: Shock and Awe.

DanceBoom!'s third year goes 'round the world.

by Janet Anderson & Deni Kasrel

Group Motion Dance Company and Headlong Dance Theater

DanceBoom! aims to broaden the audience for local dance by moving it from familiar, if often underground venues to the high-profile Wilma Theater on the Avenue of the Arts. But location alone won't accomplish the goal; ultimately people who show up purely out of convenience and curiosity must like what they see if they're going to seek out more of it. This year's opening program was a great come-on to entice dance newbies to pursue this vibrant art form. The evening's attractions offered work that was accessible and enjoyable to watch (though not -- perish the thought -- pandering to the mainstream).

Group Motion's Direction of Harmonization features the finely crafted choreography of Japan-based Kenshi Nohmi. A riveting contemplation of the expressiveness of pure movement, the piece is inspired by Zen rock gardens and how lines within them can conjure up visions of flowing waterways. Set to the music of Bach, the piece begins with a woman (Hiromi Karube) and a man (Nohmi) moving gracefully, lit by circular spotlights. Both performers billow their torsos while sweeping their arms in and out to imply a visceral relationship with interior and exterior energies. A third dancer appears, and later comes the full Group Motion company, all of whom repeat and expand upon the gestures of the original pair. Along with elements of modern ballet and postmodernism, the work evokes a weightless quality that suggests being submerged, or floating, in water. The ebb and flow of the patterns combined with the ethereal gesture draw the audience into a space where they lose track of time and simply enjoy being in the moment (which, come to think of it, is the essence of Zen). It was a special treat to see Nohmi's refined, often supremely subtle movement -- and Group Motion looked gorgeous, too.

Headlong Dance Theater's collaboration with Arrow Dance Communication is another East-meets-West endeavor. Here the cast focused on their experience of working together despite the fact that a language barrier sometimes prevented proper communication. Judging from the piece, You Are So Beautiful, that failure to communicate resulted in many merry moments. At the start, Headlonger Andrew Simonet attempts to set a piece on the Arrow trio, who look on in puzzlement as Simonet tells them it's "important to show passion" and that he wants them to act as if they are "being born for the first time!" There's a double joke here: Simonet is mocking the self-seriousness of certain dance makers, while Arrow's interpretation of his directions is comically over-the-top. Later the tables are turned when Arrow's Takeshi Yazaki, speaking in Japanese, sets the same piece on Headlong, which offers an equally convoluted rendering of the choreographer's intentions. Other segments re-create moments the two companies enjoyed in the studio, experimenting with improvisation techniques and sharing their respective movement vocabularies. A soundtrack of popular songs from America and Japan helps build crossover appeal for international audiences. Also, there's the clever integration of small wooden stools, used in Japan when taking a shower, which become assorted props both real and metaphorical. While the antics are entertaining, this inspired transformation offers hearty food for thought.—D.K.

Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre and Philadelphia Chinese Opera Society

DanceBoom!'s pairing of Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre and the Philadelphia Chinese Opera Society could set the stage for culture clash. Melanie Stewart creates contemporary satire in conjunction with Scotland's Benchtours while the Opera Society revels in elaborate pageantry rooted in folk traditions of a 2,000-year-old society. The two are miles apart, right?

Yes and no. There are obvious contrasts: The set and costuming of MSDT's Babel: Shock and Awe is stark and post-apocalyptic. Three of its characters look like zombies. In the Opera Society's rendering of "Farewell My Concubine," characters are regal, costumes are sumptuous, and the set, though not terribly elaborate, is intended to infer royalty's inner sanctum. Also Babel's text is in English, while Farewell's is in Chinese. Then the similarities: Both pieces relate to the transfer of misinformation and the consequences of war, and both use dramatic foundations. Babel falls under the broad-based category of physical theater, while Farewell, at least by American standards, presents highly stylized dance that plays like choreographed theater.

Babel is loosely based on the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel. It spins off the notion of how we build towers for the glory of mankind, and also the concept of confusion of languages. The latter serves as a jumping-off point for acute political satire: The text frequently makes fun of George W. Bush and his penchant for mangling the English language. The three aforementioned zombies portray a type of theater known as bouffon, where society's freaks and outcasts return to parody the ruling class. Throughout the piece the bedraggled trio rearranges square blocks that come to symbolize bricks, pedestals and places to hide (or not), among other things. Babel is currently a work in progress and as such it's a bit meandering and rough-hewn. Still, it holds together at the core, due to the strong dramatic abilities of the performers (Stewart, Catherine Gillard, Bethany Formica and Janet Pilla).

The Opera Society offered a condensed version of "Farewell My Concubine," an epic tale of two warring kings and the lovely Lady Yu, who is married to one of the kings. It's presented in Chinese (production constraints prevented the use of supertitles to translate), and a program insert provides a brief explanation of the story and parts of the dialogue. However, in this instance, actions indeed speak louder than words; it's possible to get the gist of the tale just from the stage action, especially since modern Chinese opera is pantomimic and the costumes representative. Through the performers' somewhat oversize actions we discern a sense of impending military conflict, as well as the strong bond of love felt between Lady Yu and her husband in their delicate dances of endearment. But the tour-de-force performance belongs to Lady Yu (Shuyuan Li), who does a dazzling sword dance where her wrists rattle and roll two long sabers in a flashy display of dexterity.—D.K.

Roko Kawai, Charles O. Anderson and d. Sabela grimes

Three of the most intriguing dance artists working in the city are clustered together on this DanceBoom! program: d. Sabela grimes, Roko Kawai and Charles O. Anderson. What links these modern movers is a fascination with the way their personal heritages intersect with the larger dance culture. They use their body movement to tell who they are and how they feel about the world, and do so in ways wonderful to watch.

Grimes can't simply be called a hip-hop artist, not with his deep understanding of African culture, his playful attention to American ways and his very conscious reach for "spirit." 40 Acres and a Microchip: Salvation or Servitude is grimes' one-man meditation on African festival ritual, African-American social dance (his term) and life in general. An apparition in feather boa and African cloth is piling up dirt and putting a candle in it like a spirit man, then springs up to move his body in every direction all at once. Sometimes he's pulling a television set along behind him like a pet on a leash, while the term "spirit dance" intones over and over. It's like stepping into someone's dream space; you have no idea what it means, but are glad you've caught a glimpse of it.

Dancer Roko Kawai's personal quest to explore her roots as a Japanese American has generated a series of dances in which she combines classical Japanese movement styles with contemporary, very American stuff, slipping into and out of kimonos and modern clothing, exploring how movement is constrained -- or isn't. In Tebura/Migaru, created for DanceBoom!, Japanese classical gestures are different when Kawai removes her kimono and puts on jeans and a jacket -- or are they? Even wearing Western clothing, Kawai's dance with a parasol to kabuki music has an elegant flirtatiousness far removed from American culture. There also is a poignant sense of things lost, as well as gained.

There is nothing solitary about the journey Charles O. Anderson shares with Boom! audiences. His Funky Suite: Body and Soul has him performing with his dance theatre X (six fantastic male dancers) and two terrific percussionists who bang out sounds from a fascinating array of African gourds, drums, bottles and mystery whangers. A soundtrack of music and spoken words (including those of James Baldwin) plays, as the dancers leap, twirl, slash, fight and even flirt. Anderson himself wanders at the edges of the action, walking with tiny steps like an automaton, participant and observer. The world Anderson explores is African American, African and gay. Several texts reinforce the theme, and at one point the words "you're a fag, a fag, a fag" emphatically repeat, an unexpected chorale. When Anderson dances, his fantastic long arms rotate through space like windmills, while he jumps as someone possessed. If there were one word to describe this surge of whirling men in bronze and gold African-style skirts, it would be virile. —J.A.

Dancefusion and Subcircle

Dancefusion and Subcircle, two local troupes with an eye and a talent for dance theater, share a bill. Since 1987, Dancefusion, under its director Gwendolyn Bye, has had the self-conscious task to serve as a living archive of the "significant" modern dance repertory. (Bye actually studied and worked with such greats as Martha Graham, Charles Weidman and Anna Sokolow.) Subcircle is a newer, smaller outfit and their endeavors are determinedly of the present and deeply involved in process rather than reconstruction. The Subcircle "performers" create in partnership with video design, lighting and sound artists. This nice dance equation allows the audience the experience of first seeing Dancefusion's loving reconstruction of Anna Sokolow's Time+, a dance she created in 1968 protesting the Vietnam War. This is contrasted with Crevice, a work by Subcircle so new that it is probably still not finished. Subcircle’s stated focus is on "a world where things float and fall."

As you might expect, Sokolow’s dance has a narrative arc, not a terribly explicit one, but still it’s there. She was a contemporary and a dancer with Martha Graham, and shared with that seminal figure a belief that dance could convey ideas, and specifically in Sokolow’s case, ideas of social and political content. Dancefusion’s re-creation is a pleasure to watch, with the troupe nicely comprised of a variety of ages and body types, which makes the crowd scenes that much more interesting. The theme is timely and the punch line just as emphatic 36 years later.

Two very excellent dancers, Niki Cousineau and Gin MacCallum, share the space Subcircle calls Crevice, but they don’t do much dancing. Rather, they seem to be involved in a complicated spatial argument that involves amassing and arranging chairs and suitcases. (Are we on a journey here?) The purpose of this theater piece does not seem to be to make a point -- unless it is the very nihilistic one that has haunted all of contemporary art from Dada and surrealism to the present. Subcircle uses all the current tools of dance theater, including video backgrounds and a soundtrack of clanking, discordant whines and possibly a train. It also involves itself with textures and touch: Feathers float at one point, and water drips down.

Cousineau and MacCallum seem less pioneers of the 21st century than the latest manifestation of German expressionism. No surprise here: Philadelphia has a thriving connection to German dance ideas through Group Motion and gone-but-not-forgotten ZeroMoving Dance Company. Crevice was developed during a residency in Germany and shaped by London-based choreographer Carol Brown, who has worked here with Group Motion. So I am not sure this dance is the newest thing in the world so much as it is the latest example in a long line of expressionist dance. After all, the great German Pina Bausch was tossing chairs around on stage long ago.

Maybe as much as anything what this pairing demonstrates is the perilousness of the idea of the truly contemporary dance. It’s so darned hard to be an experimenter. And the truly new gets old so very fast. What a great opportunity to see contrasted the two main currents in modern dance -- the idea-driven, thematic approach of the early moderns, and the abstraction beloved of the Germans still being experimented with here in Philadelphia today.—J.A.

Group Motion Dance Company and Headlong Dance Theater, Jan. 31 and Feb. 5, 8 p.m. and Feb. 7, 2 p.m.
Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre and Philadelphia Chinese Opera Society Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2 p.m. Roko
Kawai, Charles O. Anderson and d. Sabela grimes Jan. 29, Feb. 4 and Feb. 7, 8 p.m.
Dancefusion and Subcircle Jan. 30 and Feb. 6, 8 p.m. and Feb. 8, 2 p.m.

Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., 215-546-7824