August 19-25, 2004

dance

Mental Wealth

by Janet Anderson

Phrenic isn't just a snazzy, innovative dance troupe, it's an actual word. It means "relating to mental activity," and a whole lot of dance-think was on view at the dance troupe's fourth annual local concert at Arts Bank last week. The innovators also managed some moves "pertaining to the diaphragm," the word's other meaning, by performing lots of difficult moves that require excellent breathing control. What the concert didn't have was much emotion. Exceedingly clever, extremely well danced and bursting with energy, it was more interesting than involving.

Matthew Neenan, company co-artistic director and choreographer of great talent and promise, premiered "Wonder Why," set to Sinead O'Connor and her musical opposite, Massive Attack's pounding instrumental sounds. "Wonder" was about oppositions, mostly between couples. David Krensing, a senior PAB principal, looked great dancing with Rhea Roderick, a fantastic recent Phrenic New Ballet addition. Neenan and Christine Cox, another co-artistic director, were terrific dancing together. In a wacky kind of way, Neenan honored his ballet background with a series of pas de deux, pas de trois and so on. But Neenan's leaps sent dancers jumping straight up and grabbing their knees like kids on the playground — hardly balletic. The piece is full of the odd gestures that Neenan likes, such as shushing fingers and skipping. Lots of individual standouts, yet the whole hasn't really jelled yet.

Guest Lauri Stallings premiered "Life in Your Front Pocket," another dance where vocal music was juxtaposed with hard-edged modern pop. Stallings comes from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, a high-energy outfit local audiences go bananas about. Stallings found a lot of Hubbard high energy in Phrenic and added her own particular experimental weirdness. In her case, it was a bed, which the dancers used as everything from a springboard to a place to scratch their feet. Once again, Roderick was sensational, this time dancing with another PAB stalwart, Meredith Rainey, also terrific.

The most satisfying of the three dances wasn't a premiere but a repeat of "In the Arms of Morpheus" by Jodie Gates, a former PAB principal dancer. And what a welcome repeat. Gates' luscious choreography gave the audience a vision of the dreamer, and the dream itself, all tangled together in Tobin Rothlein's beautiful videos and visuals.

Phrenic's two premiere works probably will continue to be tinkered with. And that's exactly what makes the troupe so intriguing and satisfying — we're in on the process as well as the product.

Phrenic New Ballet Aug. 11, Arts Bank