Connect Four

Philadanco called its spring season "The Philadelphia Connection." Boy, did it connect.

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Published: May 16, 2007

Philadanco called its spring season at the Kimmel Center "The Philadelphia Connection." Boy, did it connect � you could practically see the sparks coming off the energized dancers and electrifying the audience. Joan Myers Brown created a superb program featuring two world premieres, one by former Danco member Zane Booker and the other by local hip-hop sensation Rennie Harris. Balancing things out, Brown added a 1947 landmark dance from African-American dance legend Talley Beatty, plus a company favorite by Gene Hill Sagan.

In Between Time started the evening in a sweetly sultry mood with fog drifting across the stage (causing some pre-performance audience jitters about a fire backstage). Performing to some jazzy Chuck Mangione sounds, two lines of dancers executed what often seemed like individual solos that managed to inexplicably but fascinatingly knit into a whole. It was a dreamscape danced by supernatural beings.

An acknowledged American masterpiece, Southern Landscape burned with greatness from the instant the full company burst onstage. Beatty's groundbreaking work used movement to explore the brief period following the Civil War when freed slaves embraced their newly acquired liberties. In five sections of barefooted, heart-grabbing jubilation performed to traditional music, the dancers took us from freedom back to the whip. Gary Jeter II was magnificent in Beatty's own great solo "Mourner's Bench."

The lyric and pretty La Valse cooled things down, if only for a moment. Sagan had a long Danco association, and the dancers' affection for him showed. This is a waltz by Ravel, not a stately Viennese exercise. Like the music, the dancers begin with sweeping, lilting lifts and turns that quickly segue into a tumbling, whirling blur.

For creating sparks, nothing came close to the wild fire set off by Philadelphia Experiment. Harris used random Philly photos (homeless folk, the Constitution and more) in contrast to the fabulous dancers scattered in every direction, jammin', breakin' and performing indescribably complicated steps. Is there a term to describe a running man turning a full-body backward somersault and landing upright on his feet? The dancers moved their bodies in so many directions simultaneously, they often looked computer-generated. Harris successfully contained the exuberance of improvised dance within a tightly choreographed performance as complicated as classical ballet without sacrificing any of hip-hop's firepower.

(j_anderson@citypaper.net)

Philadanco, Thu., May 10, 7:30 p.m., Kimmel Center

 

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