Ways and Miens

Philadanco masterfully mixes new and old.

by Deni Kasrel

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: May 13, 2008

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Joan Myers Brown, executive artistic director of Philadanco, has a familiar formula for her company's performances: Pull a couple of oldies from the vault, then fill out the rest with more recent and/or entirely new works. The balance is such that you never know quite what to expect from a full program, and if a newer work feels like it needs more gestation, the repertory pieces provide reliable, time-tested material.

The opener of Brown's latest artistic brew, Ritornello, was by Gene Hill Sagan, a former Philadanco resident choreographer whose approach has helped define the company's mien. Performed to music by Bach, this piece integrates balletic formalism with modern-based dramatics — arms splay out wide and legs leap while bodies sweep around the stage to create a swirling vision that conveys the pervading joy of ecstatic dance. Occasional statuesque poses celebrated the beauty of the human form. A contemporary flair seeped through in duets where women were flipped upside down or spun around while held in midair, offering jolts to Ritornello's otherwise mannered elegance.

A reconstruction of Talley Beatty's Such Sweet Morning Songs embodied a theatrical tone. Pushed along by the pulse and dramatic bursts of big-band jazz music by Charles Mingus, the piece is built on a whirligig of entrances and exits with loosely formed scenarios sandwiched in between. The latter evoked snippets of cosmopolitan life, including bustling packs of pedestrians, friends and lovers meeting up (sometimes in chance encounters), as well as treacherous fare, such as a scene where a lone women must fend off aggressions from a group of leering men. The turbo-charged kinetic workout left dancers and the audience breathless.

The second half of the show offered two world premières. Christopher Huggins' From Dawn till Dusk, featuring six females, was a pleasant rumination on rituals of waking up and falling off to sleep. Then came the big bang: Hinton Battle's Commitments. Here the men initially donned long skirts, which, when lifted by the force of their movement, created an intriguing erotic inflection. That sexiness got even more intense when women waving feathery fans dressed in skimpy white Vegas-style outfits entered. The primarily percussive syncopated score by Scott Steiner, much like the dance itself, moved from edgy to exotic. Featuring plenty of floor work including triumphant spits, plus feral, provocative pairings, this one was searing hot.

(d_kasrel@citypaper.net)

Philadanco May 9, Kimmel Cente

It's Kinetic!
Parsing Ansel
Death and the Maiden
Routinely Amazing
Pilobolus
The Happiness Lecture
Things That Matter To People Who Matter