Collector Classics
Chop Shop: Bodies of Work
14 February 2010
The Theatre at Meydenbauer, Bellevue, Washington
by Dean Speer
In the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, I produced and directed a monthly dance performance series that was intended to showcase all of the dance happening in the Seattle area at the time. Each program included one ballet, one modern dance, and one ethnic or “other” dance company or group. These ranged from the large and well-known such as Pacific Northwest Ballet to solo performers to a puppetry group that presented one of my all-time favorite pieces, “The Old People’s Dance.”
I have to applaud and admire Chop Shop’s artistic director Eva Stone for successfully trying to present all of the modern dance work happening in the Seattle area in 2010 through her annual series, Bodies of Work.
With the exception of historic modern dance (isn’t that a phrase to wrap one’s head around?) such as Martha Graham or Doris Humphrey – the kind of work researched and restaged by the University of Washington’s Chamber Dance Company – I’d have to say that she succeeded very neatly.
These ranged from traditional proscenium-style oriented works to those that were site-specific. I liked how we were greeted by dancers moving through the foyer spaces and a balcony overlooking the foyer. During intermission, I was particularly charmed by acornDance’s structured improvisation in one of the theatre’s stairwells that has a two-story glass wall that opens up to the east atrium of the building’s complex, thereby inviting a fairly large gaggle of spectators admiring their daring – varooming up and down a staircase, sharing weight, and creating shapes around each other in a variety of ways.
The dancers were also quite a collection – from the hands-down clearly best and impressive technical prowess of Vincent Lopez who appeared with both Spectrum Dance Theatre and in Olivier Wevers’ Whim W’him to those who perhaps didn’t have a whole lot of technical training but who moved well and appropriately within the context of their choreographic assignments.
My only choreographic fuss would be where works said what they had to say, but didn’t move on or conclude in a timely fashion. The choreographic and dance compositional great Doris Humphrey used to like to admonish dance makers, “All dances are too long!” In other words, state your choreographic idea and develop it or move on. One of her other points of wisdom that so good for everyone creating something is “Never leave the ending to the end!” How often has it been both in dance and music that we hear or see something really quite lovely but then it either really doesn’t go anywhere, have a reason to be, or just stops without any real conclusion.
One example of a work that started out well but left us feeling, well, okay but? was The Phffft! Dance Theatre Company’s “Interview with the American Dream” which asked the question of people across the U.S., “What do you think about the state of the American dream?” It’s a great idea that choreographer Cyrus Khambatta had but he needed to develop more and bring it to some kind of resolution.
I enjoyed the charm of “The Kids’ Table” danced by Quark Contemporary Dance Theatre with choreography by David Lorence Schleiffers, the sheer kinetic energy of Stone’s “Stick Figures,” the serious intensity of Thaddeus Davis’s “Tantric Voices – Excerpts” for Spectrum Dance Theatre – which also had some of the most accomplished dancers, and the invention of “Tethered Apparitions” given by Coriolis Dance Collective with choreography by Natascha Greenwalt Murphy. This piece was one that was solid and well-constructed for the most part but could have used a stronger conclusion.
Mozart has been a jumping off point for many choreographers and Olivier Wevers chose one of the most dramatic – the “Ach, Ich Fühl’s” from “The Magic Flute” for his duet that featured Lopez and the lithe Kelly Ann Barton who could keep up with Lopez both on the histrionics and technical demands of Wevers’ quick and athletic phrases. Wevers changed from quirky to liquid serious and lyric when Lopez doffed his costume for an extended solo adagio. Very elegant, beautiful and unexpected.
Presented in a medium-sized theatre in Bellevue, Washington that’s about the right size for this annual series, my only wish might be that we didn’t have to wait until 2011 for the next edition. That and to use live music for pieces that could (the Mozart for example could have been done with piano and a vocal soloist) which would only serve to strengthen what is already one of Seattle’s most talked about and important outlets for dance.
Chop Shop: Bodies of Work
14 February 2010
The Theatre at Meydenbauer, Bellevue, Washington
by Dean Speer
In the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, I produced and directed a monthly dance performance series that was intended to showcase all of the dance happening in the Seattle area at the time. Each program included one ballet, one modern dance, and one ethnic or “other” dance company or group. These ranged from the large and well-known such as Pacific Northwest Ballet to solo performers to a puppetry group that presented one of my all-time favorite pieces, “The Old People’s Dance.”
I have to applaud and admire Chop Shop’s artistic director Eva Stone for successfully trying to present all of the modern dance work happening in the Seattle area in 2010 through her annual series, Bodies of Work.
With the exception of historic modern dance (isn’t that a phrase to wrap one’s head around?) such as Martha Graham or Doris Humphrey – the kind of work researched and restaged by the University of Washington’s Chamber Dance Company – I’d have to say that she succeeded very neatly.
These ranged from traditional proscenium-style oriented works to those that were site-specific. I liked how we were greeted by dancers moving through the foyer spaces and a balcony overlooking the foyer. During intermission, I was particularly charmed by acornDance’s structured improvisation in one of the theatre’s stairwells that has a two-story glass wall that opens up to the east atrium of the building’s complex, thereby inviting a fairly large gaggle of spectators admiring their daring – varooming up and down a staircase, sharing weight, and creating shapes around each other in a variety of ways.
The dancers were also quite a collection – from the hands-down clearly best and impressive technical prowess of Vincent Lopez who appeared with both Spectrum Dance Theatre and in Olivier Wevers’ Whim W’him to those who perhaps didn’t have a whole lot of technical training but who moved well and appropriately within the context of their choreographic assignments.
My only choreographic fuss would be where works said what they had to say, but didn’t move on or conclude in a timely fashion. The choreographic and dance compositional great Doris Humphrey used to like to admonish dance makers, “All dances are too long!” In other words, state your choreographic idea and develop it or move on. One of her other points of wisdom that so good for everyone creating something is “Never leave the ending to the end!” How often has it been both in dance and music that we hear or see something really quite lovely but then it either really doesn’t go anywhere, have a reason to be, or just stops without any real conclusion.
One example of a work that started out well but left us feeling, well, okay but? was The Phffft! Dance Theatre Company’s “Interview with the American Dream” which asked the question of people across the U.S., “What do you think about the state of the American dream?” It’s a great idea that choreographer Cyrus Khambatta had but he needed to develop more and bring it to some kind of resolution.
I enjoyed the charm of “The Kids’ Table” danced by Quark Contemporary Dance Theatre with choreography by David Lorence Schleiffers, the sheer kinetic energy of Stone’s “Stick Figures,” the serious intensity of Thaddeus Davis’s “Tantric Voices – Excerpts” for Spectrum Dance Theatre – which also had some of the most accomplished dancers, and the invention of “Tethered Apparitions” given by Coriolis Dance Collective with choreography by Natascha Greenwalt Murphy. This piece was one that was solid and well-constructed for the most part but could have used a stronger conclusion.
Mozart has been a jumping off point for many choreographers and Olivier Wevers chose one of the most dramatic – the “Ach, Ich Fühl’s” from “The Magic Flute” for his duet that featured Lopez and the lithe Kelly Ann Barton who could keep up with Lopez both on the histrionics and technical demands of Wevers’ quick and athletic phrases. Wevers changed from quirky to liquid serious and lyric when Lopez doffed his costume for an extended solo adagio. Very elegant, beautiful and unexpected.
Presented in a medium-sized theatre in Bellevue, Washington that’s about the right size for this annual series, my only wish might be that we didn’t have to wait until 2011 for the next edition. That and to use live music for pieces that could (the Mozart for example could have been done with piano and a vocal soloist) which would only serve to strengthen what is already one of Seattle’s most talked about and important outlets for dance.
_________________
Dean Speer
ballet@u.washington.edu
