Mary Ellen Hunt
Apr. 28,
2002
Moving Arts headed in the right direction
By Mary Ellen Hunt
TIMES CORRESPONDENT
If Moving Arts Dance is thinking about moving to the next level, the company made a creditable start with Friday's performance at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.
Now under the direction of Charles Anderson, this long-time modern company has set its sights on expanding the repertoire to include a variety of dance styles. The group has ambitious goals and smoothly integrating ballet, modern and jazz dancers and choreographers will not be easy, but a mixed bill of four works including "Psychedelic Six-Pack" by former Paul Taylor dancer Patrick Corbin, "SAPP" by Oakland Ballet's Michael Lowe, "To Vernon" by David Anderson and "Aposiopesis" by the new director offered a promising beginning.
Arguably, the most successful of the four at showing the intermingling of different styles is "Aposiopesis." The piece -- whose title means a break in a train of thought that leaves the original idea unfinished -- is a deft and thoughtful ballet, expertly set to a complex score. It's elegantly visualized and danced with style by all eight dancers. Choreographed to Michael Nyman's minimalist music, Anderson makes good use of the impulsive feeling of the score and develops his phrases well with echoes of hip-hop and jazz mixed into the piece.
In the lead pas de deux, the long, lean Holly Morrow, an East Bay favorite, is ably partnered by Samuel Pott, who also dances with Oakland Ballet, Kunst-Stoff and Savage Jazz. Both dancers are possessed of rangy moves set against swift attack, but Morrow's quality is particularly distinct from the rest of the company. She never really seems to stop moving, which gives her dancing the impression of one continuous line through space.
Anderson has a talent for making memorable movement phrases rather than simply static images. The group of six dancers who move in and out of the couple's space seem to melt and revolve around each other in sweeping circles, evoking the passage of time. Patterns break apart and reform easily, organically, without any visible strain. Morrow and Pott pass through the group as if searching for but just missing each other, and then, in an aposiopesis in the music, they finally find themselves face to face.
The moving "To Vernon" also appears on the program. Danced here for the first time by a woman, the eloquent Sharon Booth, "To Vernon" was originally choreographed by Charles Anderson's father, David Anderson, after the death of a close friend. Both Andersons have performed the piece, which is set to an original song written by Judith Lander, and there is the distinct sense that it has taken an alteration of perception to envision a woman performing it. But Booth, a sinuous mover who can command attention simply by rolling across the floor, has given the role an expressiveness of her own. In her hands, the piece rises above a simple, meditative, perhaps slightly dated-looking solo, and becomes poignant and deeply affecting.
"Psychedelic Six-Pack" opens the program and it's an amusing diversion, with its '60s soundtrack, the choreographic style of Paul Taylor and the strong, featured dancing of Denise Thomas. By using female modern dancers in roles originally choreographed for men, Moving Arts has made a kind of virtue out of necessity. The ballet-trained dancers perform the pointe work and their modern compatriots partner them to good effect.
Moving Arts also premiered Michael Lowe's "SAPP," which East Bay audiences saw previewed at the East Bay Dance Festival. The work has improved since February, but it is slightly out of place on a generally polished program.
This review initially appeared on April 28, 2002 in the Contra Costa Times.
For questions or comments, please contact maryellenhunt@yahoo.com.