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| | Photo by Bob Johnson | | | Dorothy O'Shea Overbey and Marcos
Vedoveto
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From Funny to Fierce
Collective Body Dance Lab brings it to Baryshnikov Arts Center
By QUINN BATSON
Offoffoff.com
Collective Body Dance Lab offered contemporary ballet pieces ranging from unabashedly silly to dead sultry to beautifully spacious, in an evening at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Choreographer Brian Carey Chung has danced for some impressive companies, including Lines Ballet, Armitage Gone! Dance, Complexions and Ballet Hispanico, and has already choreographed for Ballet Santa Barbara, Cedar Lake II and Luna Negra Dance Theater.
Imperishable, a black-clad piece accompanied by beautiful, lush singing by Alison Buchanan and piano by Byron Sean, falls mostly into the unabashedly silly end of things, with Broadway grins and affect throughout, begins with various absurd but funny scenarios of tragically beautiful people fending off clinging admirers while trying to connect with others equally distracted, who may or may not be attracted to them. A trio of three blind daughters is amusing and clever. A woman steps on prone suitors where it hurts, and there are jumping-out-of-chest Roger Rabbit hearts, melodrama and good singing. Pretty partnerings on three couples together and one section ending with three people lying on each other in lovely telescoping curves made impressions.
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| COLLECTIVE BODY DANCE LAB | Choreography by: Brian Carey Chung.
Dancers: Dante Adela, Natsuki Arai, Lauren Birnbaum, Julian De Leon, Uthman Ebrahim, Robin Gilbert, James Hernandez, Jennifer McQuiston Lott, Sayaka Ohtaki, Dorothy O'Shea Overby, Bennyroyce Royon, Rachel Salzman, Marcos Vedoveto.
| | SCHEDULE | Baryshnikov Arts Center
November 20 and 21, 2009
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Four Arrangements on the Theme of Loss centers around a strange little soliloquoy/poem of stained reputation and unstoppable love, delivered in fragments by people lying solo next to a microphone on the floor and in snippets by other dancers around the stage. There is plenty of sturm und drang in socks, an odd choice of footwear for an odd piece. A solo by Julian De Leon stands out. Lots of pretty and literal dancing as well give the piece an interesting mix.
Lonely House is a steaming hot duet danced remarkably well by Natsuki Arai and Bennyroyce Royon. Arai dances with sultry fierceness, legs popping in and out of sharp splits while being lifted and turned by Royon and while stalking the floor. Humid, blues-inflected jazz singing by Abbey Lincoln is the perfect soundtrack.
And music by Steve Reich yet again brings out the best in a choreographer, here with Duetic Sculptures, a soaring piece in twelve parts of flatout ballet with toe shoes and shirtless men. An improbably thin but lithe Sayaka Ohtaki and Dante Adela channeling Bruce Lee dance memorably, and everyone contributes to fill the entire stage with dynamic, flowing movement in the full-cast section.
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DECEMBER 4, 2009
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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