Home Entertainment Reviews eMOTIONS eMBODIED, UNM Faculty Dance Concert
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eMOTIONS eMBODIED, UNM Faculty Dance Concert |
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Written by Jennifer Noyer
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last updated Wednesday, February 28, 2007, at 10:19:45
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This fall's annual dance faculty concert, "eMOTIONS eMBODIED," at the University of New Mexico's Rodey Theatre, explored human responses. A restaging of Donald McKayle's "Rainbow Etude," based on a slave work song, dealt with oppression and struggle to survive. Marta Lichlyter's two dances described the universal search for love. Jolie Sutton Simballa created a humorous play on classical ballet forms, and Eva Encinias Sandoval presented a light and playful "Alegrias." Jennifer Predock-Linnell formed an interesting study of frustration, and lDonna Jewel created with her dancers a wild, kinesthetic explosion of rhythmic excitement in the final "Shift."
Mary Anne Santos Newhall worked with Mckayle on a dance study based on his longer "Rainbow Round My Shoulder." "Rainbow Etude," first choreographed in 1959 to traditional music sung by the Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles, used 13 dancers moving mostly in unison with weighted, earth bound patterns. Fists and feet pounded the floor and arms reached and lifted away from the pull of gravity. The power and tension between these two forces in McKayle's choreography continues to stimulate. Lichlyter choreographed two contrasting dances, the first an blues piece titled , "Love's a Sometime Thing," to music by Bob Dylan. Danced in front of a projected night cityscape, five dancers swayed in heavy, weighted moves, changing level and twisting into sensual shapes against the floor. Lichlyter's second piece, "The Thin Line," danced by Crystal Fernandez and Allie Hawkins, revealed two figures, separated in space, who strained towards each other in agonizing effort to make emotional connection. They reached, then slowly contracted to a crouched position, gradually approaching each other, repelling and then curling their bodies around in intimate contact. Both dancers maintained a strong psychological connection as Alberto Ginasteraís violin music created an ambiance of aching dramatic intensity. "Nowhere Slowly," by Predock-Linnell, was a premiere of both this dance and music by Panaiotis. The opposite of "going nowhere fast," this dance presented a kind of topsy-turvy world with contrasting fast and slow moving groups of dancers. Smoke on stage dissipated gradually to reveal several dancers standing on their heads, and others crouched low to the ground. Sudden sliding entrances energized the scene, and then as suddenly all slid to the floor. Black outs divided scenes into striking vignettes. In one scene six dancers formed three couples who held their partners weight, or pulled against each other. Their were cold confrontations between partners, and then divisions between groups of four against two, and three against three . Little dramas took place as confrontations became more intimate. A repeated motif of one or two figures moving into slow suspended arabesques and wide, sideways leg extensions moved against a larger group whipping into rapid successions of patterns. The dancers performed the rhythmic phrases with high energy and musical clarity. Vanessa Reyes performed a strong "Alegrias," with Kevin Romero on guitar. Encinias- Sandoval choreographed the piece and sang the flamenco cante. Reyes has mastered the posture and assertive stage presence so necessary in flamenco dance. Sudden dramatic turns and changes of focus contrasted with delicate curling fingers and arms. Her percussive footwork was clear and finely articulated. "Autumn Suite," Simballaís dance spoof to music by Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi, was a delightful play on the dancers themselves, some of whom were quite accomplished while the three men were less so. The dancers flitted from nicely executed balletic sections, to hip swinging jitterbug, styled breaks. This could have been just awful, but the way it was all put together was fun and entertaining. Jewell's "Shift" embraced the audience as dancers appeared above and on both sides of the auditorium, in front of the proscenium. Exciting percussion was composed and performed on stage by Stuart Smith, who ambled among of the dancers themselves as his recorded sound took over. When dancers moved back on stage they shift into an exciting embodiment of the rhythm itself, almost a kind of demonic possession. Groups exploded onto the stage as others drifted off. All eleven dancers seemed to ooze the rhythms from their pores, demonstrating great freedom within the technical demands of the piece itself.
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About Reviewers D.S. Crafts (Website) Composer Daniel Steven Crafts came to New Mexico from San Francisco where he had hosted a classical music radio program on KPFA. His first commission from opera star Jerry Hadley, "The Song & the Slogan" based on texts by Carl Sandburg, was made into a TV program for the PBS network and aired nationally in 2004 and won an Emmy for Best Music. His latest opera La Llorona is a collaboration with novelist Rudolfo Anaya based on his play "The Season of La Llorona." Mr. Crafts is currently working on another commission from Jerry Hadley for a piece about the American Southwest which includes texts by Rudolfo Anaya and V.B. Price. Two CDs of his music, Contemporaries (short, satirical keyboard works) and ARIAS (excerpts from his various operas) have been released on the BACAT label in San Francisco.
David Steinberg David Steinberg has covered state government, the courts, city and county government in Santa Fe for the Albuquerque Journal. He's been an arts writer for the past 20 years, and serves as the book editor, for the Journal. Over the years, he's also acted in plays, sung in choruses and played trumpet.
Jennifer Noyer Jennifer Noyer has been writing dance reviews for the Albuquerque Journal for 17 years, as well as contributing articles for Dance Magazine and other art journals. She trained in dance with Hanya Holm in New York City and Colorado Springs, and studied several dance techniques at the graduate level at the University of Michigan. After teaching dance at Wayne State University she entered and completed a Masters Degree in Humanities there. In New Mexico Ms. Noyer has taught, directed, and choreographed contemporary dance for several years. Her writing on dance includes a monograph accompanying the video of choreographer Bill Evens’ ballet “The Legacy.” An overview of Evans’s world wide career, it was written and published during his tenure at the University of New Mexico. Ms. Noyer’s studies in the humanities, and her studio dance work influence her approach to dance as an integrative art form in the United States.
Barry Gaines Barry Gaines has taught Shakespeare in the University of New Mexico English Department for over twenty-five years and has received two outstanding teaching awards. He has written theater reviews for the Journal since 2000. He has attended theater all over the world including Shakespeare productions in Russia, South Africa, Denmark, and Poland. He has also served as literary advisor for two professional theater companies and written performance reviews for Shakespeare Quarterly. Gaines has taken two years of acting with Paul Ford and appeared in small parts in three plays at the Albuquerque Little Theater. He believes that he is probably a better reviewer than actor.
Joanne Sheehy Hoover Joanne Sheehy Hoover, music critic emeritus of the Albuquerque Journal, has written for NPR, PBS, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Symphony, among others. She has also been a music lecturer for the Smithsonian Associates and a music critic and arts writer for The Washington Post. She was director of the Levine School of Music, one of the country’s largest community music schools, in Washington, D. C. 1980-1993. She and her husband moved to Corrales, New Mexico in July 1993. Also a poet, her fifth collection, “Einstein in New Mexico,” was published in 2002.
Marissa Greenberg Marissa Greenberg is a member of the faculty of the University of New Mexico English Department, where she teaches Shakespeare and early English literature. A prior guest reviewer for the Albuquerque Journal, Greenberg will be reviewing theater while Barry Gaines is out of town. She also composed and edited the program notes for last year’s Albuquerque Shakespeare Festival and has written performance reviews for Shakespeare Bulletin. A graduate of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, Greenberg has been performing and studying drama for most of her life. She is thrilled to have this opportunity to review for the Journal.
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