Review: ArtFacts

	‘ArtFacts’ faculty dance concert WHEN: 7:30 tonight and Saturday, March 2; 2 p.m. Sunday, March 3 WHERE: Rodey Theatre, UNM Center for the Arts HOW MUCH: $15 general, $12 seniors and UNM faculty, $10 students and UNM staff. Call 925-5858, visit www.unmtickets.com for information

The University of New Mexico’s Department of Theatre and Dance is presenting “ArtFacts,” celebrating choreography by its faculty, plus works by three internationally acclaimed guest artists. Zoë Knights, Mercedes Amaya and Robert Battle created a powerful and innovative concert performed by skilled dancers in the dance program. Physical and emotive power best describe the dramatic effect of the evening.

Knights’ “Court Dance” was in process as the audience entered and settled into seats. Eleven dancers jogged back and forth across the stage in semi-darkness like professional sports players readying themselves. Costumes suggested attire of an 18th-century royal court with white, lacy, ruffled tops above tights.

The dancers’ running movement divided into ever changing groups that formed diagonal lines, circles, and spread off the proscenium to stage left. Basketball formed the base material with defense and attack couples guarding and shooting, squatting and lunging, as bodies created a group dynamic. The “natural and yet virtuosic” movement motivated Knights’ choreography, and she demonstrated a finely tuned eye to athletic jerks of head, shoulder shrugs, breathy recoveries, and even a couple of gum chewers. It was an interesting and innovative approach, but far too long.

Artistic director Vladimir Conde Reche created “Farewell At Dawn,” a lyrical ballet duet for Nicole Corpion and Louis Roccato to Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen” music. Corpion, on toe, moved in space-devouring leaps and pirouettes, rising in Roccato’s strong lifts; Roccato moved with control and gentle focus on his partner.

“Frost,” a structured improvisation directed by Donna Jewel based on Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” contemplated the choices we make in life. Lyrics were sung to music by Randall Thompson.

Lisa Nevada opened with a solo accompanied by sounds of birds, rushing water and thunder. She seemed bound in space, twisting to reach with arms and legs and explore the space around her. Her dramatic and sensitive performance established a focus on exploration in a forested clearing. Avalon Jay and Kelsey Paschich moved to and away from each other in response to the sounds and words of the music and each other.

Amaya’s “Martinete” with 12 dancers and musicians Vicente Griego and Mario Febres, exploded on stage with powerful percussive rhythms. The Martinete was one of the cantos jondos developed from work songs depicting pounding rhythms from a blacksmithing tradition. Sharp, stabbing arm patterns, sudden changes of focus and strong footwork attacked the space. Two groups passed through each other, then joined in multiple designs.

A second section was slower, more deeply hondo in quality, followed by three groups creating foot rhythms with cajon and palmas accompaniment.

“Battleworks Etude,” to original music by Carl Landa, is based on a signature work by American choreographer Robert Battle, arranged by guest artist Erika Pujic from Battle’s original dance company. Battle is artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Mary Anne Santos Newhall arranged this project with Brown University’s American Dance Legacy Initiative.

It was an amazing trio, the program’s highlight, knocking viewers back in their seats from the dancers’ powerful attack: Ana Arechiga, Chelsea Costello and Jacqueline Garcia jumped in place, their feet beating the stage floor, bodies held in repressed tension, exuding barely controlled energy. This was a defiant statement of religious fervor, gestures thrusting with prayerfully clasped hands. Their torsos also thrust in angry contractions, then fell suddenly to the floor – definitely a ‘wow’ moment!

Pujic herself danced Battle’s “Train,” to the violent music of “Les Tambours du Bronx.” The intense, powerful projection of the dancer, and choreography, twisted and distorted human shape in forms that connoted both suffering and struggle.

“NLN” or Nothing Like Now, was a strong athletic contemplation of experience in the moment, a kind of existential statement using marvelous production devices. The lighting design, by Nathan James Capriglione and Conde Reche, included flashing strobes and back lit dancers moving as shadows behind opaque panels.

Thirteen dancers explored spaces delineated by light patterns, enclosed spaces of two semi-transparent screens, sometimes crawling across the stage, or lifting their legs high above in aerial designs. Conde Reche has a gift for discovering each dancer’s unique movement quality and taking it as far as possible into amazing sculpted designs. The piece was visually exciting to watch, but perhaps a bit cluttered with production props.