Revolve Dance Company: Premieres6

 

Wake by Matt Dippel - Revolve Dance Company | Photo by David Bullanday Photography

 

 

Revolve Dance Company is the kind of ensemble that makes dancing look effortless when you know full well it isn’t. On Friday, December 10 they made this abundantly clear to a packed Barnevelder Movement/Arts audience with their sixth full-length concert, Premieres6.

The performance included, you guessed it, six premieres with works by foundational members, Amy Cain, Dawn Dippel, and Matt Dippel, plus guest choreography by Houston dance artist, Lindsey McGill, and nationally known choreographer, Wes Veldink, a frequent Revolve collaborator.

The eleven-member company’s repertoire is decidedly contemporary and somewhere in the jazz genus, but they show restraint when it comes to movement pyrotechnics, particularly for a professional company born and cultivated at a suburban competitive dance studio. All of the overstated power moves and flashy stuff are MIA, unless you consider consistently good dancing, flash.

In the middle of a mostly mellow lineup, Matt Dippel’s Wake is a welcome diversion. Opening under the midnight blues of Jeremy Choate’s contoured lighting, the company sits bowed and kneeling like monks before eventually engulfing Dawn Dippel in a pulsing, dystopian but not quite menacing mob. Ms. Dippel’s flame red hair shines like a beacon in the half-light hues, but it is her command of the stage that makes it difficult to tear your eyes away.

Science revealed recently that Earth’s moon does, in fact, hold water – more than we ever thought, actually. Yet, when has the moon not ‘held water’ for those that look upon it? Lindsey McGill’s romantic ode to moon gazing, …when the moon holds water, is layered with articulated, if not mysterious, gesture. At first it whispers, inviting witnesses to a private slow dance between dancers Amy Cain and Matt Dippel. Nuzzling, tracing, and measuring both the corporeal presence and the space once occupied by the other, the duo are folded into the geometric undulations of the full company. The choreography builds to a splash of unison at its climax, then wanes like the lunar surface, all under the ever-present double orbs in Choate’s orange heavens.

Ms. Cain’s Of This World is an exploration of the four terrestrial elements, capped with an earnest coda set to Antony & The Johnsons’ rhapsodic lament for the natural world. Houston Ballet Academy instructor and former HB dancer, Beth Everitt completed a goddess-like Air trio that also included Cain and Dawn Dippel. But, it is Matt Dippel and Lauren Difede who almost single-handedly cleanse the work of platitude with their breathtaking partnering as Water. (Jennifer Stricklin performed with Dippel in the Water duet for Saturday’s performance.)

Dawn Dippel’s Restful Retreat has familial charm and lives up to its title, though a jumble of images and props sometimes amount to contextual clutter. Everest featured three of Revolve’s junior company members and guest performances by the Senior Performance Company of North Harris Performing Arts, the studio co-owned by multiple Revolve Dance Company members. The dancers looked at home among professionals even if the dance in this context amounted to an exclamation point that NHPA is running a top-notch program. Veldink’s lyrical And I Love You, Bye is winsome but doesn’t fight hard enough to be more notable than its accompaniment. It was Cain and Ms. Dippel that demonstrated they could rival a song as big as Florence and The Machine’s Dog Days Are Over in a go-for-broke torrent of movement that morphed into a curtain call on steroids.

Contemporary dance can sometimes be identified by its boring apparel parade of pants and tunics. Therefore, deserving of mention is dancer and resident costumer, Jane Thayer who works with each choreographer to create a mosaic of costumes that manage to be individual and sometimes even surprising without being ostentatious.

Revolve Dance Company puts on a satisfying show that runs with the same kind of precision shown in the dancing. Their work is imaginative without breaking any rules. A homegrown collective, Revolve’s members are easily some of the best contemporary dancers performing in Houston and can be counted on to impress with a dignified elegance.

 

Reprinted courtesy Dance Source Houston

Translating Cultures –- Yasuko Yokoshi’s Tyler Tyler Weaves Japanese and American Dance

 

Photo by Alexandra Corazza; Dancers Julie Alexander and Kayvon Pourazar

In one hand, a male dancer holds a folding fan, tilting and turning it with subtle precision. On his hip, a pistol rests in a holster. It matches the Old West cowboy hat on his head. Braiding iconic symbols of Japanese and American cultures, this moment is arranged in the exact center of New York choreographer Yasuko Yokoshi’s Tyler Tyler, which opens on Thursday, October 14 at DiverseWorks.

The solo’s accompaniment is “American Flag” by Cat Power (sung by composer and live musician, Steven Reker). “I just play with images and multiple perceptions behind the images,” Ms. Yokoshi says of this centerpiece. “It [the song choice] does not mean anything, but it means something if one wants to find meaning.”

Born in Hiroshima, Ms. Yokoshi has lived in the United States for more than half her life. She began her dance training here and her artistic and choreographic work is underpinned by American postmodern dance. In 2003, while traveling in Japan, her life and work took a new turn when she met Masumi Seyama, the master teacher and premier practitioner of Kanjyuro Fujima’s Kabuki Su-odori dance tradition.

Kabuki Su-odori means “naked dance” and is presented without the make-up, spectacle, and decorative choreography typical of Kabuki performance. The subtly theatrical aesthetic felt like common ground, drawing Ms. Yokoshi to the Kabuki Su-odori form. She began her studies with Ms. Seyama, who was taken with her intrinsic understanding of what was demonstrated to her. The 72-year-old Seyama determined that Ms. Yokoshi was meant to study and be the inheritor of some of the repertory. After a few years of training, during which their unique relationship flourished, the two first collaborated in the critically acclaimed, what we when we, winner of a 2006 “Bessie” award.

Tyler Tyler is a continuation of the pair’s work together and puts traditional Japanese dance and contemporary American dance side-by-side, a concept reflected in the work’s repetitious title. The cast of five includes three Japanese dancers and actors, each trained by Ms. Seyama, who perform traditional repertory influenced by and set within Ms. Yokoshi’s contemporary choreographic structure. This time, however, the traditional Japanese dances have also been passed on to two American dancers, Kayvon Pourazar and Julie Alexander (a Houston native), for cultural translation.

Ms. Yokoshi’s thematic inspiration for Tyler Tyler is “The Tale of the Heike,” a Japanese epic about the battles of the Minamoto clan and their dominant rivals, the Taira who, according to the Buddhist law of impermanence, inevitably fall to ruin. The word Tyler is a play on the mispronunciation of this powerful family’s name. Though Tyler Tyler is presented in a series of episodes like the Tale, Ms. Yokoshi is not loyal to the story’s structure. Repertory based on the saga is unorthodoxly juxtaposed with unrelated traditional Japanese dances, as well as contemporary movement, created in collaboration with Mr. Pourazar and Ms. Alexander.

Like the solo “American Flag,” the layering of Japanese and American iconographies, dances, traditions, and histories are central to Tyler Tyler and can be found in every element of the production. Composer, Steven Reker’s atmospheric soundscapes and original interpretations of traditional Japanese music intertwine with spoken text and vocal selections by songwriters like The Carpenters and Lou Reed, which are often sung by the cast.

For the two American performers, costumes are by turn formal, informal, contemporary, and traditional. Ms. Yokoshi and costumer, Akiko Iwasaki, looked through a book of historic costumes for inspiration. “We wanted to make some kind of formal dresses out of denim material, which are a product of  the USA,” Ms. Yokoshi explains, “but we also wanted to have a look which was somehow ‘European high society.’ Formality, class, grace, elegance and ‘American’ were what we looked for.”

According to Ms. Yokoshi, audience reaction to Tyler Tyler has been “very diverse and
somewhat extreme.” Some viewers are moved to tears by the understated beauty of the performances and for others it seems to get lost in translation. Interestingly, cultural familiarity and perceptions delineate response as well. “People that see it in Japan think it is very American because they can see the changes being made and the lines being crossed. People that see it here think it is very Japanese.”

See it in Houston. Fan or pistol, the tapestry of woven images in Tyler Tyler will linger linger.

Tickets for Tyler Tyler can be purchased online at www.diverseworks.org, at DiverseWorks Art Space, (1117 East Freeway), or by calling 713.335.3445. DiverseWorks offers a special PAY WHAT YOU WANT Thursday evening performance. Tickets for Friday and Saturday are $20 general admission, $10 Members/ Students and Seniors. Information on group tickets: 713.223.8346.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston

Second Annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival

Don’t call it improv. Not only does it look like a typo in print but, as Leslie Scates, one of Houston’s leading improvisational dance artists will tell you, “using “improv” continues to connote the work as casual.” In fact, it takes a particular kind of dexterity, vital to today’s dancer, to go beyond auto-pilot in improvisation and the preparation that goes into pulling off a spontaneous masterpiece is anything but casual. It’s no surprise then that The Second Annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF), to be hosted by Rice University October 7-9,  is filling up with registrants from the widespread cities of Texas.

“Improvisational dance is a form that demands as much practice, intention and craft as any other dance technique,” says Rosie Trump, co-facilitator of this year’s event and Assistant Director of Rice University Dance Department. Addressing the need for a Texas-based event, she adds, “This is a legitimate form with a recognized lineage and secure future. Although TDIF is a relatively young festival, there are dance improvisation festivals that happen all over the country and internationally.”

The event, conceived by Jordan Fuchs, was facilitated in its inaugural year by he and Sarah Gamble at Texas Women’s University Department of Dance. As an attendant of that event, it was Scates who advocated for bringing the traveling festival to Houston for its sophomore assembly.

Funded in part by grants from the City of Houston Mayor’s Special Initiatives Grant program of the Houston Arts Alliance, TDIF will kick off with an improvisation jam at 6pm on Thursday, October 7.

Two full days of improvisation classes will follow. Movers of all types and improvisational novices are welcome to register for the festival classes. “Because you define the physicality in your dancing while improvising, it can be very appealing to all levels,” says Trump. “We have a variety of sessions to suit registrants at different stages of experience.”

Describing what even veteran performers and students have to gain from studying the craft of improvisation, Scates says, “Improvising teaches them to pay attention to choice-making in their dancing brain. It turns their bodies into 3D dancing instruments rather than instruments that constantly get and require feedback from a mirror or a particular ‘front.’ It teaches them to craft movement for repeatable choreography, improvise with other bodies and vocabularies, and to see other people as source material providers and not competition.” She points out that the related practice of contact improvisation “provides ample technique for creating partnering and becoming a versatile post modern dance machine.”

This year, TDIF will welcome Los Angles based dancer, improviser and arts activist, Meg Wolfe as its featured guest.  “She is this visionary force in the LA dance scene,” explains Trump. Adding that “Southern California is a difficult place to navigate as a dance artist,” Trump explains that Wolfe curates Anatomy Riot, a regular choreography showcase; organizes a master class series called DanceBANK; co-edits the L.A. dance journal, and is the coordinator for a new grant program in Southern California. “I am very excited about what she will be able to share with the the Texas dance community, because so much of what she has initiated has been done without institutional or traditional support systems,” remarks Trump.

In addition to classes, two evening jams and a panel discussion will all take place at Rice University’s Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation Center, 6100 Main St, Rice University.

A performance and closing jam will be presented Saturday, October 9 at Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex, 2201 Preston, in downtown Houston.

Though the movement will be unplanned, Scates insists that there is no “phoning it in” during true performance, improvisational or otherwise. “Improvisers rehearse. Improvisers create scores so that the craft of improvising choreography has a setting, limits, definition and intent. Improvisers learn to capitalize on a brilliant moment and develop it.” The public is welcome on a first-come, first-served basis (with priority given to registrants) to attend the performance and jam at Barnevelder for an unrepeatable, “improv”-free evening.

Participants must register though the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival is completely free of cost.

Find more information or sign up for the full or partial event at tdif.rice.edu.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston

Houston Met Mixes Up A Flavorful Meal

Dancer Kiki Lucas; Photography by Ben Doyle, Runaway Productions

Serving up the menu of a mixed program can be tricky. I’ve seen what goes on in the background on the reality show Hell’s Kitchen. There’s a science to arranging dishes and getting them out on time. Open the oven too early and the soufflé drops. Houston Metropolitan Dance Company cooked up a flavorful bill of fare on Saturday night when they tried Mixing It Up, Again.

As usual in my case, the dessert course was the highlight. Delivering the strongest male performance of the evening, Kerry Jackson is trapped in a box of light. His passionate tirade in Consumed, an introduction to Kate Skarpetowska’s slightly scary world of driven conformists. Leaping from the stage he escapes an army of “suits” that urge surrender to their worker bee mentality. A Julliard alumni, Skarpetowska has danced for David Parsons, Lar Lubovitch, and newly named Alvin Ailey Artistic Director, Robert Battle. These influences are clear in athletic choreography, rich with human peculiarities. The work captivated through to a humorously disturbing finish. An odd sort of dessert I suppose, this was Houston Met at its most gritty and menacing, in no small part aided by Meredith Monk’s eccentric vocals and a pulsating score by Richie Hawthine. Dramatic and robust, the supercharged work accentuated the company’s prime attributes. Not a bad way to send the audience out the door… appetite satiated.

A patchwork of lyrically stirring appetizers, Braham Logan Crane’s History introduced the full company. The piece though, did not come into its own until the majority dispersed and sheer curtains of fabric rained down on female soloists, Kiki Lucas, Lisa Wolff, and Jocelyn Thomas. The choreography twines and twirls around a pristine vocal/piano by Angela Ai, a singer-songwriter with inflections akin to Tori Amos and Kate Bush. The dancers’ performances tightened during the latter half of this collection of excerpts as the songs build to a joyous finish. Joe’l Ludovich and Will Matthews’ well-coordinated visuals of ancient rock, architecture, and surging water filled the expanse of the Cullen stage.

In Kiesha Lalama White’s Unsung Moment, Marlana Walsh-Doyle, Terrill Mitchell, and Lucas depicted fear, denial, and confrontation (respectively) with clarity in this study of the underlying emotional conflicts provoked by war. Unfortunately, odd choices in projection and musical transition were occasionally disruptive.

The optimist in me lost the internal bet I’d waged that a work titled Bound would not include a tether. Convention aside, Houston Met veterans Walsh-Doyle and Lucas are engaging performers and this duet by Joe Celej did not overstay its welcome.

In her turn as choreographer, Lucas infused Semi Detached with powerhouse moves and grooves. There is meticulous structure reinforcing this clever battle for control over a chair. A short, sweet sorbet, Pattie Obey’s Passada provided a tinge of romance, its sensual rhythms kindling a triangle of longing and flirtation.

These four world premieres were diverse enough in scope and theme to keep Houston Metropolitan Dance Company’s full-course meal interesting and the program zipping along.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston

Houston Met Dance Confronts the Ground with jhon r. stronks

Last spring, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company premiered jhon r. stronk’s Not Yet Soaring as the finale of their Mixing It Up concert. Its fresh and joyous movement language was a highlight on the program and the company encouraged stronks to develop the work further. The resulting collaboration, Still Confronting the Ground is a dance theater work that “finds them attending to the serious business of happiness in an evening of choreography and performance created in honor of growing up, and what it takes to get there.”

Clair Hummel, a graduate student at the University of Houston Theatre, Dance, Costume Design and Technology department has created costumes for this piece. Kris Phelps serves as Houston Metropolitan Dance Company lighting designer. Meanwhile, Houston composer, DJ, and sound designer, Jerahmiah DiMatteo is live-mixing an electronic score that mingles with spoken text, some written by stronks himself.

I caught up with jhon to find out more about the work, its rehearsal process, and what audiences can expect from Still Confronting the Ground.