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Austin Chronicle 2/7/06
Austin American Statesman
NEW
DANCE BRINGS ART TO LIFE
In a
short film, choreographer Thang Dao says the only way to
learn to choreograph is "to go into the studio and
play." Thank goodness Ballet Austin agreed. The company
commissioned Dao, Thaddeus Davis and Sonya Delwaide for
"New American Talent," leading to an evening of diverse,
generally sophisticated dance Thursday at the Paramount
Theatre.
In
"Stepping Ground," Dao explored the slow unraveling of
Jeff Buckley's voice and lyrics to gently pry open
notions of weakness. Dancers pushed and pulled each
other's limbs with a buttery softness twinged with
sadness. Ashley Lynn best captured both vulnerability
and strength, never losing a sense of motion as she
gently released into the arms of others.
Neither
Buckley's lyrics nor the projected letters dancing on an
upstage scrim, then assembling into Robert Frost's "Fire
and Ice" poem, enforced literal meaning on the dance.
Dao resisted that common trap, in part by aptly twisting
the words through dance: as Buckley sang "victory
march," Beth Terwilleger collapsed into her partner,
sliding down his body like mercury.
In
"Majestic Days, Fervent Nights" Davis transformed
dancers from a regal court to sensual night crawlers.
The cast pushed through sinewy tangles of legs and arms,
creating infinite arrangements of physical
relationships, no one able to escape the body or desire
of the others. The complex movement was interesting, but
lacked phrasing — in neither night nor day did this
court take a moment to breathe.
Tony
Tucci's striking light design traced Sonya Delwaide's
"Savoir Vivre" from ethereal to earthly, and the work
found the dancers as a group at their best. Delwaide
pronounced the idea of God as woman central to the
piece, but strangely the God figure never controlled her
own body. The cast first twisted and tossed her, then
she drifted, teetering in and around the ensemble as
they performed a straightforward mix of jazz and modern.
— Clare
Croft |
