danceviewdc The
DanceView Times, Washington, D.C. edition |
Volume 1, Number 7 An online supplement to DanceView magazine
Tracing a New Version of The American Dream Tracings By
Alexandra Tomalonis Say
"American immigrants" and the picture that's ingrained in our
collective brain is one of people crowded together on the deck of a ship,
or standing, numbed and exhausted, in Ellis Island's endless lines. That's
the long shot. The close up is a black and white photo, perhaps from a
history text, perhaps from our own family album. When we see their faces,
we see worry, expectation, pride and (perhaps because we've been told
it's there) hope. The overwhelming color is black. Black dresses,
black hair, black caps, black suits, black suitcases. A sea of darkness,
befitting people who had fled political oppression, pogroms, famine or
grinding poverty to find a new life in the New World. The stories
that go with those photos are often ones of cruelty and terror. Hope,
yes, but anger too at what had caused the journey. A Sensual Intellect at Play Mosaic
Nejla
Yatkin brings to the stage an exotic air, an erotic note and an artistic
intellect that's stiletto sharp. Even in something so modern dance classical
as Chaconne, the solo to Bach violin music that Jose Limón
choreographed for himself in 1942, Yatkin's qualities were apparent. Surprisingly,
they didn't seem impositions in this context but functioned in harmony
with the human nobility and sense of duty to art that Limon likely wanted
to convey. After all, back when Chaconne was new, Limón
himself was an unusual import and, for a male, an exceptionally sensual
figure on the American stage. When Baryshnikov danced this solo here a
couple of seasons ago, one became aware of his superb precision, phrasing
and dynamic but the only life traits were the nobility and duty. Baryshnikov's
was a very pure embodiment of the Limón and, of course, he also
had to deal with his own, quite different body -- short and compact. Yatkin's
tall frame is closer to Limón's, yet I suspect that her performance
was very much her own, even though she wasn't the first woman to have
ventured onto this choreographic ground. I'd never seen her dance so fully
as she did Saturday night. Almost all of her anatomy was brought into
active, coordinated motion with only the mid-torso sometimes seeming restrained.
In the solo's famous tilting pose, Yatkin leaned and stretched an awesome
length. Throughout the piece, she engaged surrounding space, embracing
it in her arms, furling it as she struck attitudes, brushing against it
with confidence and perhaps even pleasure as she reached upward. Her long
arms were softly strong. In the footwork section of the solo in which
heels seemed to click and ones attention was drawn to what was happening
at the ankles and toes, Yatkin seemed not to be cutting through space
but gathering it in and folding it at ground level, executing this task
as if she were arranging cloth at the base of an altar and doing it quickly,
expertly without having to stoop and use her hands. Chaconne was
a welcome surprise and I look forward to Yatkin hosting more choreographers
from the past. [reprinted from last week's midweek Extra] "Oh, Brad. They're dancing in the galleries!" Liz
Lerman Dance Exchange By
Lisa Traiger "Oh, Brad! They're dancing in the galleries!" And why shouldn't they? Dance, that is. In the galleries. In the streets. On stages. Off stages. Anywhere there's a space for people to gather and move, to create a community of body and spirit, there should be room for dance. That's what I've learned from Liz Lerman. Saturday
one of Washington's august spaces for contemporary art, the Hirshhorn
Museum and Sculpture Garden, opened its doors and its galleries for Lerman's
Dance Exchange to dance in, to explore the art and the art spaces. And,
oh my, what an hour it was.
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What's On This Week? November
11 November
13-16 November
14 November
14-15 November
14-15 November
15-16 November
15-16 November
15-16 November
16 —Mary Tisa and Liz Bartolomeo
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