danceviewdc The
DanceView Times, Washington, D.C. edition |
Volume 1, Number 9 An online supplement to DanceView magazine
Revamped in Red The Kennedy Center Opera House is Back in Action
Opera House Preview Performance "Look at How Gypsy I am!" Bailes
Ineditos Reviewed
by Tehreema Mitha If you wanted an evening of quality entertainment this Saturday, you could have sauntered across to the modest Jack Guidone Theater at Friendship Heights, DC. The audience gathered there was in an excited expectant mood and the opening number to this evening of Flamenco dance did not disappoint. Anna Menendez
and Edwin Aparicio make a handsome pair on stage. They meld well, equal
in their art, with a rapport that is so necessary to a coupling on stage.
Menendez comes to life the minute she takes up the traditional Flamenco
stance. Her arms become sinuous, strong yet effortlessly undulating, mesmerizing.
She is full of constrained sensuousness. Aparicio’s stance makes
the most of his packed frame. He dances as if born into this form, no
unintended tensions apparent in the structure of the torso.
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Flying into the Unknown Crossing,
Stories of Gravity and Transformation Reviewed
by Clare Croft Until Friday,
I was an aerial dance virgin. After Friday, I am an aerial dance enthusiast.
On the West Coast, there are many dancers and choreographers experimenting
with hanging from ropes, but for the East Coast, Project Bandaloop’s
Crossing, Stories of Gravity and Transformation was a welcome
change of pace. Artistic Director Amelia Rudolph’s piece part performance,
part documentary featured dancers in the air and on the ground. Projections
from footage shot in the Sierra Nevadas, where the company enacted eighteen
days of site-specific work, appeared on a giant trampoline that covered
the back of the stage. Another trampoline covered the stage’s left
wings. The piece as a whole suffered from a lack of cohesion, but when
the choreography was beautiful, as it was when the dancers took to the
air, it was a revolutionary experience. What's On This Week? There's no dance this week in D.C. (none that we could find, at any rate) However, coming up: The Suzanne Farrell Ballet will be at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theatre beginning December 2nd. The Kirov Ballet will dance at the refurbished Opera House (Nutcracker opens December 23rd; Swan Lake the following week). 9th Annual DC International Improvisation Plus+ Festival kicks off the weekend of December 5th. The first weekend will feature international artists Eszter Gal and Istvan Grensco from Hungary; New York-based Jennifer Nugent with Bessie-award winning performer Paul Matteson— both members of David Dorfman's company; Seattle-based artists Cyrus Khambatta, Sean Ryan and KT Niehoff; and Maida Withers. The second weekend celebrates the local community: Cathy Paine, who founded ran the New Dance Improvisation Festival and Beth Davis, who runs Glen Echo Park's Hall of Mirrors, along with Daniel Burkholder and Jennifer Lee Clark Stone, both of whom have improvisation based companies; Sharon Mansur—well known for her use of improvisation in her work—as well as Jane Jerardi and Brian Buck, founder members of the Monday Night Improv Laboratory. There will also be two FREE site-specific works, one on the Metro, and one at the Friendship Heights Borders. More details next week! A public service announcement: Be part of
the process. Nominate for the 2004 Metro DC Dance Awards today. |
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