Rodney Veal

This intrepid reviewer, a lover of the art form of dance in all of its permutations has viewed two concerts for DCDC and Dayton Ballet. Unfortunately, except for a couple of bright spots, this reviewer was left under whelmed to the point of concern.

I am fully aware that we are in perilous times in regards to funding for the arts, and as a native Daytonian I want to provide an enthusiastic, supportive review. I believe that honest dialogue about the works being presented is critical to the growth of beleaguered arts institutions. What was presented artistically by these two venerable institutions left this reviewer with a vexing quandary. I went into both concerts ever hopeful that my willingness to be in the audience would somehow be rewarded with exquisite transporting terpsichorean art that would engage me on so many levels. After attending several concerts by both companies I have shed my naïve beliefs that things will progress.

The DCDC concert, Director’s Cut, held the one choreographic bright spot of both concerts; the invigorating and bracingly contemporary work of Rodney Brown. The rest of the concert consisted of works presented in a collage from the forty years of artistic product from the DCDC legacy of classic works of the modern dance vernacular. My only disappointment in Rodney Brown’s work was that it highlighted the creakiness of everything else on the concert. I am a huge advocate of dance reconstruction and restoration. My love of Balanchine is steadfast and absolute. Unfortunately, watching the historic works of DCDC in this context was like looking at a tenth generation Xerox copy, washed out and barely legible as to render it useless.

Rodney Brown, a former dancer with DCDC, brought to the Dayton dance scene a glimpse of what is happening in the dance world. His work was a strikingly original work with a dance vocabulary shaped and influenced by the Europeans, Wayne McGregor, William Forsythe, Crystal Pite and Pina Bausch and grounded in the asthetitics of the post modernist legend Bebe Miller. Mr. Brown created a world that was both strange as well as unpredictable and utterly captivating. The Nearing was set on a quartet of the men from the company, who never looked better. The movement material was rooted in a relentless repetition that was punctutuated by moments of individual expression. It was like being transported into a dystopian dance drama that reminded me of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the 21st century forgotten men. I have not been this captivated since seeing the restaging of Adam Hoagland’s choreography at the Wright State Spring Dance Concert in the spring.

The Haunted series presented by Dayton Ballet contained two highlights; that it was mercifully brief and was at least danced with conviction. Watching this concert I will acknowledge that choreographically Sleepy Hollow was the most accomplished work of the two ballets presented and that is faint praise.

I believe that Dayton Ballet is filled with incredibly gifted performers that are completely invested. My fondest wish is that later in the year they will be showcased in vehicles worthy of those skills and talents.
The problem with both of these ballets resides in the question of “taste levels”. This was a strictly middlebrow production that held little charm or genuine delights to walk away with.
Every major performing arts organization in the United States wrestles with creating work that will attract audiences and fill the coffers, ie., safe entertainment that will appeal to the lowest common denominator. Our dance companies are not immune to this paradox. Yet in appealing to the lowest common denominator they are exposing not only their faults, but also the audience’s as well.

The Dayton arts audiences are complicit in this spiraling artistic bankruptcy. We simply have no concept of what well-produced dance looks like. I will give credit to the valiant efforts to reverse the declining fortunes of two formerly great artistic pillars of community; this is my only act of charity. I am saving my most barbed commentary for the Dayton arts audiences.

All of the art forms that are being presented in our community are typical to any city with a significant population. You have been great in your dutifulness in attending the arts events, purchasing season tickets, and being present. I applaud your levels of support. But are you aware that you are being presented work that is not reflective and indicative of the rest of the world? You are being short changed by not asking for more and knowing the difference.

Professionals in other fields (i.e, the medical fields, accounting & finance) are required to maintain some knowledge and awareness of trends on regional, national and international levels. This is no different for the arts. Yet our arts institutions are caught in a catch-22 in which they want to embrace change and new. We [the audience] are holding the arts back in our community by being so provincial.

Dayton Ballet is 74 years old and is older than New York City Ballet and younger than San Francisco Ballet, and we don’t possess any of the artistic chutzpah or forward thinking of either organization. Dayton Ballet can’t if the audience is not receptive to it. If Alvin Ailey can come back from the brink of collapse then DCDC can do it as well. It requires that you ramp up you skills as an arts patron and embrace quality. Here is what you need.

Knowledge

In the day and age of the lightning fast Internet connections, YouTube is your friend. Instead of wasting so much time on the cute kittens playing with balls of yarn or the ridiculous acts of human vacuity, invest in looking at the work of other dance companies from around the world before your brain rots. I will start you off with a list of companies and choreographers to experience.

Companies

• New York City Ballet
• San Francisco Ballet
• Pacific Northwest Ballet
• Boston Ballet
• Houston Ballet
• Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre
• Cleo Parker Robinson
• Lulu Washington

Choreographers

• Wayne McGregor
• William Forsythe
• Bebe Miller
• Adam Hoagland
• Paul Taylor
• Merce Cunningham
• Pina Bausch

Knowledge Part 2

Read up on dance. Don’t say you love dance and your exposure is restricted to what is being seen on our stages. (And no your nieces or nephews recital does not count). It is time for you to invest a little more effort. There are excellent reviews of dance online in the New York Times. The libraries carry Dance Magazine and you can also rent DVD’s on NetFlix or stream them on Amazon. What have you got to lose?

A civilization is defined by the culture it produces and our community is being defined by the middlebrow entertainment that we seem to continually want to embrace. It is time for the audience to stop being complicit and develop a more sophisticated arts patronage. The artist in this community and this reviewer are desperately waiting for you to play catch up. Rise to the challenge.

I will start sharing my discoveries on the dance front through DMM. I will become your Sherpa guide through the vast terrain of dance material out there on the Internet. Hopefully this will lead us all to a better artistic mountain top. I believe that the arts organizations will figure out how to give you quality artistic productions if people on both sides of the curtain make the investment.

We all know about my ongoing addiction problem with dance.  With my recent experience with dance events, I was less than satisfied by the end results. Then I went to the Wright State University Dance Ensemble Winter Dance Concert and I could not wait to get home and tell you all about it. This gave me such a buzz that will stay with me to the Rise to Dance concert and the New Music for New Dance concert being presented this week.

While the concert was far from perfect, it had so much going for it, that by final stunning dance work choreographed by Susanne Payne it didn’t matter what my quibbles and personal dislikes were.  But for the purpose of a complete review, full disclosure is a must. What I love about dance programs presented by colleges and universities, is that you are given a buffet of artistic choices. If one choreographic work is not your cup of tea, something else on the menu might do the trick.

These types of shows are filled with risky choreographic choices and dancers eager to push themselves and the audience in new and exciting directions. Mostly hit or miss but at least an attempt is being made by all involved. And the fact that a college dance concert is more exciting than a professional dance concert should be of concern to this community.

The choreography of assistant professor, Gina Walthers kicked off the concert with a modern pedestrian/propulsive style of choreography that showcased the dancers in the most flattering of ways. The swooping curvilinear forms carried by the always dependable music styling of Kevin Anderson with a mighty assist from the distinctive vocalize of Nina Simone.  The quartet section was of particular choreographic note. Bravo Gina.

Next on the bill was the work of Justin Gibbs, Assistant professor, The Re-Player. A slightly quirky piece, it contained some interesting angular upper body positions that lead to beautiful turning combinations.

I was blown away by the work of student choreographer Joanie Evans, Unscripted.  She is a confident young artist with a very mature movement vocabulary and a burgeoning skill at creating movement sequences that swept the audience (myself included) up in a moody and intense exploration of young women on the edge of emotional vortexes beyond their control. It held the audiences attention from beginning to end. My only quibble is the lighting changes were too frequent and distracting. As you progress as a choreographer Joanie, deliberate you lighting choices very carefully.

Kudos to Abigail Beam for taking the helm of Dayton Ballet II and choreographing, Danza Scherzi, a work that  I feel is only the beginning of a renaissance of dancing at the pre-professional level.  In the past I have not been a fan of all of the works presented by DB II at the Wright State concert.  This work left me hopeful for a revitalization of this pre-professional training program. Since I began my dancing life there, I will always have a soft spot for DBII. And I want to encourage her to keep developing her choreographic chops and build upon her keen sense of musicality and overall aesthetic vision. Keep pushing their technical training.

What happened next on the concert bill nearly caused me to OD. Visiting guest choreographer Adam Hoagland, presented Risk of Flight, a daring, ambitious vertiginous work that left me speechless. Where does one begin with a choreographic work of such sublime intensity? This sublimity compelled me to stalk his choreographic output and to seek out the next show that contained his work. Not since the presentation of the solo Monster Partitur by the king of contemporary choreography at the Wexner a couple of years ago have I been so inspired by someone’s choreographic efforts.  Startlingly simplistic shapes of distorted limbs, like alien life forms, that the dancers thrust themselves into had a visceral freshness that cut through hubris presented by most contemporary choreography. This guy is the real deal.

The fact that Wright State performed his work has elevated their stature in my eyes.  This is a program that bounced back in a major way. If you are a lover of dance you must seek out his work wherever it is being performed (hint, he is the resident choreographer at Cincinnati Ballet). Dayton Ballet should be speed dialing him right now.

A Corps of Individuals, by Justin Gibbs, while not my favorite piece on the concert, had its moments.  I still had a buzz from Risk of Flight that allowed me to sit through it. The pointe work of the dancers was not as strong in sections as it could have been. As a satirical work about the machinations of ballerinas, the humor could have been more acerbic and witty had their technique been sharper this could been a lot o fun.

Nox, a stunning duet by former DCDC dancer Rodney Brown, was an incredibly poignant piece that pulled me into its intimacy. Amelia Dietz and Jordan McMahan danced this work with grace and nuance that served the piece incredibly well. He is another choreographer who we should all be following.

Gina Walther presented excerpts of Bernstein’s Mass, which will be performed on May 13, and 14 as part of a creative collaboration between the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wright State University Theater, Dance and Music departments. A powerfully meditative work that evoked a quiet spirituality that allowed for flowing sparkling group sections that spun off into, solo, duet and various other groupings. The dancers  were dressed in blue tunic style belted dresses that flattered the sweeping gestural quality of the work.  As a preview this was a wonderful teaser of what is to come in May at the Schuster (look for the preview). I have always been a fan of Gina’s work.

And last but not least, we had the sensual finale of Shake by Susanne Payne. I cannot think of another choreographer working in the Dayton region, other than William McClellan Jr., who possesses such superlative dance making chops. She has invested her energy and talents into transforming the ladies on stage into creatures of silken and sassy muscularity. I found myself keeping rhythm by slapping hand against my thigh, marveling at how she created a large cast group piece that managed to highlight the singular gifts of each talented dancer.  Susanne Payne is a choreographer of merit and note that deserves all of the accolades that she has coming. Any chance to see her work is a must see event.

The dancers were all in black skirts and shoulder length sleeves that swayed and twirled with a life of its own. As the dancers propelled themselves across the stage with shuffles and arm swings that enveloped the audience in a rapturous energy.

Finally a satisfying dance fix. I am looking forward to the New Music for New Dance  concert at Dayton Ballet coming this weekend.

Dance Reviews

Dayton Ballet – Streetcar Named Desire

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company – In The Spirit Of:  The Spirit Within

As a lover of dance in all of its incarnations, my passion for the art will compel me to seek out every performance that I can find, fit into my schedule and afford. I am owning up to my addiction to dance.

When I discovered that both Dayton Ballet and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company were both performing, I felt like I scored the biggest fix of my life. Now after my weekend binge, standing in the light of the rising sun  I realize that it was not a particularly great batch of…

Part of the pleasure of dance addiction is the almost perverse visceral joy you get by parading your addiction in public. The ritualistic anticipation of the heavy velvet curtain rising to  expose a portal to a world of incredible aesthetic beauty inhabited by  beings possessing  an invigorating super human physicality, what a rush.

The captivating elements of theatricality and music combined with choreographed movement that when it works can leave you breathless.  Addiction is about extremes and so I make no apologies for wanting the experience to elevate me.

Dayton Ballet – Streetcar Named Desire

At the Dayton Ballet performance of Streetcar Named Desire and mixed repertory program was the beginning of my “lost” dance weekend, the curtain rose on the first ballet, Freudian Slip. A quartet of ballerinas in gray athletic cut mini dresses with pink  under-skirts was the perfect opening work, a delightful minor ballet that provided just enough of an initial rush for the ballet addiction to kick in.

The crisscrossing patterns accented by losses of ballet decorum, movement hiccups that hinted at a desire to break free, was danced by Erika Cole, Erica Lehman, Halliet Slack and Annalise Woller with a subtle precision. I get the sense that the choreographer Mrs. Russo Burke, wants to not play it so safe. I question what is holding her back, more on that later.

This was followed by a presentation of the centerpiece of the evening, a ballet interpretation of Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams seminal drama of lust, brutality, and madness interpreted by the choreography of Mrs. Russo Burke.

The ballet for the most part contained some interesting choreographic passages that effectively portrayed the relationships of the central characters, Stella, Blanche and Stanley.  But as the ballet progressed I felt as if the underlying salient sexual tension, which is truly integral to Blanche and her falling into the pit of madness had been stripped away and neutered. I felt sorry for the plight of this Blanche but not devastated for her.

Choreographically, the Pas de deux between Stella and Stanley, (beautifully danced by Erika Cole and Justin Michael Koertgen) set us up perfectly for what is the lynch pin of the play, the sexual brutalization of Blanche at the hands of Stanley. And somehow this was woefully underplayed.

Might I suggest that if this is going to be a part of the repertory of Dayton Ballet under Mrs. Russo Burke’s direction that some time is taken to rework this ballet and give it some teeth.  This is one dangerous sexy beast of a story that should make us more than a little uncomfortable.  I know it is possible because Mrs. Russo Burke provided us the underlying reason for Blanche’s descent into madness (husband is a closet case and commits suicide) and to display that choreographically was a bold decision.

This was an intimate chamber drama that played more like a Sophia Coppola film, a drama that skirts around the dark matters of the heart when it should have played like the first “Godfather” film, going straight for the visceral sucker punch.

And then came Five Flights Up, a work whose charms utterly failed to inflict its mojo on me. I desperately wanted to like this ballet. The dancers tirelessly gave an energetic performance of the choreography set to songs by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. I was completely in their corner, yet it did nothing for me.

All of the elements were there like a choreographic shopping list’ Fun music, check, cheeky partnering sections, check, colorful costumes, check. As the ballet progressed I kept waiting for it to get better as if the high would kick in soon.  Wait? Had I gotten a hold of a bag of mediocre dance “chronic”? The choreography played it way too safe. I love repetition and developing a phrase of movement material that resurfaces through out a piece, but to what end if the ballet fails to deliver as a piece of great entertainment?  I just could not get past its lackluster construction.

“Basics” like the other ballets on the program hinted at the possibilities what this ballet company could deliver; strong and committed dancing, they could lose some of the rigidity in their upper backs and necks.

A word of advice to Mrs. Russo Burke, as one of my local dance “dealers” In the future I am looking for the best buzz that I can get from being in the audience for a live dance concert, delight me, scare me and don’t be afraid to turn me on. I will do my job to get others hooked on your artistic stuff.  Quit diluting your stash, The buzz never fully kicked in when it should have.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company – In The Spirit Of : The Spirit within

In The Spirit Of : The Spirit within… A cacophonous celebration of dance and gospel music reminded me of church sermons from when I was growing up. The perfunctory duties were up front, shout out to the infirmed, a few hymns sung, passing the collection plate   and as the service progressed it finally got to the point of why we were there, a reaffirmation of our faith. The big fiery sermon by a dynamic and captivating pastor was the big payoff.  Like the sermons from my childhood we had to witness a lot of  perfunctory stuff to get to the big payoff of this concert as well.

Because of my professed dance addictions, this was the perfect scenario. Contemporary dance and gospel music on a Sunday afternoon; what a way to make up for the mild buzz from the Dayton Ballet performance on Friday and great buzz from the Encore Theatre Company presentation on Saturday, “Hot Mess in Manhattan”, How could one not be elated after that workshop performance.

I walked into the Masonic Temple eager for a fix.  I knew I was in for an ebullient performance from the company, they have reliably delivered that kind of performance every time before.

The first half of the show contained many individual moments from the quiet beauty of Crystal Michelle’s choreography, the unified and beautiful dancing of the second company of DCDC and the strength of  the authoritative choreography of William McClellan Jr. Yet I was left with the sense that this was not the strongest presentation of this dance company’s singular skills.  As the stylish lady who sat next to me tersely asked, “What is this?”

The second half to the show delivered what the first half the show could not; Art that was also entertaining and uplifting.  From the incredible marriage of choreography and music that was The Central State Men’s Choir and Shonna Hickman Matlock and William McClellan Jr. to the soul stirring sound of Shirley Murdoch and the raise the roof finale (Special shout out to our greatest natural resource, Sheri Williams), I felt the salvation of a masterful sermon about the spiritual power of dance. It was worth the wait but waiting for a fix is never the most comfortable situation to be in.

As with Dayton Ballet, I am sending you a similar but different message Mrs. Blunden-Diggs, make sure that everything that you send out on stage transports the audience to the next level and I will do everything in my power to help get people hooked, but all your stuff has to truly be world class.