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By Liz Klein Spoke the Hub’s Gowanus Wildlife Preserve Showcase #5 on
March 30 and 31, 2007 presented a mixed program of dance and spoken
performance. The choreographers and performers ranged from recent
college graduates to more seasoned artists, giving the audience varied
“preserves” from which to sample. The antics of “Dr. Bombinda Bombay,” as created and played by Michele Broder, good-naturedly bridged the gap between performer
and audience. Dr. Bombay’s conversational tone ultimately led to
an audience-wide, responsive chanting of “Jai, jai pizza!” while
a courageous guy in the front row actually indulged in a slice of the
doctor’s pizza pie, loaded by her just moments before with torrential
garlic salt. Broder transformed herself into Dr.
Bombay through the use of a turban and cane. She maintained a
consistent accent and a mechanical sort of shuffle-walk, and stayed in
character with the one exception of a stifled laugh that served only to
highlight the hilarity of the moment and further endear her to the audience. “The Down Home Project”
by Mark Lamb Dance featured personal narratives of the six dancer-actors and
singer-songwriter Kelly Mitchell. Through both movement and
storytelling, an easy intimacy was created; the individual stories, and Lamb’s
self-deprecating, post-modernist narrative confidences, were directed
straight to the audience. By the end, I felt I had gotten to know the
performers as people, rather than solely as proficient technicians. The
collaborative nature of this work-in-progress made it richly compelling and
personal. That is not to say that technical
ability is neither moving nor arresting, as it was in the technical precision
displayed by Digby Dance. Kate Digby’s clever
choreographic use of space, timing, and deft movements were a delightful
journey. There is a reassuring solidity to the Digby
Dancers – they executed their solo, ensemble and partner work with
power, and a keen focus. Balancing motion with geometric forms, the dancers
perched suddenly in mid-run, their postures bringing to mind stop-action
photography, or slow motion instant replays. Ms. Digby
brings a vivid sharpness and form to her choreography. Sulai
Lopez’s revved-up monologue, an excerpt from “Culture of
Compunction: Archetypes of American Neurosis,” featured the fast
and furious “Moderation Sally.” Sulai’s
whimsical and girlish rope-skipping charmed the audience from the start and
primed us for the frenetic trip we were about to take through the jumpy
twists and turns of Sally’s wound-up modern experience. Watching
and listening to Ms. Lopez, I alternated between spasms of gut-wrenching
laughter and an almost alarming self-identification with her archetypal
neurotic. The younger performers and
choreographers on the program revealed some inexperience, but also showed
promise. Justina Gaddy’s
dancers were impressively proficient in modern ballet technique, and Gaddy’s excellent eye for beautiful and economical
costuming was pleasing. The choreography, however, left me flat. In
Andrea Gise’s “House of Leaves,”
two of the performers wore visible knee-pads, which stuck out like, a-hem,
a sore knee and the third dancer wore none – a costuming faux-pas, in
my opinion, as bulky knee-pads and concern for the future of tender knees
were both distracting. The movement here, while seeming to convey both
strength and self-conflict, led to interesting choreographic moments, as in a
motif of upper torso twisting and limp arms slapping at the dancers’
sides. However, I couldn’t say I found the piece interesting enough
or the performers confident or proficient enough in their technical
abilities, as compared to others that evening. Variety, though, is a good spice; it is always interesting to follow young dancers of differing sensibilities as their artistry matures and develops over time. And so satisfying to witness those moments when costuming, choreography, and technique all come together.
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