Perhaps too often, choreographers, buoyed admittedly by dance critics, lean on experiment or even shock, forgetting that old-fashioned beauty is always the best weapon in their arsenal.
Not so with the program at the Athenaeum Theatre called “Forward Motion,” part of the theater’s Dance Chicago ’97. The first four works in particular, though very different in style and accompaniment, are lovingly beautiful and blend magically with the sounds and melodies that underscore them. They make something very hard to come by appear to be easy.
Melissa Thodos’ piece from last year, “Rebounding Blue,” is a velvety riff on giant blue beach balls lovingly set to Vangelis’ soaring, seductive score. There is really nothing breathtaking or spectacular anywhere in it, and yet the dance is a small gem of natural simplicity and logical movement, from images of Sisyphus to more lighthearted, lightweight suggestions of play and sensuality. The four women– Vered Arbel-Kalman, Susan Hoffman, Jennifer Lande and Amanda McCann–perform with both solid strength and feeling.
Jason Ohlberg’s “The Bella Pictures” is a marvelous, brief duet to Vivaldi, and, as danced by Krenly Guzman and Kim Nelson, a bit of role reversal. A work using one dancer’s leap into the arms of another as a sweet, comic coda, the piece employs the taller woman as catcher most of the time, all the while showing off a smooth, post-modern take on classical partnership.
Bob Eisen’s “A Neighbor Enters” is beautiful in a very different way. Set to a mechanistic, junkyard score by Michael Zerang, the piece seems a haunting study of the beauty of randomness, of seemingly unorganized or disconnected movement and events. Six women form the core of the work, but Eisen himself enters and stands ominously at one point, and then exits, joining later for a taut, poetic duet with one of the women.
Carrie Hanson of Loop Troop performs her own solo, “Ruby’s Geometry,” in a striking red gown. Though brief, it shows off her own graceful form in a work full of idiosyncratic moves and originality, much more successful work than Loop Troop’s “Splice” later in the program. The rest of the concert, in fact, is somewhat spotty. Xsight! provides “The Illicit Keyhole,” full of sadomasochistic imagery and bits of bared flesh, but more emphasis on movement in the piece than usual for the troupe, including a striking, recurring image in which several dancers crawl sphinx-like across the stage.
The Cerqua Rivera Art Experience once again features the group’s large band members as a backdrop to the dancers in “Summertime Suite,” the company’s trademark look. But the selection of George Gershwin’s “Summertime” doesn’t work that well, the somewhat antiseptic choreography by Wilfredo Rivera in jarring contrast to the soul in the music.
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“Forward Motion” performs again Wednesday at the Athenaeum, 2936 N. Southport Ave. The weekend program includes “Dance for Kids, Too” and “The Choreographers Showcase.” For tickets: 312-902-1500.
