This year’s spring outing for Muntu Dance Theatre is a tribute to the company’s late founder, Alyo Tolbert, and, appropriately enough, much of the program’s theme is love.
“Life Moves: A Tribute to Alyo,” playing through Sunday at the Merle Reskin Theatre, brings together works from such far-flung locales as Senegal, Guinea and the West Indies. But romance, both mythic and comic, plays a big part in much of the evening, and Chicago’s leading repository for African-American traditional dance this time offers a rainbow of costuming and emotions that celebrates that age-old topic.
Liberian choreographer Nimely Napla provides a new work, “Village of the So-So Women,” that is a one-act story dance about a mysterious all-female village society. These Amazon-like women live in solitude with their leader, called Mazoe. But one day, when a young man stumbles into their midst, trouble arises, unstoppable even by the calling forth of the village spirit, a mysterious figure hidden in a black headdress.
The Mazoe at first tries to beat her women into submission, but finally she relents, and when the boy’s father comes to rescue him, a kind of courtship ensues, followed by a rousing tribal ceremony. The story touches on myths from many cultures on the tricky process of uniting the sexes, in this case illustrated in a blazing public mating dance.
The costumes are as distinguished as the dancing, from the sunburst yellow of Mazoe’s grassy attire to the regal mix of green and white donned by the villagers for their finish, which ends, appropriately enough, not with the whole ensemble but with Mazoe and her new love, symbols of a union now sanctioned for all time.
“Evening Time,” by company member Harry Detry, is set during the time of slavery in the West Indies, when workers would gather at night to dance, court and spark. Accompanied by onstage drummers, in brightly hued island wear, the piece is light-hearted in spirit and choreography, full of song and laughter, including one extended segment in which a girthful island princess cagily attracts a small army of panting suitors.
“Sabar,” choreographed by Idy Ciss, is inspired by a Senegalese Independence Day celebration, and it is a non-stop onslaught of frenzied solos, feverish leg work and multicolored, often orange-hued costumes. An unrelenting show piece, its many standouts include artistic director Amaniyea Payne, who employs her somewhat delicate limbs to masterful, speedy perfection, still one of the company’s best stylists.
Another treat comes in the form of the program’s extended drum song, a pounding array and an all-out jam session, albeit one based on ancient instrumentation. Musical director Clifton Robinson deserves credit for not only delivering a combo of fine musicianship, but creating an atmosphere of seduction and welcome. A few patrons in the crowd were moved to bring up tips to toss at the drummers at Friday’s opening.
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Muntu Dance Theatre
When: Through Sunday
Where: Merle Reskin Theatre, 60 E. Balbo Ave.
Phone: 312-902-1500
