“The Good Goodbyes,” a new work from River North Dance Chicago, unites two artists for a piece lyrical in look and sweet in melody.
Frank Chaves, River North’s artistic director, collaborated with Chicago pianist Josephine Lee, who accompanied the dance live during two of the troupe’s performances over the weekend at the Harris Theater. Her original score, lovely and soaring, is well met by Chaves’ flowing, golden-lit moves for seven dancers, ones steeped in ballet imagery and understated elegance.
The theme, about the farewells in life we inevitably endure, reaches a kind of zenith in the male duet in the middle, in which Michael Gross and Ethan Kirschbaum alternately dance together and slightly apart, roll around on each other’s backs and engage in imagery that suggests ties that bind, but break. Elliptical in meaning–these could be friends, brothers, or lovers in both closeness and conflict–the duet, like the whole work, hints at its topic rather than wallows in it. Their final break-up, if that’s the term, is simply slow, haunting exits at opposite ends of the stage.
“Contact-Me,” by visiting Italian choreographer Mauro Astolfi, explores the contact of its title with similar subtlety. The eight dancers begin by cruising the stage in darkness, shifting partners frequently, like visitors at a pick-up bar, only to then cluster in a kind of living, fluid human globule. Throughout, Astolfi, employs standard, familiar moves with an original stamp, alternately hinting touch can be electric, soothing or dangerous. As it darkens, the piece evokes the treacheries of intimacy, as when one couple, feisty at first, break abruptly as the woman utters a short shriek.
A tableau near the end is especially evocative, most of the dancers standing, some reviving earlier imagery, and one couple sitting on the floor, all of it in near darkness–seduction, friction and resignation all represented.
The engagement, the troupe’s annual Valentine’s season endeavor, also boasted such sensual works as Chaves’ “Sentir Em Nos” duet, which is quite the workout for beautiful, satiny Melanie Manale-Hortin, and the sexy ensemble work of Sidra Bell’s “Risoluta.”
But there was a nod to the singles out there via Lauren Kias’ jazzy, sassy, manic and memorable enactment of Robert Battle’s Ella Fitzgerald tribute, “Ella.”
River North Dance Chicago
When: 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday
Where: Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.
Price: $30-$75; 312-334-7777
